Port and Chocolate Christmas Cake is a lovely twist on a classic boiled Christmas cake. Luxuriously Port soaked fruit and decadent dark chocolate make for a luscious cake.
I’m reminded each Christmas by a couple of close friends how much they don’t like fruit cakes. It’s okay guys, I’ll eat your share!
My mum’s traditional Christmas cake is a yearly fruitcake staple each year. This year I decided to change things up with a Port and Chocolate Christmas Cake.
Port, or fortified wine as we Aussies call it, is a little unusual but a great addition to fruitcake. I normally use rum or brandy, port isn't a spirit I don’t usually associate with Christmas cakes. Then there’s the chocolate. Not something I usually add to a Christmas cake either.
When you soak dried fruit for a week or two in port something magical happens. Then add some chocolate into the equation, which goes marvellously with Port, and you are on a winner.
It isn't a secret that I love good boozy soaked fruit Christmas cake
Glace cherries have been banned from my port and chocolate Christmas cake, instead the cake is studded with tart dried cherries. I leave the glace fruit for the other Christmas cake I make each year.
I decorated simply with blanched almonds and pecans. Why pecans? A little personal homage to the USA where I purchased these particular dried cherries. I love picking up ingredients during my travels. I discovered these in the cherry capital of America, Traverse City, Michigan.
If you can’t find dried cherries, dried cranberries would make a great substitute. Of course, you could sweeten up the whole affair and use glace cherries if that’s what you would prefer.
With a few Christmas fruitcakes on Belly Rumbles now, I think I will have to create a decadently spiced cake for Christmas next year. Something for my fruitcake hating loved ones. What do you think?
Sara xxx
Port and Chocolate Christmas Cake
Ingredients
Soaking Fruit Ingredients
- 400 grams sultanas
- 400 grams raisins
- 300 grams dried cherries
- 625 ml (2 ½ cups) port
Cake Ingredients
- 80 ml (onw third cup) treacle
- 1 orange, zest and juice
- 250 grams butter
- 220 grams (1 cup) dark brown sugar
- 20 ml vanilla bean paste
- 4 eggs
- 300 grams (2 cups) plain flour, sifted
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 7 grams (1 tablespoon) mixed spice
- 7 grams (1 tablespoon) nutmeg
- 7 grams (1 tablespoon) cinnamon
- 200 grams dark chocolate, chopped
- pecans and blanched almonds to decorate
- extra port for brushing
Instructions
Soaking the Fruit
- Place sultanas, raisins and dried cherries in a large plastic container with a lid. Pour port over and mix well. Soak for a minimum of 24 hours (see notes).
Making the Cake
- Grease and line a 23cm (9") round cake tin. Wrap the outside of the tin with a couple of sheets of brown paper, secured with baking string.If you are using a modern thick walled cake tin you can skip the brown paper step.
- Preheat oven 150 deg C (300 deg F).
- Stir treacle, orange juice and zest to the fruit mixture.
- Place butter in a large mixing bowl and beat using a stand mixer or hand beaters until pale.
- Add sugar and vanilla bean paste to butter, continue beating until sugar has dissolved.
- Add eggs one at a time, beating well between each addition.
- Remove bowl from stand mixer if using.
- Add fruit and chocolate to the butter and egg mixture, mix until well combined.
- Add flour, baking powder and spices, mixing until just combined.
- Pour cake batter into cake tin. Using the back of smooth the surface of the cake out evenly.
- Decorate the top of the cake with pecans and blanched almonds.
- Place cake in the oven on the middle shelf and bake for 3 - 3.5 hours.
- Cake is ready when inserted skewer comes out clean.
- Remove cake from oven and brush the top with extra port. Wrap cake in a towel and leave to cool. This may take several hours.
- Once cooled store cake in an airtight container.
Claire
This is my first Christmas cake attempt and thought yours sounded amazing! Having not fed a Christmas Cake before how much does it need and how often? With poet in the cake can another alcohol be used as well? Thank you
Sara McCleary
Hi Claire
With this cake, I only give it a feed once it is baked. With the quantity of port in the recipe, I found that it was enough. If your fruit soaks up all the port, that is a lot of booze already in the cake, nearly a whole bottle. I feel continuing to feed the cake over a period of time, it would make the port flavour stand out too strongly against the other flavours in the cake.
Cheers, Sara
KK
Hi Sara,
Great recipe! My family loved it. This year I'm making mini version of this cake using 10m springform pans to give them as gifts. What temp and time should I bake these mini versions. Thanks
Sara McCleary
Hi Karen,
I love the idea of making mini versions as gifts, and sorry for the late response. The cooking temperature time will stay the same. What will change is the cooking duration.
The question is how long? I haven't made mini versions of this recipe therefore my estimate on time is a semi-educated guess. The large cake takes 3 - 3.5 hours to bake, I am estimating 1.5 hours.
The good thing is you have already made the larger version and know what the cake is like once baked.
I would check the mini versions at 45 minutes, and see how they are going. Then depending on how far along they are cooking, check again in 15 or 30 minutes. Keep an eye on them as to not over bake. As they are smaller cakes they will move from the not quite cooked to cooked stage quicker than the larger version.
Let me know how you go!
Cheers, Sara
Glenn Walsh
Hi there. I've successfully taken some mini bundt versions out of the oven. So these freeze well? Or will I be giving early Christmas gifts?
Sara McCleary
Hi Glenn
I freeze Christmas cake all the time. Mainly as there is always too much for my family of three to get through. Freeze them, they will be great.
Alternatively, as it is nearly Christmas, wrap them well in two layers of plastic wrap, and then another layer of aluminium foil. Place them in an airtight container (or zip lock bag with all the air removed, and store them in the fridge.
Use the wrapping method for freezing as well.
And what lucky people to get these as gifts ?
Cheers, Sara
Helen Clarke
Hello can I ask if I melt the chocolate before adding it to the butter/sugar mix or does it just go in chopped and not melted first?
Sara McCleary
Hi Helen
The chocolate is added to the cake chopped. I do chop the chocolate into small pieces, the same size (or smaller) as the smallest pieces of fruit you are adding. It will melt through the cake when it is baked.
Cheers, Sara
Rohan
it doesn't mention straining off the port from fruit in the recipe but I see a comment about this. Could you clarify if the liquid stays in the cake or is "dealt with" by the cook during baking?
Cheers
Sara
Hi Rohan
A very good question and thank you for asking it. I reaslise that the recipe isn't as clear as it should be and I have added an extra comment in the notes section of the recipe.
It isn't a simple no or yes answer on straining the fruit.
The aim is not to have excess liquid and your fruit soak it all up. Of course this will depend on how long you soak your fruit, how "thirsty" the dried fruit is that you have used, and if you decided to feed your fruit with a little more port once it has soaked up the initial 2.5 cups and leave it soak longer.
When you are ready to bake your cake, the best way to decide if you need to strain your fruit (or not) is the following;
Mix the soaked fruit with a spoon in the container it has been soaking. Is the liquid with the fruit thick, syrupy and clings to the fruit with out too much pooling at the bottom of the container (no more than 1 -2 tablespoons)? If yes, add the fruit as is to the cake batter.
If your fruit seems to be swimming in port, then strain off any excess.
The 2.5 cups I have recommended should soak into your fruit without an issue. Where it gets a little more complicated is if you keep feeding your fruit with port and it gets to the point it can't absorb any more. Then you will find port left behind that needs to be strained off.
If this is the first time you are making a Christmas fruit cake. I suggest not feeding your fruit more, but sticking to the 2.5 cups. Use the fruit when it has soaked up all the port. Could take more than 48 hours, depending on your climate and where the fruit is placed for soaking. The sultanas and raisins should look plump.
I hope this helps! Any other questions please let me know.
rohan
thanks for the reply Sara, only a few days off mixing and baking, fruit has been soaking a few days now and looking nice and plump!!
Sara
Awesome to hear!
J.Wilks
Hi Sara,
I'm not a lover of traditional Christmas fruit cake, came across this recipe and think I'll be bringing it to the Christmas table this year.
In our family we normally make our Christmas cakes in the summer and keep pouring whisky over it for 4 - 5 months, we like everything rather boozy.
Would I be able to make this, say August and keep pouring port over it in the run up to Xmas?
J.Wilks
Sara
Hi J
This is one boozy Christmas cake and should be fine to make months in advance and keep feeding it with extra port. One thing to keep in mind is that port doesn't have as high a alcohol content as rum or whisky. I'm not sure where you are based, and therefore your local temperature and humidity. Keep it sealed well in an airtight container. I suggest wrapping it in plastic wrap and then aluminium foil, then into an airtight container. I am based in Australia and always store my Christmas cakes in the fridge leading up to Christmas due to high humidity and hot weather.
Saying that, this isn't your first Christmas cake and you seem to know what you are doing. Let me know how you go!
Rachel Long
This looks a delicious recipe. When would be the best time to make it for Christmas? I usually make my Christmas cake around now and feed it until Christmas.
Thanks
Sara
Hi Rachel
I am about to start soaking my fruit for my Christmas cake this year. I soak generally for a month, I keep feeding it ;). Then make the cake 3-4 weeks before Christmas. As my fruit is pretty boozy, I don't feed the cake too much, just a nip here and there to keep it going.
Lainie Souter
Hi Sara, I've always soaked the fruit for my Christmas cake in Port and you're the only other person I know who also does this. It gives the fruit, and cake, a completely different taste to the traditional and, after all, when the Port is stained off the fruit, it certainly enhances the Port. A little gift for the cook to sip on whilst preparing the cake!
Sara
Hi Lainie
I am a lover of port and like you I think it makes a great base for a Christmas cake. Completely changes up the traditional. And yes, the leftover port from soaking the fruit, it's great cooking Christmas cakes!