About This Recipe
Honey sweetens this dense fruitcake, with raisins, dried currants, apricots and chopped Deglet Noor dates throughout the batter. Orange juice softens the fruit before it goes into the cake. Bake in a round tin, then cool and refrigerate overnight before slicing. The waiting time is included in the recipe total.
Recipe
Honey Fruitcake with Raisins, Apricots and Dates
Bake a dense honey fruitcake with precisely weighed dried fruits and almonds. Includes a refrigerated fruit soak, cooling and an overnight rest before slicing.
15Ingredients
Yield: 16 servings
- 200 g dark seedless raisins
- 100 g dried Zante currants
- 100 g dried sulfured apricots, chopped
- 100 g pitted Deglet Noor dates, chopped
- 100 g fresh orange juice
- 160 g unsalted butter, softened
- 200 g honey
- 150 g whole eggs without shells
- 225 g all-purpose flour
- 75 g raw almonds, coarsely chopped
- 5 g baking powder
- 3 g orange zest
- 2.6 g ground cinnamon
- 1 g ground allspice
- 2 g table salt
Ingredient amounts scale; instructions show the original batch. Cooking times and pan sizes may need adjustment. Season to taste. Honey grams use US measures at 20°C and 17.5% moisture, a density estimate; weigh your honey for precision.
Instructions
- 1Soak the weighed fruitWeigh the dates after removing every pit, then chop them and the apricots into small raisin-sized pieces. Combine all four dried fruits with the orange juice. Cover and refrigerate for 3 hours, stirring once. Keep the fruit and all remaining juice together.
- 2Prepare the tin and dry mixtureHeat the oven to 300 F (150 C). Line the base and sides of a deep 20 cm (8 inch) round cake tin with baking paper. Whisk the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, allspice and salt together.
- 3Mix the honey batterBeat the softened butter with the honey and orange zest until blended. Beat in the eggs in several additions, adding a spoonful of the measured flour mixture if needed. Fold in the remaining flour mixture, then the soaked fruit with its juice and the chopped almonds.
- 4Bake the fruitcakeSpoon into the lined tin and level the top. Bake on the middle rack for about 1 hour 45 minutes to 2 hours, until the center is firm and a skewer comes out without wet batter. Check more than one spot so a sticky piece of fruit does not mislead you. Cover the top loosely with foil if it browns before the middle is ready.
- 5Cool and refrigerate overnightCool in the tin on a rack for 30 minutes, then lift out and continue cooling for about 1 hour. Wrap and refrigerate for at least 12 hours before slicing. Refrigerate sooner in a hot room. The 19-hour total includes the 3-hour fruit soak, preparation, 2-hour baking allowance, 90 minutes of cooling and 12-hour refrigerated rest.
- 6Cut sixteen portionsRemove the paper and cut the cold cake into 16 slices or wedges with a sharp knife. Keep covered in the refrigerator and freeze portions if storing longer. There is no alcohol feeding, icing or glaze in this formula.
Estimated nutrition per serving
293.35 calories · 11.6 g fat · 46.4 g carbohydrate · 4.79 g protein · 103.69 mg sodium
Serving: 1 of 16 servings
Calculated from ingredient weights and USDA FoodData Central: 168165, 171724, 173941, 171726, 169098, 173430, 169640, 171287, 168894, 170567, 172803, 169103, 171320, 171315, 173468. Estimates use ingredient input weights; actual portions, brands and cooking losses vary. Omitted nutrient values are unavailable, not zero.
Name the Dried Fruits Precisely
Use dark seedless raisins, dried Zante currants, sulfured apricots and pitted Deglet Noor dates. Dried currants here are small dried grapes, not fresh blackcurrants. Weigh the dates after discarding the pits.
The fruit quantities are separate so a bag of mixed fruit cannot quietly replace one food with a different blend. Chop the larger pieces before soaking and include any juice left in the bowl when mixing the batter.
Flavor intensity uses an editorial culinary scale: 1 is mild and 5 is bold. These are tasting suggestions, not laboratory measurements.
Sources: UC Agriculture and Natural Resources: cooking with honey; USDA FoodData Central: Dates, deglet noor; Isle of Man Beekeepers' Federation: honey fruitcake method.
1 = mild, 5 = bold. Editorial pairing guidance, not laboratory measurements; jars vary.
- Clover
- Raisins and almonds
- Wildflower
- Mixed dried fruit and orange
- Buckwheat
- A stronger spiced fruitcake
Get the Honey Buyer's Cheat Sheet (free PDF)
16 varieties on one page — color, flavor, best use and what a fair price looks like — from the 304 honeys we track.
A Dense Cake with Honey in the Batter
The Isle of Man Beekeepers' Federation publishes a honey fruitcake method that creams honey with fat before adding eggs, flour and fruit. This version uses butter, named dried fruits and orange juice, with its own ingredient balance.
Clover is mild beside the fruit. Wildflower adds a fuller honey note. The cake is served plain, so its sweetness comes from the fruit and the honey mixed through the batter rather than a surface coating.
Bake the Center Gently
A deep tin and a moderate oven suit a cake crowded with fruit. Start checking before the full two hours have passed. The center should be firm, with no wet batter on a skewer, even if a piece of date leaves a sticky mark.
If the top gets ahead of the middle, cover it loosely with foil and continue baking. Keep the stated tin size: dividing the batter among shallow tins changes the timing. For a simpler cake, see honey cake.
Count the Overnight Rest
This orange-juice fruitcake is cooled and refrigerated before slicing. The recipe total includes a 12-hour cold rest. It is a plan for a cake baked ahead, not a promise that it can be aged on a shelf for weeks.
Keep the wrapped cake chilled and freeze individual portions for longer storage. Serve slices on their own or as part of a dessert plate. Honey brownies and honey cookies offer different textures without changing this cake's formula.
Portions and the Ingredient Estimate
The estimate divides the complete cake into 16 portions. It includes all the soaked fruit, orange juice and chopped almonds, with no icing or extra honey counted. Similar-sized cold slices make the portions easier to compare.
The calculation uses the listed ingredients before baking and does not model evaporated water. Replacing apricots or dates with a commercial candied-fruit mixture would require new food records and weights.
Choosing the Honey
Use Clover Honey or Wildflower Honey for the flavor described in this recipe. See our honey selection guide for other culinary choices.
