Traditional Boiled Pineapple Fruit Cake

Boiled pineapple fruit cake is a traditional Christmas fruit cake recipe. Packed with fruit, brandy, and spices. Gorgeously decorated with blanched almonds and glacé cherries.

What really makes a traditional Christmas cake recipe ‘traditional’ is when the recipe has been passed down from your Mother. My mother use to this cake every year. Sadly since her passing the tradition is now in my hands to pass down to Josh.

This is the Christmas cake that I make every year. A family favourite that has accumulated so many funny stories and loving memories.

Ingredients

• Mixed Dried Fruit: You can purchase mixed dried fruit at the supermarket. It is often a combination of raisins, sultanas, currants and candied orange and lemon peel. If you want to make it yourself use these qantities 30% raisins, 30% sultanas, 30% currants, and 10% chopped candied peel.
• Brown Sugar: You can use normal or dark. Dark brown sugar will give the cake a deeper richer taste.
• Brandy: Can be substituted for your favourite tipple, or orange juice if you wish to avoid using alcohol.
• Crushed Pineapple: The pineapple aspect of the boiled pineapple fruit cake. It not only sweetens the fruit cake but also makes it that extra moist.
• Eggs: Always use fresh, and free-range if you can.
• Flour: A combination of plain and self-raising flour is used in this recipe. Normally in cake recipes, I use plain flour and add baking powder as the raising agent. As this is my mum's recipe I make it how she traditionally did.
• Bicarbonate Soda: Is an alkali which is used aid the fruit cake rising.
• Spices: Nutmeg, Ginger, Cinamon, and mixed spice give this cake a beautiful fragrance. I always buy fresh spices for my Christmas cake to ensure maximum flavour.
• Almonds & Glacé Cherries: Used to decorate the top of the cake.

Recipe Walk Through

1. Preheat oven 160 deg C (320 deg F). Line a 23cm round cake tin with baking paper. If using an older style thin aluminium tin, line with two pieces of baking paper.
2. In a large saucepan place mixed fruit, sugar, brandy, water, crushed pineapple, and butter. Stirring continuously bring mixture to a boil. Continue to simmer over medium heat for three minutes. Remove mixture from the heat and allow to cool.
3. Once the fruit mixture has cooled mix in beaten eggs. Then fold through sifted flours, bicarb, and spices.
4. Place mixture into your lined baking tin and decorate with blanched almonds and glacé cherries as desired.
5. Bake in the oven for approximately two hours, or until cooked through. I suggest checking the cake with a skewer around one hour and 30 minute mark.
6. Brush the cake with a few tablespoons of extra brandy (alcohol of choice/orange juice), and allow the cake to cool in the tin before turning it out.
7. Wrap in baking paper/parchment paper. Store in the fridge, or cool, dark, dry place until Christmas or you are ready to eat it.

Storage

How is the best way to store the boiled pineapple fruit cake? Storage is important especially if you have made your cake a few months in advance to allow it to mature.

Once the Christmas fruit cake has completely cooled and you have given it its first feed, wrap the fruit cake in a layer o baking paper/parchment paper.

Then wrap it twice in aluminium foil. Once wrapped place the cake in an airtight container. You'll need to store it in a cool, dark, dry place. It must be out of direct sunlight.

Note for Australians and other hot and humid countries: It's hot and humid for us when Christmas comes around. You may be hard pressed finding a cool spot to store your cake. Therefore store it in the fridge, that's what I do. I would hate for it to spoil before Christmas.

Feeding the Cake

You may have heard the term feeding Christmas cakes. This is when you give your boiled pineapple fruit cake and extra "drink" of alcohol while it matures.

You can over freed your cake. It is recommended to feed it once when it has been baked. Then up to four times before Christmas. Depending on how far in advance you have mde your Christmas cake, this could be once every couple of weeks.

If you over feed the cake it will become stodgy and wet. Feed your cake with the same kind of alcohol you used in the ingredients. E.g., If you used brandy, then feed the cake also with brandy

• Unwrap cake from plastic wrap and aluminium foil.
• Using a skewer poke a few holes in the to of the cake
• Place a couple of tablespoons of alcohol (or orange juice) in a small dish.
• Brush cake liberally with the alcohol.
• Wrap once again in fresh clean plastic wrap and aluminium foil.
• Place back in an airtight container, and store in a cool, dark, dry place.

Why is it called a Boiled cake when it's Baked in the oven?

With a boiled pineapple fruit cake you bring your fruit, sugar, butter, pineapple and alcohol to the boil in a saucepan. This allows the fruit to soak up the butter and alcohol flavours.

The result is the dried fruit plumping up and becoming juicy. This is why a boiled fruit cake is called a boiled fruit cake.

I did mention that this recipe has wonderful memories and funny stories. The funniest of them all, and one mum never forgot was when I first started dating my husband.

During our first Christmas together Mac came over to the house while mum was busily making her Christmas cake. Wanting to show interest in what his girlfriend's mother was doing he asked her about the cake. This included cooking time. Mac exclaimed, “If you are cooking it for that long won’t it go dry!?”

To which Mum shot him one of her classic death stares and stated “My Christmas cake is never dry”. Unfortunately for Mum, her Christmas cake ended up dry that year.

Needless to say in 30 plus years of marriage, from that first Christmas Mac was never allowed in the kitchen when she was cooking her Christmas cake. If he even attempted to utter a word to her while she was baking, she would just shoot him another of her classic death stares.

Sara xxx

Printable Recipe

Boiled Pineapple Fruit Cake - Rosemarie's Traditional Christmas Cake

Recipe Author: Sara McCleary

Boiled pineapple fruit cake is a traditional Christmas fruit cake recipe. Packed with fruit, brandy, and spices. Gorgeously decorated with blanched almonds and glacé cherries.

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Prep Time 30 minutes mins

Cook Time 2 hours hrs

Total Time 2 hours hrs 30 minutes mins

Course Holiday

Cuisine English

Servings 20

Calories 324 kcal

Ingredients

• ▢ 750 grams mixed dried fruit
• ▢ 160 grams brown sugar
• ▢ 1 cup brandy
• ▢ ¼ cup water
• ▢ 300 grams crushed pineapple including juice
• ▢ 185 grams butter chopped
• ▢ 3 eggs beaten
• ▢ 180 grams plain flour
• ▢ 150 grams self raising flour
• ▢ ¼ teaspoon bicarbonate soda
• ▢ ½ teaspoon mixed spice
• ▢ ½ teaspoon ground ginger
• ▢ ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
• ▢ ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
• ▢ blanched almonds and glace cherries to decorate

Instructions

 

• Preheat oven 160 deg C (320 deg F). Line a 23cm round cake tin with baking paper. If using an older style thin aluminium tin, line with two pieces of baking paper.
• In a large saucepan place mixed fruit, sugar, brandy, water, crushed pineapple and butter. Stirring continuously bring mixture to the boil. Continue to simmer over a medium heat for three (3) minutes. Remove mixture from the heat and allow to cool.
• Once fruit mixture has cooled mix in beaten eggs. Then fold through sifted flours, bicarb and spices.
• Place mixture into your lined baking tin and decorate with blanched almonds and glace cherries as desired.
• Bake in the oven for approximately two (2) hours or until cooked through. I suggest checking the cake with a skewer around one hour and 30 minutes.
• Brush the cake with a few tablespoons of extra brandy (alcohol of choice/orange juice), and allow the cake to cool in the tin before turning it out.
• Wrap in baking paper/parchment paper, and then twice in aluminium foil. Store in the fridge, feed as desired with extra brandy, until Christmas or you are ready to eat it.

Notes

STORAGE

How is the best way to store the boiled pineapple fruit cake? Storage is important especially if you have made your cake a few months in advance to allow it to mature.

Once the Christmas fruit cake has completely cooled and you have given it its first feed, wrap the fruit cake in a layer o baking paper/parchment paper.

Then wrap it twice in aluminium foil. Once wrapped place the cake in an airtight container. You’ll need to store it in a cool, dark, dry place. It must be out of direct sunlight.

Note for Australians and other hot and humid countries: It’s hot and humid for us when Christmas comes around. You may be hard pressed finding a cool spot to store your cake. Therefore store it in the fridge, that’s what I do. I would hate for it to spoil before Christmas.

FEEDING THE CAKE

• Unwrap cake from plastic wrap and aluminium foil.
• Using a skewer poke a few holes in the to of the cake
• Place a couple of tablespoons of alcohol (or orange juice) in a small dish.
• Brush cake liberally with the alcohol.
• Wrap once again in fresh clean plastic wrap and aluminium foil.
• Place back in an airtight container, and store in a cool, dark, dry place.

GENERAL COOK’S NOTES

All oven temperatures are for a conventional oven, if using fan forced lower the temperature by 20 Deg C (70 Deg F).

All measurements are Australian tablespoons and cups. All measures are level, and cups are lightly packed unless specified;

• 1 teaspoon equals 5ml
• 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml (Nth America, NZ & UK use 15ml tablespoons)
• 1 cup equals 250ml (Nth America use 237ml)
• 4 teaspoons equals 1 tablespoon
• I use the below unless specified in my recipes;

Herbs are fresh | Vegetables are of a medium size | Eggs are roughly 60 grams in weight (large)

NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION

The recipe's nutritional information is an approximation based on an online calculator. It is meant solely for reference purposes. If you're looking for precise details, be sure to double-check with your own research.

Calories: 324kcalCarbohydrates: 53gProtein: 2gFat: 8gSaturated Fat: 5gCholesterol: 44mgSodium: 128mgPotassium: 78mgFiber: 1gSugar: 40gVitamin A: 280IUVitamin C: 1.4mgCalcium: 24mgIron: 0.8mg

Keyword feeding a Christmas cake, how to store fruit cake, what is a boiled fruit cake

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