Christmas Cake Recipes

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You can make a cake to celebrate any day, but there are more Christmas cake recipes than there are for any other holiday. Christmas cake recipes can be a cake simply decorated in a Christmas theme or a recipe that is made only during the Christmas season.

Christmas Cake Recipes

Christmas cakes run the gamut from plain cakes decorated with red and green icing to fruitcake, Italian Panettone, and King Cake, which is served on the Epiphany to celebrate the arrival of the kings to the manger. If you have a cake recipe that you like, you can use it to make a candy cane cake or just decorate it in a festive style. For a more traditional treat, you can try one of these Christmas cake recipes.

Panettone

This Italian specialty is more like bread than cake and closer to fruitcake than any other Christmas treat. Filled with sweet dried fruit, Panettone adds flavor to any celebration.

Ingredients

½ cup milk
½ cup sugar
6 tablespoons butter
2 packages of active dry yeast
½ cup of warm water
2 large eggs
2 large egg yolks
¾ cup candied orange peel, chopped
½ cup raisins
½ cup candied lemon peel
Zest of 1 lemon
5 ½ cups all-purpose flour

Instructions

Heat the milk in a saucepan just until it starts to simmer.
Remove from the heat and add the sugar and the butter.
Stir until the sugar dissolves.
Let the milk cool to lukewarm.
In the bowl of your stand mixer, sprinkle the yeast over the warm water.
Let stand for one minute.
Add the milk, eggs, and yolks.
Using the paddle attachment, beat the mixture on low until well mixed.
Add the raisins, candied fruit, and lemon zest.
Add the flour and beat until a stiff dough forms.
Butter a large bowl.
Place the dough in the bowl and turn it so that all sides of the dough have been greased.
Cover with a towel and let rise until it has doubled in size. This will take about 1 ½ hours.
Spray a 9-inch spring form pan with high sides, about 4-inches high, with non-stick spray.
Punch the dough down and move the dough to the prepared spring form pan.
Cover with a towel and let rise for 1 hour.
Place a rack in the lower part of the oven and preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
Slash a cross into the top of the cake.
Bake for one hour. Test doneness with a toothpick. If it comes out clean, your cake is done.
Let the cake cool on a rack for ten minutes.
Turn it out onto the rack and let it cool completely.

Fruitcake

Fruitcake has gotten a bad reputation in the past. This could be because store bought fruitcake is a heavy, over-sweetened mess. With just a little time, you will fall in love with this classic and add fruitcake to your collection of Christmas cake recipes.

Ingredients

1 cup of raisins
1 cup of currents
½ cup each of any four or five dried fruits you like
Zest of one lemon, finely grated
Zest of one orange, finely grated
½ cup of candied ginger, diced small
1 cup of sugar
1 cup of dark rum
1 cup of apple cider
1 ¼ sticks of butter
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 ¾ cups of all-purpose flour
1 ½ teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 eggs
½ cup of walnuts

Instructions

Soak the dried fruits in the rum overnight.
Add the fruits to a saucepan with the sugar, butter, apple cider, cinnamon, and ground ginger.
Bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer.
Simmer for ten minutes.
Let cool to room temperature.
In a large bowl, mix together the flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda.
Wisk until well combined.
Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
Using your stand mixer with a paddle attachment, put the soaked fruit in the mixer bowl.
With the mixer running on low, add the flour mixture.
Add the eggs.
Add the nuts and candied ginger.
Pour the batter into a 10-inch bread pan.
Bake for one hour and test for doneness with a toothpick.
Let the cake completely cool before de-panning.