Rum soaked fruits (Christmas fruit cake Part 1)

Rum (or juice) soaked fruits form the most important part of my amazing Christmas fruit cake recipe! Soaking the fruits ensures that every bit of fruit is perfectly juicy and delicious with the most amazing spiced rum flavor. If you plan to make my amazing fruitcake for Christmas this year, follow along and get soaking!

This post is part 1 of a 2 part series for making my delicious & juicy Rum & Fruit Christmas Cake. In Part 2, I show you how to make the actual cake. Click here to go to the cake recipe ❤

Juicy soaked fruits in my Christmas cake

Growing up in India, it wasn't common to have ovens at home and my mom, like most Indian moms would buy Christmas cake from a local bakery. I remember the cake being extremely dry and overcooked with a sharp bitter flavor. Honestly, I didn't really enjoy eating fruitcake back then.

After I started making fruit cake at home, my life was changed forever! To me, what those bakery cakes lacked was the absolute best part of any Christmas cake - the burst of juicy fruits when I bite into it. My Christmas cake recipe is filled with so much juicy fruits that biting into it is pure joy and leads to an explosion of flavor in your mouth. 🤤

What fruits can I use

Different recipes like to use different kinds of dried fruit in their cakes. Some recipes may call for dried tropical fruit like mangoes, papaya or kiwis while others like to use candied citrus peels. I like to keep my recipe really simple and accessible with very little prep involved.

Here's my favorite mix of fruits that I like to use:

1. Mixed raisins ( golden & dark)
2. Dried cranberries
3. Dates
4. Candied ginger

I skip candied citrus peels because I like using fresh citrus zest in my cake for that beautiful depth of flavor.

Feel free to use any mix of dried fruit that you can find easily at your local stores and replace any of the above fruit with your favorite ones.

Soaking liquid & non-alcoholic option

I love the flavor of spiced rum in my Christmas cake, so that's what I use to soak my fruit. The dried fruits get rehydrated in the rum and soaks it all up, making it super juicy and flavorful.

If you can't find spiced rum, you can also use dark rum, cognac, brandy or sherry to soak your fruits.

If you don't consume alcohol, you can replace the rum with a blend of your favorite fruit juices. My favorite is apple and orange juice (1 cup each).  

How to soak the fruit & for how long?

I like to soak my fruits about a month before I plan on making the cake. Here's how I do it:

Add all your fruits to a glass container and pour the soaking liquid on top. Give everything a good mix and cover it well. Every week, open the container and give everything a good mix (using a clean, dry spoon), so that all the fruit can rehydrate evenly.

If you are using fruit juice instead of rum, you only need to soak the fruit for a week. Also, remember to store the soaked fruit in the refrigerator because fresh juice can go bad.

If you are short on time, even 1 week (or 2-3 days) will work. Just remember to mix the fruits everyday so they can rehydrate well.

Nuts in the fruit cake

Some recipes call for soaking nuts along with the fruit. I prefer my nuts to remain crunchy when baked and soaking can make them very soft and soggy, so I skip this step and add them directly into the cake batter.

Size of the finished cake

My recipe for soaked fruits below is for making a tall 9" fruitcake. I like using a tall springform pan to bake my cake. You could also bake 2 smaller 6/7 inch cakes with this same recipe.

Storage instructions

If you are soaking the fruits in rum, store them in a dark cabinet or cupboard until you make the cake.

If you are soaking the fruits in fruit juice, you will need to refrigerate the mixture so it doesn't go bad.

10 other recipes to make with this soaked fruit

You could use these soaked fruit in many other recipes apart from my Christmas cake. They would make great additions to:

1. My Banana bread recipe!
2. Spooned over ice cream
3. Mixed into ice cream base before freezing to make rum & raisin ice cream!
4. Stuffed between 2 slices of bread with some cream cheese
5. Spooned over French toast!
6. Muffins
7. Scones
8. Cakes
9. Breads
10. Bread rolls (like cinammon rolls)!

The leftover rum in the container is my favorite part and can be used in so many different ways too. I have some exciting cocktails coming up during the holiday season using this soaking liquid!

Click the image below to go to the Christmas rum and fruit cake recipe

Recipe

This post is part 1 of a 2 part series for making my delicious & juicy Rum & Fruit Christmas Cake. In Part 2, I show you how to make the actual cake. Click here to go to the cake recipe ❤

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