Christmas cake

Name: Christmas cake
Prep time: 12 min
Cook time: 21 min
Total time: 33 min
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: British
Ingredients: 200g Butter; 200g Muscovado Sugar; 200g Plain Flour; 4 Beaten Eggs; 50g Ground Almonds; 100ml Sherry; 85g Candied Peel; 85g Glace Cherry; 250g Raisins; 250g Currants; 100g Pecan Nuts; Grated zest of 1 Lemon; 1 ½ tbsp Mixed Spice; 1 ½ tbsp Rose water; 1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract; 1/2 tsp Baking Powder

By The Spice & Simmer Kitchen · Published May 3, 2026

A one-pot Dessert recipe with British flavors, built for busy weeknights when you want real food without a sink full of dishes. Comes together in roughly 46 minutes, serves about 4, and uses ingredients you can find at any normal grocery store. The technique is simple: build a base in your pot, layer in the main ingredients, simmer until everything has had time to talk to each other, and serve straight from the pan. If you're cooking for picky eaters, this one tends to land — the flavors are recognizable, the texture is comforting, and there's nothing weird hiding in the ingredient list. Perfect for the kind of evening where you want dinner on the table by 7pm and the kitchen empty by 7:30.

Ingredients

Makes 4 servings · 33 min total

200g Butter
200g Muscovado Sugar
200g Plain Flour
4 Beaten Eggs
50g Ground Almonds
100ml Sherry
85g Candied Peel
85g Glace Cherry
250g Raisins
250g Currants
100g Pecan Nuts
Grated zest of 1 Lemon
1 ½ tbsp Mixed Spice
1 ½ tbsp Rose Water
1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract
1/2 tsp Baking Powder

Step-by-step instructions

Heat oven to 160C/fan 140C/gas 3. Line the base and sides of a 20 cm round, 7.5 cm deep cake tin. Beat the butter and sugar with an electric hand mixer for 1-2 mins until very creamy and pale in colour, scraping down the sides of the bowl half way through. Stir in a spoonful of the flour, then stir in the beaten egg and the rest of the flour alternately, a quarter at a time, beating well each time with a wooden spoon. Stir in the almonds.
Mix in the sherry (the mix will look curdled), then add the peel, cherries, raisins, cherries, nuts, lemon zest, spice, rosewater and vanilla. Beat together to mix, then stir in the baking powder.
Spoon mixture into the tin and smooth the top, making a slight dip in the centre. Bake for 30 mins, then lower temperature to 150C/fan 130C/gas 2 and bake a further 2-2¼ hrs, until a skewer insterted in the middle comes out clean. Leave to cool in the tin, then take out of the tin and peel off the lining paper. When completely cold, wrap well in cling film and foil to store until ready to decorate. The cake will keep for several months.

Why this works on a weeknight

Christmas cake lands at about 33 minutes total — a little longer than our 30-minute target, but most of that time is hands-off simmering, which is why it earned a spot in our Sweet Finishes collection. The technique is forgiving, the ingredient list is grocery-store standard, and the active cooking time is short enough that you can answer a text message in the middle without ruining dinner.

Cleanup notes

This is a single-pan recipe, so the cleanup is exactly one pan, one cutting board, and one knife. While the dish rests, fill the pan with hot soapy water — by the time you are done eating, the residue lifts off with a single pass of a sponge. Skip the steel wool on cast iron; a stiff brush and warm water are all you need to keep the seasoning intact.

Make-ahead and leftovers

Leftovers keep covered in the fridge for up to three days. Reheat in a dry pan over medium-low with a splash of water or stock to loosen the sauce. Christmas cake actually improves overnight as the flavors keep talking to each other, so doubling the recipe and packing tomorrow's lunch is a high-leverage weeknight move.

Filed under 🍮 Sweet Finishes Dessert British Christmas