Rich, dense fruit cake is a real treat to the Christmas connoisseur and this easy melt-and-mix fruit cake recipe makes turning out a winner almost effortless. All you have to do is melt the butter, mix the wet and dry ingredients and bake it in a low, slow oven. As well as making your home smell wonderful, this easy fruit cake recipe saves you time on prep and produces a deliciously moist, rich cake that everyone will enjoy.
Ingredients
Method
Preheat the oven to very slow, 120°C. Grease a deep 22cm-round cake pan or a 19cm-square cake pan, cover the base and side with 2 layers of brown paper and 2 layers of baking paper, bringing the paper 5cm above the edge of the pan.
Combine the dried fruit, nuts, sherry, vanilla and sugar in a large bowl. Combine the butter and milk in a small saucepan, stir over the heat, without boiling, until the butter melts.
Add the butter mixture, eggs and sifted dry ingredients to the fruit mixture and mix well.
Spread the cake mixture into the prepared pan. Bake in a very slow oven for about 5 hours.
Cover hot cake with foil; cool in pan.
If you want to make this fruit cake even easier to prepare, the butter mixture is suitable to microwave.
Test Kitchen tip
How to store this fruit cake
Undecorated fruit cake can be made two months ahead of time and stored in an airtight container in the fridge. It’s also suitable to freeze.
What is the melt and mix method for cake making?
Melt and mix recipes usually require you to melt butter or other fats, then simply mix with the dry ingredients before baking. As a result, this method can cut down on prep time.
This easy fruit cake recipe is a great example of how it works. It saves you time on soaking or boiling the fruit like you would with some other recipes.
As another example, with this melt and mix chocolate cake you melt butter, caster sugar, cocoa powder, bicarbonate of soda and water together then whisk in an egg and add flour. It takes just 15 minutes of prep time, with the rest of the magic happening in the oven.
