You know you have a great recipe when your family requests it every year. Our Christmas White Fruit Cake recipe is just that! This delicious white fruit cake is super moist and has just the right amount of nuts and sweet white raisins, making it a perfect Christmas morning tradition!
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White Fruit Cake Recipe
Years ago, my mom gave me a white fruit cake recipe and told me I had to try it. I immediately had visions of one of those monstrous fruitcakes that are so full of fruit that there really is no cake. No thanks!!
But, thankfully, I listened and tried the basic fruit cake recipe. I fell in love! And as usual, begin to tweak the recipe. And now my family enjoys making our Christmas White Fruit Cake every year. With the perfect blend of sweet lemon bread versus nuts and fruits, the cake is a favorite family holiday tradition!
How to Make White Christmas Fruit Cake
First, you are going to need a lot of butter! So prepare yourself. This Christmas cake reminds me of a pound cake, with more of a bread consistency, making it perfect to slice and have with a hot cup of coffee or tea! But since it is cake there is no yeast involved making it the perfect “bread” for a newbie to bake!
Make sure your butter has softened. Cream your sugar and butter together, stopping to scrape down the sides of the bowl.
White Christmas Fruit Cake also has a lot of eggs. When you have a lot of eggs to add to a recipe, go ahead and count out how many you will need. Remove the eggs from the egg container, placing them by your mixing bowl. This little trick, of placing the eggs on the counter, ensures that you will add all the eggs to the recipe. And you won’t miscount the eggs when your kids walk in the kitchen, to ask you a question!
Next, you’ll add in your lemon extract. I actually prefer Aldi brand extract to some of the name brands. Some of the name brand lemon extracts have more of a an alcohol smell as alcohol is the second ingredient instead of the third.
Add in your flour and baking powder and mix until blended.
The White Fruit Cake batter is very thick, so I find it works best to hand mix in the the nuts and golden raisins. I do make sure to chop my raisins before adding to the mixture. But don’t hesitate to add the whole cup and half of raisins. Even if you’re not a huge raisin fan, you’ll find that they add such a lovely flavor and consistency to your sweet bread. Just make sure you get white or golden raisins, not regular raisins.
Testing Your Light Fruit Cake for Doneness
The only thing that can be a little tricky about this White Christmas Fruit Cake is when to take it out of the oven! When you place the Christmas fruit cake in the oven your oven needs to be on 425 degrees. But after 10 minutes, you’ll turn your oven down to 275 degrees and the light fruit cake will cook for another hour. So be sure to allow for plenty of time.
Pull your bread out of the oven when the top is very spongy and soft but not raw or gooey. The cakes will continue to cook after you take them out of the oven. I tend to take them out of the oven after they have been in the oven for an hour and 10 minutes. But you can give them an extra 5 minutes if you are concerned that they are not cooked all the way through. Just be careful to not cook more than that as you want your bread to be moist.
Giving White Fruit Cake as Gifts
Christmas White Fruit Cake makes a perfect baked good to give as a gift. The flavorful lemon cake is a little something special without being so wildly different that most people won’t try it. And the cake bakes up nicely in loaf pans. White Christmas Fruit Cake is perfect to wrap up and top with a bow, for a gift.
The recipe below makes 3 medium loaf pans. You can either buy 8 inch tins to bake the White Fruit Cake in, removing and wrapping the cake before giving as a gift. Or you can buy these adorable paper loaf pans.
You can bake your sweet Christmas cakes right in the pans. Then simply allow the light fruit cake to cool, wrap the decorative loaf pans in clear wrap, and add a bow before giving.
Best Tasting White Fruit Cake Recipe
This recipe is also delicious and easy to make weeks ahead.
Simply allow your White Christmas Fruit Cake to cool. Wrap loaf in clear wrap and then a layer of foil. Place your wrapped loaf in a clear freezer bag and place in freezer. When you are ready to eat your White Fruit Cake, simply pull from freezer and place on counter the night before the morning you wish to serve. The cake is best served at room temperature!
Enjoy!
Christmas White Fruit Cake
Equipment
- 3 medium loaf pans 4 in by 8 in
Ingredients
- 1 lb butter (4 sticks) softened
- 2 1/4 cups white sugar
- 6 eggs
- 5 tsps lemon extract
- 4 cups flour
- 1/8 tsp salt
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 1/2 cups white or golden raisins chopped
- 1 1/2 cups pecans chopped
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 420 degree.
- Cream softened butter and sugar for a minute. Stop mixer and scrape down sides. continue to beat for another minute.
- Add eggs, two at a time. Mix.
- Add lemon extract.
- Mix together flour, salt and baking powder in a separate bowl. Mix in with wet ingredients.
- Chop pecans and nuts. Mix in by hand. The batter will be very thick.
- Spray loaf pans with non stick spray. Measure out batter into 3 medium loaf pans.
- Place loaf pans into 420 degree oven. Cook for 10 minutes.
- Turn oven down to 275 degree. Cook for another 60 minutes at 275.
- Check loaves. Cake should feel spongy but not gooey in the middle. If cakes are still gooey in center, you may cook for another 5 minutes.
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