In this article
After I wrote about my English friend Margaret’s tea loaf, the messages came in from Australia, from New Zealand and from all over Britain, and I learned that in a great many kitchens down there the fruit cake is boiled. I asked Margaret about it and she laughed. Oh, that one, she said. Her mother made a boiled fruit cake every winter in the same dented saucepan, and it sat in a tin on the pantry shelf for weeks, getting better. The name sounds wrong to an American ear, but nobody boils the cake. It is the fruit that is boiled: raisins, sultanas and currants simmered in a saucepan with butter, brown sugar, spice and water until they are fat and glossy and sitting in a dark syrup.
That one step is the cousin of the tea loaf’s overnight soak, done in ten minutes instead of a night. The hot syrup plumps the fruit so it cannot steal moisture from the cake, and it melts the butter and sugar at the same time, so there is no creaming and no mixer. Once the pan has cooled, the eggs and flour are stirred straight into it. There are two things people ask every time: how long to boil the fruit, and how to bake such a deep cake all the way through without a hard, dark crust. Both answers are here, the way Margaret’s mother did it.
Why this boiled fruit cake works
- Fruit simmered in syrup. A short boil swells the dried fruit, so the cake stays moist for weeks instead of drying out around hard raisins.
- Everything melted in one pan. Butter and sugar dissolve into the liquid, which gives an even, tender crumb without any creaming.
- Baking soda in the hot pan. It foams, softens the fruit skins and deepens the color of the cake.
- A full cooling. Cool fruit keeps the eggs from scrambling and the baking powder from spending itself too early.
- A low oven and a lined tin. A deep cake needs gentle heat and a double wall of parchment so the middle bakes before the edges burn.
Ingredients
Makes one deep 8 inch round cake (20cm), about 14 slices. The measurements are in US cups with grams in brackets.
For the saucepan
- 3 cups mixed dried fruit (450g): raisins, golden sultanas and currants
- 1/2 cup candied cherries, halved (100g), optional
- 1 cup water (240ml)
- 1 cup packed dark brown sugar (200g)
- 1/2 cup butter, cut in pieces (115g)
- 1 1/2 teaspoons mixed spice or pumpkin pie spice
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
For the cake
- 2 large eggs, beaten
- 2 cups all-purpose flour (250g)
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon fine salt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Any mix of dried fruit works as long as the total is about 3 cups. Chopped dried apricots, dates or candied peel can take the place of part of the raisins. Self-rising flour can be used in place of the flour, baking powder and salt.
How to make boiled fruit cake
Boil the fruit
- Put the dried fruit, cherries, water, brown sugar, butter and spice in a large saucepan. Set it over medium heat and stir until the butter melts and the sugar dissolves.
- Bring to a boil, then turn the heat down and simmer gently for 5 minutes, stirring once or twice. The fruit should look plump and the liquid syrupy.
- Take the pan off the heat and stir in the baking soda. It will foam up; keep stirring until the foam settles.
- Leave the pan to cool until it is barely warm to the touch, about 45 minutes to 1 hour. To hurry it, stand the pan in a sink of cold water.
Mix and bake
- Heat the oven to 300 degrees (150°C). Grease a deep 8 inch round cake pan or springform pan and line the bottom and sides with two layers of parchment, letting the paper stand 1 inch above the rim.
- Stir the beaten eggs and vanilla into the cooled fruit.
- Whisk the flour, baking powder and salt together, add them to the saucepan and fold until no dry flour remains. The batter will be thick and heavy with fruit.
- Scrape the batter into the lined pan and level the top, making a very shallow dip in the center so the cake bakes flat.
- Bake on the middle rack for 1 hour 30 minutes to 1 hour 45 minutes, until the cake is deep brown, firm in the center and a skewer pushed into the middle comes out clean. If the top browns too fast, lay a sheet of foil loosely over it after the first hour.
- Cool the cake completely in the pan on a rack. Lift it out, leave the parchment on, wrap it in foil and wait a day before cutting.
Tips that make the difference
- Boil for 5 minutes, not 15. A long boil cooks off the water the cake needs and leaves a dry crumb.
- Wait for the pan to cool. If the fruit is hot when the eggs go in, they cook into threads and the cake turns heavy.
- Use a deep pan. A shallow layer pan overflows; the batter should come about two thirds of the way up.
- Trust the low oven. At a higher heat the crust turns hard and dark long before the center is baked.
- Cut it with a serrated knife in a gentle sawing motion, wiping the blade between slices.
Variations
- With tea. Swap the water for strong black tea for a darker cake that tastes like the tea loaf.
- With orange. Use orange juice in place of half the water and add the grated zest of one orange.
- Pineapple. An Australian favorite: replace the water with a small can of crushed pineapple and its juice.
- Loaf pan. Divide the batter between two lined 8 by 4 inch loaf pans and bake for 60 to 70 minutes.
Storage and make-ahead
Wrapped in its parchment and then in foil, and kept in a tin or a covered container at cool room temperature, the cake keeps for 3 to 4 weeks and becomes moister with time.
Do not refrigerate it; the cold hardens the butter and dulls the flavor.
To freeze, wrap the whole cake or thick slices tightly in two layers and freeze for up to 4 months. Thaw overnight, still wrapped.
Frequently asked questions
How long should the fruit boil?
Five minutes at a gentle simmer after it first comes to a boil. That is long enough to plump the fruit and make a syrup without boiling away the liquid.
Why did my cake burn on the outside and stay raw in the middle?
The oven was too hot or the pan was unlined. Bake at 300 degrees, line the pan with a double layer of parchment that stands above the rim, and cover the top with foil once it is brown.
Why does the mixture have to cool?
Hot fruit would cook the eggs and set off the baking powder before the cake reaches the oven. Barely warm is fine; hot is not.
Does it need icing?
No. It is eaten plain, in slices, with a cup of tea. Some families in the north of England eat it with a slice of sharp cheese.
Make it on a quiet afternoon, wrap it up, and cut the first slice tomorrow with the kettle on.
Boiled Fruit Cake (The Fruit Simmered in a Saucepan, Moist for Weeks)
An old-fashioned boiled fruit cake: dried fruit, butter, brown sugar and water boiled together in a saucepan, cooled, then stirred with eggs and flour and baked low and slow into a dark, moist cake that keeps for weeks in a tin.
Ingredients
- 3 cups mixed dried fruit (450g): raisins, golden sultanas and currants
- 1/2 cup candied cherries, halved (100g), optional
- 1 cup water
- 1 cup packed dark brown sugar
- 1/2 cup butter, cut in pieces
- 1 1/2 teaspoons mixed spice or pumpkin pie spice
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 large eggs, beaten
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon fine salt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Put the dried fruit, cherries, water, brown sugar, butter and spice in a large saucepan. Set it over medium heat and stir until the butter melts and the sugar dissolves.
- Bring to a boil, then turn the heat down and simmer gently for 5 minutes, stirring once or twice. The fruit should look plump and the liquid syrupy.
- Take the pan off the heat and stir in the baking soda. It will foam up; keep stirring until the foam settles.
- Leave the pan to cool until it is barely warm to the touch, about 45 minutes to 1 hour. To hurry it, stand the pan in a sink of cold water.
- Heat the oven to 300 degrees (150°C). Grease a deep 8 inch round cake pan or springform pan and line the bottom and sides with two layers of parchment, letting the paper stand 1 inch above the rim.
- Stir the beaten eggs and vanilla into the cooled fruit.
- Whisk the flour, baking powder and salt together, add them to the saucepan and fold until no dry flour remains. The batter will be thick and heavy with fruit.
- Scrape the batter into the lined pan and level the top, making a very shallow dip in the center so the cake bakes flat.
- Bake on the middle rack for 1 hour 30 minutes to 1 hour 45 minutes, until the cake is deep brown, firm in the center and a skewer pushed into the middle comes out clean. If the top browns too fast, lay a sheet of foil loosely over it after the first hour.
- Cool the cake completely in the pan on a rack. Lift it out, leave the parchment on, wrap it in foil and wait a day before cutting.
