Easy, Moist Fruit Cake Recipe Without Alcohol
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This moist fruit cake recipe made without alcohol is an old family favorite that’s easy to whip up. The tender, buttery crumb bursts with juicy fruits and crunchy nuts and is topped with a melt-in-your-mouth, orange sugar crumb.
We love fruit cake over here. My sweet husband’s family has long-adored Grandma Rivers’ fruit cake recipe, which was included in a family cookbook that I received as a gift from his precious aunt a few years ago. It was the best fruit cake recipe I ever tasted and makes the best Christmas cake! But it’s good for any holiday season, really.
I altered the recipe slightly but overall it’s the same recipe that grandma served for years when she was still with us.
I hope you’ll give this delicious recipe a try! Fruit cake is meant to be moist and delicious…not a heavy brick, which is what you get sometimes in the grocery store.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
Classic – Fruit cake is a classic and old-fashioned holiday recipe. If you feel nostalgic around Christmas, you’ll love having fruit cake on your dessert table.
Customizable – You can easily swap the dried fruits and nuts with whatever is in your pantry. Traditionally, cooks would save bits of dried fruits and nuts specifically for this recipe as a special treat.
Healthier treat – Since it’s filled with dry fruits, nuts, and citrus peel, you could almost argue that fruit cake a health food! At least, it’s healthier than store bought fruit cake or other desserts that are loaded with sugar icing.
Ingredients
Cake
Sugar – You need 1 and 3/4 cups of granulated sugar. Use organic sugar if it’s in your budget, but white sugar works, too.
Butter – Use 2 sticks (1 cup) of softened, room temperature unsalted butter.
Eggs – You’ll need 3 large eggs.
Sea salt – Use 1 teaspoon of a good kosher sea salt. Redmond real salt is my favorite, and I like the fine grain.
Orange juice – You will need 1 tablespoon of orange juice.
Baking soda – You will need 1 and 1/2 teaspoons of baking soda.
Vanilla extract – You’ll need 1 teaspoon of good vanilla extract for the cake. I share how to make your own vanilla extract if you want to make a delicious version for cheap!
Buttermilk – Use 1 cup of buttermilk or coconut milk.
Flour – You need 3 cups of flour, divided. You can use all-purpose flour but freshly milled flour works, too.
Dates – Use 2 cups of chopped, dried dates.
Walnuts– Use 2 cups of chopped walnuts. You can also substitute with chopped pecans.
Cherries – You’ll need 2 cups of pitted cherries.
Orange zest – Use 1 tablespoon of fine orange zest.
Topping
Orange juice – You’ll need 1/2 cup for the topping.
Cherry juice – Use 1/2 cup of cherry juice for the topping.
Orange zest– Use 1 cup of grated orange zest. The finer, the better.
Sugar – You need 1 cup of sugar for the topping.
Coconut – Optional. Use 1 cup of shredded coconut (or more or less to your preference).
Tools You May Need
- Stand mixer with paddle attachment – You can also use a large mixing bowl and spoon.
- Measuring cups and spoons
- Large mixing bowl
- Cutting board
- Knife
- Chopstick or cherry pitter – This is only necessary if your cherries have pits.
- Spatula
- Medium mixing bowl – For making the topping.
- Loaf pans – Use stainless steel 8.5 x 4.5-inch loaf pans. You’ll need two of these for this recipe, although you can use a large bundt cake tin, too.
How to Make Moist Fruit Cake Without Alcohol
It’s not hard to make a moist fruit cake. Basically, after the cake bakes you pour a fruit juice topping over the warm cake and let it soak in. I’ll share a flavorful fruit juice mixture that will make your cake super delicious.
This recipe is enough to fill two loaf pans, one large bundt pan, or a round cake pan.
Make The Fruit Cake Batter
First, preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C).
In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together 2 sticks of butter, 1 and 3/4 cups of sugar, 3 eggs, 1 and 1/2 teaspoons of salt, and 1 tablespoon of orange juice.
Add 2 cups of the flour slowly.
In a separate measuring cup or jar, mix together 1 cup of buttermilk, 1 and 1/2 teaspoons of baking soda, and 1 teaspoon of good vanilla extract.
Add the buttermilk mixture and keep stirring slowly until the cake batter is mixed well.
Add the Dried Fruits and Nuts
Chop 2 cups of walnuts or pecans. I used walnuts in this recipe. Above all, be careful that hard hulls are removed before you bake your fruit cakes…ahem.
Also, drain your cherries but save the cherry juice so you can use it in your topping.
If your cherries have pits in them, use a chopstick or cherry pitter to get the pits out. You’ll need 2 cups of cherries. Dried and chopped cherries also works.
If you’re using fresh or canned cherries, you can save the pits in a separate jar or freezer bag to make cherry jelly afterwards!
Next, chop 2 cups of dried dates. In total, you should have 2 cups of cherries, 2 cups of chopped walnuts (or pecans), and 2 cups of chopped dates.
It seems like a lot, but remember that these will be dispursed between two loaves of fruit cake.
Put the nuts and fruit in a mixing bowl and add 1 cup of flour. Add 1 tablespoon of shredded orange zest, and mix together so that the flour coats everything well. This will keep your fruit and nuts from sinking to the bottom of your fruit cake.
Then add dried fruit mixture to your fruit cake batter. Mix it in well. If I didn’t mention it yet, this is a rich fruit cake.
Next, grease your two loaf pans or one large bundt pan. You can use butter, cooking spray, or cooking oil, but I am using home rendered lard.
If you want to render your own lard, I share how in this tutorial!
Pour the fruit cake batter into the loaf pans. Then bake it in the oven at 350°F (175°C) for 1 hour and 20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
Make and Pour the Orange Sugar Topping on Top of the Cake
While your fruit cake is baking, get out your ingredients for making the topping. You’ll need 1/2 cup of cherry juice, 1/2 cup of orange juice, 1 cup of sugar, and 1 cup of orange zest.
The finer you chop the orange zest, the better it will be. I left my orange zest in rather large shreds, but the large shreds were a bit overpowering.
If you like coconut, you can also use 1 cup of shredded coconut.
Mix all the ingredients together in a large mixing bowl. Set aside until your fruit cakes are cooked.
Your fruit cakes will come out of the oven hot and not very moist. We’re about to fix that.
Pour the fruit juice and orange sugar mixture over the hot fruit cakes when you take them out of the oven. The loaf pans will keep any juice from spilling out and the cakes will absorb all that delicious juice.
And that’s it! Remember to allow your fruit cakes to cool down for about 10 to 15 minutes or more before serving it. It’s delightful just by itself and even better with a bit of vanilla ice cream on the side.
You can refrigerate uneaten fruit cake in an airtight container for short term storage or freeze it in layers of parchment paper, plastic wrap, and aluminum foil for long term storage. But you’ll be glad you made two loaves!
Recipe Variations
You can make a traditional fruit cake using a variety of ingredients. Feel free to play around with the ingredients and use what you have.
Instead of orange juice and cherry juice, you can use apple juice and lemon juice.
Instead of dried dates and cherries, you can use golden raisins, candied fruit, or other fresh fruit.
You can also add warm spices like cinnamon powder or cardamom powder to the dry ingredients.
More Fruit Desserts from the Farm
- Moist Chocolate Banana Bread Recipe
- German Chocolate Cake Using Freshly Milled Flour
- Easy Blueberry Peach Crisp in a Skillet
- How to Make Easy Baked Cinnamon Apples
If you try this recipe and love it, I would love if you gave it 5 stars! Also, tag me on Instagram @rivers.family.farm.
Moist Fruit Cake Sans Alcohol Recipe
Moist Fruit Cake Without Alcohol
Equipment
- 2 loaf pans, 8.5 x 4.5-inch (or a large bundt pan)
- electric mixer (or large mixing bowl and spoon)
- measuring cups and spoons
- Large and medium mixing bowls
- cutting board
- knife
- chopstick or cherry pitter (if your cherries have pits in them)
- spatula
Ingredients
Make the Fruit Cake
- 1¾ cup Sugar
- 2 sticks Softened, unsalted butter
- 3 Eggs
- 1 tsp Sea salt
- 1 tbsp Orange juice
- 1½ tsp Baking soda
- 1 tsp Vanilla extract
- 1 cup Buttermilk (or coconut milk)
- 3 cups Flour, divided
- 2 cups Dried dates, chopped
- 2 cups Walnuts, chopped (or chopped pecans)
- 2 cups Cherries, pits removed
- 1 tbsp Orange zest, finely grated
Make the Juicy Topping
- ½ cup Orange juice
- ½ cup Cherry juice
- 1 cup Sugar
- 1 cup Grated orange zest (The finer, the better.)
- 1 cup Shredded coconut (Optional)
Instructions
Bake the Fruit Cake
- Preheat your oven to 350℉ and grease two loaf pans.
- Use an electric mixer to cream together the sugar, butter, eggs, salt, and orange juice. Then add 2 cups of the flour slowly, and combine well.
- In a separate jar or measuring cup, mix together the buttermilk, baking soda, and vanilla extract. Add it slowly to the flour and butter mixture.
- Chop the dried dates, nuts, and orange zest. Add to a large mixing bowl along with the pitted cherries.
- Add 1 cup of flour to the fruit and nuts, and stir to evenly coat the fruit and nuts with flour. This prevents them from sinking to the bottom of your cake.
- Pour the fruit and nut mixture into the cake batter and stir to combine.
- Pour the fruit cake batter into the two loaf pans and bake at 350℉ for 1 hour and 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Make the Juicy Topping
- In a separate mixing bowl, stir together the orange juice, cherry juice, sugar, and orange zest. If adding coconut, stir that in also.
- When the fruit cakes are done baking and still warm, pour the juicy topping over the cakes. The loaf pans will trap the juicy goodness, and it will be absorbed into the cake.
