Candied Holiday Fruitcake

A light, golden, buttery Candied Holiday Fruitcake filled with candied fruits and nuts. This recipe will change your mind about fruitcakes!

Fruitcake. That most maligned of holiday desserts. The butt of hundreds of holiday jokes.

Theories abound about fruitcake. Some say there's really only one and it gets passed from person to person. Other people swear it's best used as the filler for potholes. And, honestly, there are some fruitcake recipes that are deserving of that treatment. 

Still others adore its rich, dark candied texture. People seem to be of two minds about fruitcake - they either hate it or they love it. Not much middle ground with fruitcake.

Fruitcake Has a Long, Long History

Did you know that fruitcake has been around for hundreds of years? In the Middle Ages honey, spices and dried fruits were added to bread dough for special occasions. It was even once protected by law which restricted its consumption to celebrations such as Christmas and weddings.

Most traditional recipes that have come down to modern cooks contain loads of candied citron, raisins, either dark brown sugar or molasses and a healthy dose of rum or brandy. They're dense, heavy, dark and rich. They're also loaded with booze. Maybe that's part of the appeal for those in the fruitcake lovers camp.

A Lighter Version of Fruitcake

This fruitcake has many of the same ingredients as the traditional, but instead of dark and dense, it is light in color, texture, and taste. It is what we in the South would call a "blonde fruitcake." It's loaded with candied pineapple, cherries and orange peel (no citron!) and pecans. And the cake is light in color, rich and buttery.

A light, golden, buttery Candied Holiday Fruitcake filled with candied fruits and nuts. This recipe will change your mind about fruitcakes!Click to Tweet

How to Make Candied Holiday Fruitcake

I've been making this fruitcake every year since I first saw the recipe in the November 1991 issue of Bon Appetit. I really need to re-write that recipe card before I forget what it says in all the places that are spattered with butter and vanilla.

This is one of the treats that BeeBop looks forward to every Christmas and every crumb is consumed by the end of the holidays. For several years I sent one to work with him near Christmas and it became a standing request from the guys he worked with starting about November first each year. It's really that good. If you haven't made a fruitcake for the holidays yet, I highly recommend this one.

Prepare the Pan and Fruits

Position an oven rack in the lowest third of your oven and preheat to 250°.

Grease and flour a bundt or tube pan and set aside.

Chop the pineapple into about ⅓ inch pieces. Cut the cherries in half.

In a large bowl, mix the pecans and fruit with 3 tblsp of flour.

Mix the Batter

In another large bowl, cream the butter with sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each. Stir in the vanilla extract.

Sift 1 ¾ cups flour with baking powder and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the batter and stir until blended.

Mix the fruit and nuts into the batter. Just a note - at this point the batter becomes heavy. Heavy weightwise. It's hard to turn it all around and mix it well, but just keep pulling the wet batter up from the bottom of your bowl until everything is well combined.

Put the batter into your prepared pan. This is not really a pourable batter. I use a wooden spoon to put big blobs of batter into the pan. When all of the batter is in the pan, smooth the top.

Bake Until Golden Brown

Bake until golden brown and a tester inserted halfway between the outside and tube of the pan comes out clean, about 2 ½ hours. Cool in the pan on a rack for 15 minutes.

Turn out onto a rack and cool completely. Dust with powdered sugar.

Enjoy!

More Cake Recipes on Never Enough Thyme:

• Chocolate Little Layer Cake
• Chocolate-Chocolate Cake
• Caramel Layer Cake
• Red Velvet Cake
• Irish Spiced Fruitcake

Fruitcake Recipes from Other Bloggers:

• Boozy Christmas Fruitcake from Flourishing Foodie
• Rich Rum Fruitcake from eCurry
• Tropical Fruitcake Recipe from Viet World Kitchen
• Ice-Box Fruit Cake from A Cowboy's Wife

Like This Recipe? Pin It!

Candied Holiday Fruitcake

Our favorite holiday fruitcake. Moist, dense, and full of candied fruity goodness.

5 from 1 vote

Print Pin Rate

Course: Desserts

Cuisine: American

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Cook Time: 2 hours 30 minutes

Total Time: 3 hours

Servings: 15 servings

Calories: 562kcal

Author: Lana Stuart

Ingredients

• ▢ 3 cups chopped pecans
• ▢ 16 oz. candied pineapple chopped
• ▢ 8 oz. candied cherries halved
• ▢ 4 oz. candied orange peel
• ▢ 1 ¾ cups plus 3 tblsp. all-purpose flour
• ▢ 1 cup butter room temperature
• ▢ 1 cup sugar
• ▢ 5 eggs
• ▢ 1 tblsp. vanilla extract
• ▢ ½ tsp. baking powder
• ▢ Pinch of salt
• ▢ Powdered sugar

Instructions

• Position rack in lowest third of oven and preheat to 250°. Grease and flour a bundt or tube pan and set aside.
• In a large bowl, mix pecans and fruit with 3 tblsp of flour. In another large bowl, cream butter with sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time, beating well after each. Stir in vanilla extract.
• Sift 1 ¾ cups flour with baking powder and salt. Add dry ingredients to batter and stir until blended. Mix fruit and nuts into batter.
• Put batter into prepared pan. Bake until golden brown and tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 2 ½ hours.
• Cool in pan on rack for 15 minutes. Turn out onto rack and cool completely. Dust with powdered sugar.

Notes

-- Adapted from the November 1991 Bon Appetit magazine

Nutrition Information

Serving: 1g | Calories: 562kcal | Carbohydrates: 70g | Protein: 7g | Fat: 30g | Saturated Fat: 10g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 18g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 95mg | Sodium: 154mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 40g

Nutrition information is calculated by software based on the ingredients in each recipe. It is an estimate only and is provided for informational purposes. You should consult your health care provider or a registered dietitian if precise nutrition calculations are needed for health reasons.

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Lana Stuart

Lana Stuart is the cook and occasional traveler here at Never Enough Thyme. Lana has been cooking since she was tall enough to reach the stove and started this blog in 2009 to share her delicious home cooking recipes. You'll find about 700 recipes here so there's sure to be something your family will like!
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