Mini Christmas Cakes! Great to serve at gatherings and ideal for gifting – long shelf life, packages up beautifully, easy to make and economical. Made with my classic Christmas cake batter, the rich fruit cake is moist and velvety.
Mini Christmas Cakes
Here are the Mini Christmas Cakes I promised in last weeks’ Holiday Gift Guide!! This is just my classic Christmas Cake converted into mini form. They look so great on a platter to serve at gatherings, and are also ideal for gifting because they have a long shelf life. The cake is beautifully moist, rich with dried fruit, perfumed with Christmas spices. Dense, but soft pudding-like, not like a brick as many store bought ones are.
I also like that they’re easy to dress up for serving and gifting, because this Christmas Cake is designed to be eaten plain. So you don’t need to fuss to work around frosting or add a sauce for serving. Just dust with icing sugar, then for an extra Christmassy touch, tie a ribbon around each one and add a sprig of rosemary!
Also – the option to add a Christmas pudding drippy glaze!
What you need to make Mini Christmas Cakes
A LOT of dried fruit and very little cake batter!! 🙂
1. SOAKED DRIED FRUIT (booze optional)
Here’s what you need for the Soaked Dried Fruit. The fruit is soaked in either apple juice OR a combination of apple juice and brandy (for those who like boozy Christmas Cake).
Dried fruit mix speedy option – While I like to chop my own dried fruit (cake is softer, you get better flavour and I can use the ratios I like), feel free to use a store bought mix of pre chopped dried fruit for convenience.
Use any dried fruit you want – As long as it weighs 855g / 30 oz in total. The selection above is the mix I like!
Mixed peel is a store bought mix of dried, crystallised (ie sugared) lemon and orange peel. Usually it comes pre chopped – I like to chop it a bit finer. I like less citrus peel than some recipes because I’m too scarred by all those times I bit into a huge piece of orange peel. Just not to my taste! Don’t use FRESH orange and lemon peel, it will be too strong and too bitter. I do not know how much fresh peel to substitute this for.
Juice and/or booze – for a traditional boozy Christmas Cake, just switch 1/3 of the apple juice with brandy. Can also sub apple juice with orange juice if you want a stronger citrus flavour.
2. CHRISTMAS CAKE BATTER
And here’s what you need for the cake batter part. The cake has very little baking powder because it’s quite a dense cake with a pudding-like texture. But it’s still got a distinct “cake” texture – unlike some Christmas Cakes that are so dense they are like eating fudge!
Brown sugar – Dark brown sugar gives the cake a richer colour and that is what I use for my classic single large Christmas cake. For individual ones, I prefer a slightly lighter coloured crumb so the fruit bits stand out more, so I use regular brown sugar.
Molasses / golden syrup – adds to the richness of flavour and colour of cake. Either is fine – I interchange year on year.
Walnuts – sub with any nuts of choice, or leave it out completely.
Oil AND butter – oil is what gives this cake a superb moistness. Butter is for flavour!
Eggs – This is what makes the cake hold together rather than being crumbly.
Flour – Just regular plain / all-purpose flour. Self raising flour can be used to substitute the flour and baking powder but the cake may dome a little more than pictured.
Spices – All spice, cinnamon and nutmeg. Classic Christmas cake flavours!
How to make Mini Christmas Cakes
The only difference between this and my classic Christmas Cake is that I bake it in a square pan so I can cut into square individual cakes.
Pan size – I use a 20 cm / 8″ square pan which makes a 4.5cm / 1.8″ tall cake so when cut into 9 squares, they are a nice tall height and impressive gift-giving size. Feel free to use a larger pan – for example, a 23 x 33cm / 9 x 13″ pan will make a 2.3cm / 1″ tall cake which you can cut into more pieces. You can also use a muffin tin lined with silver foil patties.
1. Baking the Christmas cake
The key step that makes this so much faster to make than other fruit cakes is the fruit soaking step. Most recipes call for dried fruit to be soaked overnight. I take a speedy approach: just microwave the dried fruit with juice and/or brandy, then stand for 1 hour to soak up the liquid. So much faster – and just as effective!
Soak fruit – Microwave the dried fruit with the juice/brand for 1 1/2 minutes or until hot. Stir to coat then set aside for 1 hour to let the fruit soak up the liquid and plump up.
Batter – Beat the butter and sugar for 1 minute until light and fluffy. Because of the volume of sugar vs butter, it won’t look creamy but you can tell it’s soft from the texture. Then beat in the oil and molasses, then the salt, spices and baking powder. Then beat in the eggs one at a time, beating until just incorporated.
Mix in the flour using a wooden spoon.
Soaked fruit – Then mix in the dried fruit, including any residual liquid left in the bottom of the bowl.
Pan – Pour the batter into a lined 20cm / 8″ pan. It will fill it right to the top and that’s fine, the cake barely rises. As noted above, it’s a dense cake but it’s not brick-like! It’s still distinctly cakey.
Bake 2 1/2 hours – Cover the cake with a sheet of baking paper (which will peel off without ripping the cake surface off), then foil. Then bake for 2 hours, remove foil and paper, then bake for a further 30 minutes uncovered to colour the surface.
Cool – Remove the cake from the oven and let it cool for 10 minutes in the pan before transferred to a rack to fully cool.
2. Cutting mini cakes
I like to cut into 9 squares because I think the proportions look nice and the cake is a gift-worthy size. To be specific, they are 6.5cm / 2 1/2″ squares that are 4.5cm / 1.8″ tall. As noted above, feel free to use different size pans. For example, a 23 x 33cm / 9 x 13″ pan will make a cake that is 2.3cm / 1″ tall and you will be able to cut many more pieces.
Cutting – Trim the edges (to make the sides neat). Then cut the cake into pieces as desired. I do 9 squares.
Trim surface – The surface of the cake is ever so slightly domed. So to make the Christmas Cake into perfect uniform pieces, I trim the surface then turn them upside down and decorate the base.
Flip and dust or ice – Flip the cake upside down so the base of the cake is the side you decorate. Then either dust with icing sugar (easy option I use when gift-wrapping), or decorate drippy-style with white frosting (for a classic Christmas Pudding look) or top with fondant (see classic Christmas Cake recipe for directions).
Gift wrapping
As I mentioned earlier, Mini Christmas Cakes have in their favour as a homemade gifting idea. They are:
Easy to make
Economical – especially if you use a mixed fruit option instead of getting individual dried fruits
Easy to decorate – Just a dusting of icing sugar makes them instantly Christmassy! Though tying ribbon around the cake really is an easy way to make them even more gift-worthy. 🙂
Easy to gift wrap – no need to find specific size jars of gift bags. Just wrap in cellophane and tie with ribbon.
Long shelf life – This one is important to me! A few years ago I did cookies but they just don’t have a great shelf life. It’s rare for any cookie to truly remain in top-notch fresh form beyond 2 days. Wheres the Christmas Cake? I’ve kept mine in the fridge for a month and it was still like freshly made. How good is that!
Love to know how you present these Mini Christmas Cakes if you try them, or how you customise the cake to your taste. Share in the comments below – readers love getting inspiration!
Also, spoiler alert for my friends – you’re all getting Mini Christmas Cakes this year. 😂 – Nagi x
Watch how to make it
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Mini Christmas Cakes – ideal for gifting!
Ingredients
Fast soaked fruit (Note 1):
- 300g / 10 oz raisins
- 150g / 5 oz diced dried apricots , chopped 8 mm / 1/3"
- 75g / 2 1/2 oz mixed peel , diced 5mm / 1/5
- 150g / 5 oz glace cherries , chopped 8 mm / 1/3"
- 180g / 6 oz dates , diced 5mm / 1/5"
- 1 cup + 2 tbsp apple juice , OR 1/3 brandy + 2/3 juice (Note 2)
Cake:
- 115g / 8 tbsp unsalted butter , softened (1 US stick)
- 1 1/2 cups brown sugar , packed (or dark brown sugar for a darker crumb, Note 3)
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil (or canola, peanut, grapeseed)
- 3 tbsp molasses or golden syrup (Note 4)
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp all spice
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp nutmeg
- 3 eggs
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1 2/3 cups plain flour (all purpose flour)
- 3/4 cup walnuts , chopped (optional)
Decorating
- Icing sugar, for dusting
- Christmas fondant – see directions here
Christmas Pudding Drippy Glaze
- 1 1/2 cups soft icing sugar / powdered sugar
- 1 tbsp / 15g unsalted butter, softened
- 1/2 tsp vanilla
- 1 1/2 – 3 tbsp milk
Instructions
Fast Soaked Fruit:
- Heat – Place dried fruit and juice/brandy in a large microwavable container. Microwave 1 1/2 minutes on high or until hot.
- Soak – Stir to coat all fruit in liquid. Cover then set aside for 1 hour (to plump up/soak and cool).
Cake:
- Preheat oven to 160°C / 320°F (140°C fan). Grease and line a 20cm / 8" square cake pan with baking paper / parchment paper, or larger pan to get more cakes out of it. (Note 5 on pan size).
- Beating – Using an electric beater, beat butter and sugar until smooth and creamy (about 1 minute on speed 5). Add oil and molasses, beat until combined. Add salt, spices and baking powder – beat until incorporated. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until just incorporated.
- Stir in the flour with a wooden spoon, then the dried fruit (including all the extra liquid in bowl) and walnuts (if using).
- Pour into the cake pan, it will fill it right to the top (it won't spill over, the cake barely rises). Cover the surface with paper then cover with foil.
- Bake 2 1/2 hours – Bake for 2 hours, remove the foil and paper, then bake for a further 30 minutes. A skewer inserted into middle should come out clean with no batter on it.
- Remove from oven and cool for 20 minutes before transferring to cooling rack. Cool completely before cutting.
- Cutting – Trim off the sides (to make them neat). Then cut into 9 squares (or more, if you want). Trim the surface (to make them level as the cake slightly domes). Then flip upside down and decorate the base of the cake.
Decorating, gifting and serving
- Simple – Dust with icing sugar. That's all this cake needs, it's so full flavoured and moist! Wrap with cellophane and ribbon to gift.
- Ribbon – Wrap and tie a ribbon around each cake. Nice way to present for serving. (Optional to include for gift wrapping too, but then there's a double ribbon situation happening – ie ribbon and cake, ribbon on cellophane!)
- Drippy white glaze – Mix the icing sugar, butter, vanilla and start with 2 tbsp milk. Mix really well (it will take time to come together, be patient). Then adjust thickness using 1/2 tsp milk at a time. BE CAREFUL – it goes from too thick to too thin very easily! Goal: Thick glaze that will ooze "pudding style", as pictured, rather than dripping in long streaks. Spoon onto cake, coaxing it down the sides. Allow to set before wrapping.
- Fondant – See directions in my classic round Christmas Cake.
- Serving – serve with custard for a traditional experience! Either homemade custard or store bought pouring custard.
Recipe Notes:
Nutrition Information:
Life of Dozer
Pleading for help.
It was the first time that I made a Christmas cake. My husband and I love Christmas cake. He has attempted to make one before but that must be a few years back.
I thought that it must be hard but as I know that Nagi’s recipes is trustworthy and she will make things easy for her followers.
I baked this on Sat night. I started late at 9pm as it was a very hot day (42 degrees celsius) during the day. I had to wait till 12am before the batter didn’t stick to the test stick.
I’m very pleased with the result. I only managed to eat the crumbs of the edges which I cut off. I cut the cake into fours and gave them to 4 friends. I’ll make a few more in the next few weeks as gifts and also for my family’s consumption.
Thank you Nagi! You did it again!
Lessons learnt:
1) don’t start baking too late
2) remember to line the baking tray with baking paper
3) use a sharper knife to cut so that the edges look neater.
My family makes a completely different fruitcake for Christmas (loads of ground and chopped hazelnuts, candied orange peel and currents – it’s heavenly with a cup of coffee and a glass of Cointreau). I’ve been wanting to add a variety of fruitcake, not to compete but to complement and this is a winner!
I skipped the apricots, used currants, dates, orange and succade peel and increased the cherries and soaked in brandy and fresh orange juice. Since I don’t like nutmeg I swapped it for cloves and added the same amount of ground bitter orange peel. Made half the batter in a 10×23 cm tin just in case I wouldn’t like it. Of course I loved it! YUM YUM YUM😍
I made my Christmas cake yesterday using Mary Berry’s recipe as I usually do, but while it was baking I noticed THIS recipe! So here I am, baking a second Christmas cake with the intention of making it into gifts. Quite a few friends and family I’ve talked to recently have said they love fruit cake but don’t intend to make or buy it this year because they wouldn’t eat that much… so I hope they enjoy this. Thank you Nagi.
Can I use red and green glazed cherries
How long would you cook this recipe for if made in individual small round tins ?
I’m doing the same and I’m going to start with 25 minutes like Nagi suggested for cupcakes…I’ll just keep a close eye.
Would like to confirm weight measurements for the fruit.does the 855g include the apple juice. my sums add upto 555g for fruit alone. ????TIA
Kacee, I just added the fruit alone and it came to 855. Maybe you missed one? I’m making this as I write this. Good luck
Can mini Bundt pans be used for this recipe
I’ve make mini Christmas cakes each year and look forward to trying your recipe. I top mine with stars cut from rolled out marzipan, stuck down with golden syrup/apricot jam and dusted with icing sugar. I’m not a big fan of traditional icing on Christmas cakes but marzipan is a good finishing touch.
Made this today. Turned out to be a bit dry as i might have used the Sunbeam precut dried mix fruits that is currently on sales in Coles (Syd) right now. Probably should add more apple juice. All four sides (used a square tin) were a bit burnt so maybe turn down the oven temp a bit from 160cel when baking with the foil removed.
I did the other recipetineats recipe last year which was superb.
So original is for 3 hours 15 mins however this one is for 2.5 hours? Wondering why the difference ?
Ah yes, I have just asked that same question in the comments of the round one , recipe the same, except one round and one square but cooking time differs by one whole hour??
Dear Nagi, Dozer has no problem with you dressing him up. You have never harmed him and he trusts you totally…as you do him. Best wishes to you both and your amazing colleagues for Xmas and the New Year.
He absolutely knows when he is being mocked in ridiculous outfits, but he puts up with it because he knows he will get serious TREATS afterwards!! 😂
My husband makes mixed peel which we eat ravenously and then have to make more for his delicious stollen. Julienne lemon and orange peel and then crystallise in white sugar and water. No big chunks, just little pops of citrus
WOW!! You luck lady, you 🙂 N x
Perfect timing! I made my cake last week with the intention of dividing it into mini gift cakes. Thanks to all of your help and suggestions above they look 1000% better than they otherwise would have. They would always have tasted great as it was your recipe. But now they look fantastic too. Thank you Nagi and Merry Christmas. Sorry Dozer I laughed when I saw you all dressed up 😆
He he Glad you laughed when you saw his outfit!!! More to come 😈
Can’t wait to try this recipe! If I’m cooking individual portions in a muffin pan, is the cooking time the same? 2.5 hours seems too long for mini-cakes?
That’s what I’m trying, too. The finicky knife work would do me in. Good luck to us! Nagi notes:
5. Cake pan size – You can also use a muffin tin – silver liners look lovely. They take around 25 minutes to bake (no need to cover, just bake uncovered).
It’s not finicky, I promise!! Christmas Cake is SOLID 🙂 So easy to cut!! N xx
Thanks Christopher! Happy baking! 🙂
Thank you for sharing a wonderful Christmas cake recipe Nagi and team! Can the eggs be replaced with an alternative as a couple of family members are allergic eggs. Thanks once again for the recipe and all the other wonderful recipes you create!
Liz
Hi Elizabeth! I’m sorry I don’t know, I haven’t tried for this cake 🙁 Sorry! N x
Navi, can I use these for a Christmas pudding. Are they moist enough?
YES absolutely. We also steamed it last year in a big pudding basin in a giant pot of water. It took around the same time as baking a single large cake (see that recipe, it’s linkedin this one). It’s even MORE moist and soft because of all the steaminess! N x
Hi Nagi, I was wondering if gluten free flour can be substituted in this Christmas cake recipe, it sounds delicious?
Thanks
Hi Lee! I’m afraid I don’t know for this one 🙁 I’m sorry! N x
I Can’t wait to try it this weekend. I have always used pre cut dried chopped fruit. Great gifting idea, cause they can end up pricey.
AGREE. I did all the testing using pre cut dried fruit 🙂 N x
Yummmmmmmmmmy. One of my all time favourite Xmas recipes from Nagi. Use this recipe annually for Xmas, birthdays, celebrations and any excuse I can think of. However I have never thought of slicing into individual portions, adding ribbon, decoration and gifting to others. Nagi, you are absolutely brilliant. May health, happiness, love and peace, always walk alongside you, Dozer, your family, staff and friends.
Will this recipe work in large muffin tins?
When’s Dinner book 2 being released 😉
Aww, I love hearing that Jeanette!! Re: book 2…I am yet to recover from book 1!! 😂 N xx
Hi Jeanette, thank you for your kind words! Yes it can work in muffin tins (see note 5).
Where to find chopped dried fruit and peel? I’m in the US. I could buy individual bags of the suggested fruits and chop them myself, but I’m trying to make it easier. And I don’t think I’ve ever seen chopped peel…
Hi Brooke! To be honest, just grab a bag of mixed chopped dried fruit. It works a treat! That’s what I used for all the testing of this recipe and it’s so tasty. You won’t notice if you’re missing a particular dried fruit, or mixed peel. The store mixes are made especially for fruit cakes like this 🙂 So they will be good! N x