And now for something completely different! This no-bake Christmas cake is packed with chocolate, fruit and nuts, and is full of the taste of a proper Christmas cake which would take hours to bake in the oven, but this cake is mixed in minutes and left to set overnight in the refrigerator.
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Christmas cake fridge cake
This is a Christmas cake with a difference! It seriously only takes 10 minutes to mix and cook and then it goes into the refrigerator to set.
You can eat a slice straight out of the refrigerator with a cup of tea or coffee, or you can decorate it with a spoonful of whipped cream or a drizzle of custard for a festive dessert.
It looks and tastes like a proper baked Christmas cake, and it's packed with fruit and nuts. The secret is melting a slab of chocolate into the mixed fruit mixture, along with a packet of crushed biscuits. The biscuits absorb the moisture from the fruit and milk, and when the chocolate sets in the fridge it forms the structure that holds everything together.
This is the cake that you need at Christmas, when time is tight and you've got other things to think about!
The main ingredients in this cake are dried fruit, a packet of Nice biscuits and a slab of chocolate. Of course, there are other Christmassy things in there too, like glace cherries and chopped nuts. And let's not forget the alcohol - I put sherry in my cake, but you could use brandy instead, or even leave the alcohol out altogether. It doesn't really matter.
This is a cake that you can just throw together using a mixture of whatever ingredients you fancy. It's not going to make too much of a difference to the end result. As long as you stick to the quantities for the three main ingredients, and keep the ratio of liquid constant, you can add whatever other ingredients that take your fancy.
Let me show you how to make it!
What you will need
**You can find the complete list of ingredients and full instructions for making this no-bake Christmas cake on the printable recipe card at the end of this post**
Equipment
You will need a largish saucepan to boil up the mixture, and a 4" x 8" loaf pan to form the cake so it can set. My loaf pan is 2.5 inches deep and I filled the tin to the brim. You can use a larger cake pan, but the cake will be shallower.
If you have baking parchment you can use this to line the tin to make it easier to remove the cake once it has set. If you don't have baking parchment you can line the tin with cling film, or just brush the tin very lightly with melted butter.
Ingredients
Nice biscuits - (pronounced 'niece'). These should be finely crushed. You can whizz them around in a food processor, or pop them in a plastic bag and bash them lightly with a rolling pin. South African readers can use Tennis biscuits; US readers can substitute with Graham crackers. You could also use malted milk biscuits, Marie biscuits or Lotus Biscoff, although I think the taste of the Biscoff might be a bit overpowering.
Mincemeat - this is fruit mincemeat that you would typically use for making Christmas mince pies.
Mixed dried fruit - sometimes sold as a dried fruit cake mix. This has bits of dried citrus peel in it. If you don't like dried peel you could substitute the dried fruit mix with a mixture of currents, raisins and sultanas.
Glace cherries - these should be cut into quarters.
Mixed nuts - You can buy ready-chopped mixed nuts in the supermarket. I didn't have any so I used a mixture of pecans, walnuts, and almonds which I chopped myself.
Chocolate - This is just cooking chocolate. I used a cheap one from my local supermarket and it worked just fine.
Milk - this is used for boiling with the fruit. You can use semi-skimmed or full fat.
Sherry - you can substitute with brandy or leave it out altogether. If you do leave it out, substitute it with an equivalent amount of milk. Together with the milk, you will need one cup of liquid in total.
Vanilla essence - for additional flavour.
Ingredient note:s
There is no sugar in this cake, the biscuits make the cake sweet enough.
If you prefer you can add a teaspoon of mixed spice to the mixture.
What to do
This won't take long.
Prepare your baking tin by lining it with baking parchment. I find it easiest to cut two pieces of paper - one that is long and thin and another that is the width of the cake tin. Leave enough paper hanging over the edges so that you can fold it over the cake while it sets in the refrigerator.
Combine the dried fruit, chopped nuts and cherries, and the fruit mincemeat in a large saucepan.
Add the milk, vanilla essence and sherry and bring the mixture to the boil, then turn the heat down to low.
Chop the chocolate into small pieces and add it a bit at a time to the fruit mixture, stirring continuously to let the chocolate melt.
Once the chocolate has melted, remove the pan from the stove.
Crush the biscuits in a plastic bag (use a rolling pin to help you) or whizz them around in a food processor until they form fine crumbs.
Tip the biscuit crumbs into the fruit mixture and stir thoroughly until they are well combined.
Tip the mixture into your prepared loaf tin and press it down firmly (use the back of a spoon to help you).
Fold the edges of the baking parchment over the cake and place it in the refrigerator overnight to set.
As you can see, I didn't leave my paper long enough. If this happens to you, just cover it with a piece of plastic wrap.
When the cake has set, tip it out onto a board and remove the baking parchment.
You can now decorate the cake (see below) or just slice it and enjoy!
Ideas for decorating the cake
You can decorate this cake in a number of ways:
- As you would decorate a traditional Christmas cake, with marzipan and fondant icing.
- Drizzle the cake with melted chocolate.
- Cover it with chocolate buttercream and decorate it with a sprig of holly like a Yule log.
- Be lazy like me and leave it undecorated. To be honest, unless you are trying to impress guests, I think the cake tastes fine without any decoration.
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No-bake Christmas cake FAQ
To be perfectly honest, I've never tried to freeze it. However, there's no reason why it wouldn't freeze well. Just wrap it in a layer of baking parchment or greaseproof paper and cover it with a double layer of plastic wrap. The cake should stay good for up to 6 months in the freezer.
If you do freeze the cake yourself, I'd appreciate it if you could drop me a comment so I can update the post 🙂
The cake should be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator. Unfortunately, it doesn't have the long storage life of a 'real' Christmas cake, but it will remain fresh for up to a week (or longer). Mine gets eaten very quickly so I've never had to store it for longer 🙂
A slice of this cake is delicious with a cup of tea or coffee.
You can also turn it into an instant dessert by topping it with a spoonful of thick whipped cream or covering it with custard.
If you like, you can warm slices of the cake for about 30 seconds in the microwave before adding the whipped cream or custard.
Yes, you can eat it straight from the refrigerator. It is also good served at room temperature. The choice is yours.
Save for later
If you would like to make this no-bake Christmas cake yourself this year, why not save the recipe to one of your Pinterest boards so you can find it easily? Just click on the image below.
Alternatively, you can save the recipe by clicking on the floating heart icon on the right-hand side of the screen.
Other recipes
You may be interested in these other easy Christmas recipes:
- Last minute Christmas cake - filled with fruit, nuts, and cherries and flavoured with a hint of brandy, but mixed, baked, and ready to eat in less than two hours. This is another quick and easy Christmas cake recipe.
- Fruit mincemeat star bread - it’s like a giant Chelsea bun, but packed with the flavours of Christmas.
- Impossible Christmas tart - a new twist on Christmas pudding. Mixed in one bowl and baked in the oven, it separates into three distinct layers.
- Chocolate orange tarts - the combination of chocolate and oranges just screams Christmas. Why not try a different Christmas dessert this year?
📋The recipe
No bake Christmas cake (with chocolate)
(Click the stars to rate this recipe)
Ingredients
- 7 ounces / 200 grams Nice biscuits equivalent of 1 packet
- 3⅓ ounces / 100 grams fruit mincemeat approx ¼ jar
- 2 ounces / 60 grams chopped nuts
- 2⅓ cups / 350 grams dried fruit mix approx 12 ounces
- 2 ounces / 50 grams glace cherries
- ¾ cup / 125 grams cooking chocolate approx 4.5 ounces
- ¾ cup / 180 ml milk
- ¼ cup / 60 ml sherry
- 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
Instructions
- Prepare your baking tin by lining it with baking parchment. I find it easiest to cut two pieces of paper - one that is long and thin and another that is the width of the cake tin. Leave enough paper hanging over the edges so that you can fold it over the cake while it is setting in the refrigerator.
- Combine the dried fruit, chopped nuts and cherries, and the fruit mincemeat in a large saucepan.2 ounces / 60 grams chopped nuts, 2⅓ cups / 350 grams dried fruit mix, 2 ounces / 50 grams glace cherries, 3⅓ ounces / 100 grams fruit mincemeat
- Add the milk, vanilla essence and sherry and bring the mixture to the boil, then turn the heat down to low.¾ cup / 180 ml milk, ¼ cup / 60 ml sherry, 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
- Chop the chocolate into small pieces and add it a bit at a time to the fruit mixture, stirring continuously to let the chocolate melt.Once the chocolate has melted, remove the pan from the stove.¾ cup / 125 grams cooking chocolate
- Crush the biscuits in a plastic bag (use a rolling pin to help you) or whizz them around in a food processor until they form fine crumbs.7 ounces / 200 grams Nice biscuits
- Tip the biscuit crumbs into the fruit mixture and stir thoroughly until they are well combined.
- Tip the mixture into your prepared loaf tin and press it down firmly (use the back of a spoon to help you).
- Fold the edges of the baking parchment over the cake and place it in the refrigerator overnight to set.
- When the cake has set, tip it out onto a board and remove the baking parchment.You can now decorate the cake as you prefer, or just slice it and enjoy!
Notes
- As you would decorate a traditional Christmas cake, with marzipan and fondant icing.
- Drizzle the cake with melted chocolate.
- Cover it with chocolate buttercream and decorate it with a sprig of holly like a Yule log.
- Be lazy like me and leave it undecorated. To be honest, unless you are trying to impress guests, I think the cake tastes fine without any decoration.
Nutrition
I am not a nutritionist. The nutrition information has been calculated using an on-line calculator, and is intended for information and guidance purposes only. If the nutrition information is important to you, you should consider calculating it yourself, using your preferred tool.
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