Jamie Oliver's Christmas cake recipe, made with this mum, Sally.

My Christmas cake

Name: My Christmas cake
Cook time: 210 min
Total time: 210 min
Yield: 16
Ingredients: 200g unsalted butter (at room temperature), plus extra for greasing; 150g mixed Medjool dates and prunes; 500g mixed dried apricots, cranberries, peel, currants; 1 apple; 1 clementine; 100ml stout; 200g soft light brown sugar; 4 large free-range eggs; 200ml whole milk; 300g plain flour; 1 level teaspoon baking powder; 3 tablespoons quality cocoa powder; 1 teaspoon each ground ginger, mixed spice, ground cinnamon; Royal icing; 3 large free-range egg whites; 700g icing sugar; ½ lemon; ½ teaspoon of glycerine

Packed with dried fruit, cocoa, stout & spice

3 hrs 30 mins plus cooling & decorating

Not Too Tricky

serves 16

About the recipe

If I’m completely honest, I’ve never been a massive Christmas cake fan, but my mum insisted I put one in the book, so I spent months developing the best Christmas cake recipe possible, which I do like! It’s lighter than most – have fun decorating it, like I did with Buddy.

Jamie Oliver's Christmas Cookbook, p258

nutrition per serving

Calories

18%

Fat

12%

Saturates

25%

Sugars

65%

Salt

Protein

Carbs

27%

Fibre

of an adult’s reference intake

Recipe From

Jamie Oliver's Christmas Cookbook

By Jamie Oliver

Buy Now

Ingredients

200g unsalted butter (at room temperature), plus extra for greasing

150g mixed Medjool dates and prunes

500g mixed dried apricots, cranberries, peel, currants

1 apple

1 clementine

100ml stout

200g soft light brown sugar

4 large free-range eggs

200ml whole milk

300g plain flour

1 level teaspoon baking powder

3 tablespoons quality cocoa powder

1 teaspoon each ground ginger, mixed spice, ground cinnamon

Royal icing

3 large free-range egg whites

700g icing sugar

½ lemon

½ teaspoon of glycerine

Top Tip

You can make this Christmas fruit cake in advance and feed it up to four times with a thimble of good quality festive booze. Just be sure you wrap it really well in baking paper between each feed.

And if you're looking for a gluten-free Christmas cake, we've got you covered.

Method

Preheat the oven to 150º/300ºF/gas 2. Grease a 20cm square cake tin with butter and line the base and sides with greaseproof paper, lining the sides high.
Tear the stones out of the dates and prunes, then place all the dried fruit in a food processor and pulse until roughly chopped.
Decant the mixture into a large bowl, coarsely grate in the apple, finely grate in the clementine zest and squeeze in the juice. Pour in the stout, mix well and leave aside to soak for a few minutes.
Meanwhile, blitz the butter and sugar together in the processor until pale, smooth and fluffy. With the processor still running, one-by-one crack in the eggs, then pour in the milk in a steady stream, blitzing until smooth.
Scrape this mixture into the bowl of fruit and fold together with a spatula. Sift in the flour, baking powder, cocoa and spices, then fold together again.
Transfer to your prepared tin and bake for around 2 hours, or until cooked through and an inserted skewer comes out clean – if it needs a little longer, simply cover the top with greaseproof paper to prevent it from catching. Leave to cool for 30 minutes in the tin, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Now the fun bit, the decoration. We've got lots of great Christmas cake decoration ideas (check them out below), but you can't go wrong with a smooth layer of royal icing. To make royal icing, whisk 3 large free-range egg whites in a large bowl until fluffy. Sieve 700g of icing sugar separately, then, a spoonful at a time, fold it into the egg whites. Once combined, stir in the juice of ½ a lemon and ½ a teaspoon of glycerine. Beat until it forms stiff peaks, then use it to decorate the cake.

The wonderful thing about Christmas cake is that you can go as wild as you like with the decorations! Here are three easy ways to decorate your Christmas cake:

For a traditional Christmas cake... Go for a smooth, snowy finish with royal icing and a simple, stunning ring of festive holly and berries.
For a rustic, natural look... Use the best bits of winter! Think gorgeous, sparkling sugared or dried fruits, handfuls of crunchy whole nuts, and aromatic sprigs of rosemary for a beautifully rustic vibe.
For family fun... Time to get playful! Use mini cookie cutters to create a tiny army of gingerbread characters, then grab a piping bag to add vibrant Christmas trees and smiling reindeers. This is your chance to get creative and have fun.

You can leave out the stout or swap for any festive booze, such as sherry, whisky or rum – but remember: the higher the quality the better the result, so treat your cake to the best you can afford!

Tags

Christmas Cake Baking Entertaining Dessert

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Jamie Oliver's Christmas Cookbook

Buy the book!

This recipe is just a taste of what's inside Jamie's Christmas cookbook! Grab your copy in hardback or as an e-book today to discover your annual guide to festive cooking.

Jamie Oliver's Christmas Cookbook

Dive into a sleigh-load of delicious recipes from Jamie Oliver's much-loved Christmas Cookbook.

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My Christmas cake

3 hrs 30 mins plus cooling & decorating

Not Too Tricky

serves 16

Ingredients

Top Tip

Method

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