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Small Round Christmas Cake (6 Inch Tin)
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Small Round Christmas Cake (6 Inch Tin)

Need a smaller Christmas cake this Christmas? Or perhaps you want to make Christmas cakes as gifts? Either way this Small Round Christmas Cake recipe is your answer! Better still it’s ready in 1 hour 15 minutes, it requires just a handful of simple ingredients, and can be decorated and served on the same day you make it! (Makes 6-8 slices, depending on your preferred slice size.)

Prep Time
30 mins
Cook Time
45 mins
Total Time
1 hr 15 mins
Servings: 8 slices
Calories: 485 kcal
Course: Cake
Cuisine: British

Ingredients

For the cake…
  • 250 g dried fruit mix ideally including mixed peel - see Note 1, mixed
  • orange juice juice of 1 orange
  • 50 ml sherry (or brandy / whisky / gin / rum - or use apple juice if you want this to be alcohol free)
  • 75 g butter (plus extra for greasing)
  • 75 g dark brown sugar or muscovado sugar, soft
  • 1 egg large
  • 75 g self-raising flour (US - self-rising flour)
  • 1 teaspoon mixed spice (or pumpkin spice)
  • ½ teaspoons cinnamon
  • 100 g glace cherry halved
To decorate…
  • 350 g marzipan I prefer the paler ‘natural’ colour… but the bright yellow stuff works too!
  • 175 g fondant icing white
  • icing sugar US - confectioner's sugar (for rolling out the marzipan and fondant icing)

Instructions

For the cake…
    Cup of Yum
  1. Place the dried fruit in a large saucepan. Squeeze over the juice of the orange and pour over the sherry. Bring to the boil, then simmer for 10 minutes, stirring every couple of minutes. Leave to stand until needed.
  2. Preheat your oven to 160C / 140C fan / gas mark 3 / 325F. Grease and line your cake pan with baking paper (see above).
  3. In a medium-sized mixing bowl, beat together the butter and sugar thoroughly.
  4. Add the egg, and beat the mixture until smooth.
  5. Gently fold in the flour, mixed spice and cinnamon until fully incorporated.
  6. Add the glacé cherries and the dried fruit, plus any remaining liquid from the saucepan. (There should be very little liquid left, as most of it will have soaked into the fruit or evaporated.) Stir gently until the fruit is evenly distributed.
  7. Tip the cake mixture into your prepared cake tin and get it straight into the oven. Bake for 35 minutes to 45 minutes or until a skewer, inserted into the middle of the cake, comes out clean.
  8. Leave to cool for 10 minutes in the tin (or until cool enough to handle without burning your hands!), then remove the cake from the tin and allow to fully cool on a wire cooling rack… The cake should take approximately 2 hours from the time it comes out of the oven to cool fully. Do not decorate until completely cool!
To decorate…
  1. Dust your worksurface with icing sugar. Take half the marzipan and roll it out to just a fraction larger than the cake. Cut out a circle the same size as the top of the cake, using a knife – use the cake tin as a guide to help you get the circle just the right size!
  2. Brush the cake with a very small amount of cold water. (This is to help the marzipan stick to the cake – be very sparing, you don’t want to make the cake wet!)
  3. Place the marzipan circle on top of the cake and trim any overhanging edges with a sharp knife.
  4. Roll out the white fondant icing to just a fraction larger than the cake. Cut a circle the same size as the top of the cake, using a knife – again, use the cake tin to help you get the circle just the right size!
  5. Brush the marzipan layer with a very small amount of cold water.
  6. Place the fondant on top of the cake and trim any overhanging edges with a sharp knife.
  7. Roll out the remaining marzipan and cut out a variety of different sized stars. (Or whatever Christmas shapes you like!)
  8. Place these stars at random on top of the cake, using a little cold water on the back of each star to stick them down.
  9. Your cake is now ready to eat!

Notes

  • Ideally you want the dried mixed fruit to be a mix of sultanas, raisins, currants and candied mixed peel. You can usually find this ready mixed in supermarkets. If you can't find it ready mixed, buy the ingredients individually and go for these proportions: 40% sultanas / 30% raisins / 20% currants / 10% candied mixed peel.
  • Suitable for freezing (if un-decorated). 
  • Nutrition information is approximate and meant as a guideline only.
  • The un-decorated cake is approximately 275 kcal per slice.

Nutrition Information

Calories 485kcal (24%) Carbohydrates 79g (26%) Protein 7g (14%) Fat 17g (26%) Saturated Fat 6g (30%) Polyunsaturated Fat 2g (12%) Monounsaturated Fat 8g (40%) Trans Fat 0.3g (15%) Cholesterol 41mg (14%) Sodium 82mg (3%) Potassium 353mg (8%) Fiber 5g (20%) Sugar 60g (120%) Vitamin A 309IU (6%) Vitamin C 9mg (10%) Calcium 86mg (9%) Iron 2mg (11%)

Nutrition Facts

Serving: 8 slices

Amount Per Serving

Calories 485

% Daily Value*

Calories 485kcal 24%
Carbohydrates 79g 26%
Protein 7g 14%
Fat 17g 26%
Saturated Fat 6g 30%
Polyunsaturated Fat 2g 12%
Monounsaturated Fat 8g 40%
Trans Fat 0.3g 15%
Cholesterol 41mg 14%
Sodium 82mg 3%
Potassium 353mg 8%
Fiber 5g 20%
Sugar 60g 120%
Vitamin A 309IU 6%
Vitamin C 9mg 10%
Calcium 86mg 9%
Iron 2mg 11%

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet.