Boiled Pineapple Fruit Cake Traditional Recipe - Belly Rumbles (2024)

December 16, 2014 By Sara McCleary Updated November 29, 2020 - This post may contain affiliate links

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 tostoreit 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

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