Plum Cake Recipe

Rich British Plum Cake is a Christmas traditional fruit cake made with dried fruits, raisins, nuts & oranges. The cake is required no-alcohol, no soaking of fruits in prior. It is an instant boiled plum cake recipe which can be made under 2 hours from start to finish. Learn how to make fail-proof classic plum cake with detailed recipe, step by step pictures and video.

Plum Cake

Making plum cake is our holiday tradition. I never skip a single year without making a fruit cake at home. I have made so many version of fruit cake in the past and have shared in this blog. Some of the most popular recipes are my chocolate fruit cake, traditional fruit cake with alcohol, eggless fruit cake.

About Plum Cake

Plum cake is a traditional Kerala fruit cake. It is made with mixture of variety of dried fruits, nuts and spices. This version of plum cake involves no soaking of fruits in alcohol. It is also known as Boiled fruit cake, where dried fruits are boiled in orange juice and added into cake. The cake has variety of Christmas dried fruits including seedless black raisins, dates, prunes, tutti frutti, candied mixed peels and orange zest. Spices like cinnamon, cloves, dry ginger and cardamom adds the warmth which the cake needs. 

Even though this cake has no alcohol in it, It taste absolutely delicious and moist. This plum cake can be made from start to finish in under 30 mins minus the baking time. Each year I try making different version fruit cake recipes for Christmas. This year it is a rich British plum cake recipe and turned out super delicious. This recipe makes 8 inch round cake and this particular recipe gives you a perfect one hefty cake. If you don’t have oven, you can check my chocolate fruit cake recipe which is made in a pan. 

This recipe for plum cake is so popular in and around Tamilnadu, Kerala & other parts of India. It has all the festive flavours in the cake. 

Watch Me Make Plum Cake (Video)

Similar Recipes,

Chocolate plum cake

White fruit cake

Christmas Pudding

Rum Raisan Cake

Rum Fruit Cake

Plum Cake Ingredients 

Plain Flour - for best tasting plum cake, use plain flour which results in tender yet moist fruit cake. If you want fruit cake made with wheat flour, check this whole wheat fruit cake recipe.

Sugar - sugar is used in caramel as well as in the cake batter. I used refined white sugar in this recipe. 

Eggs - eggs is essential for making the cake soft and tender. You can check my eggless fruit cake for vegetarian option.

Butter - use soft butter which helps with the moistness of the cake. You can use salted or unsalted butter. If you are using salted butter, skip adding salt.

Spice Powders - ground spices like cinnamon, cloves, cardamom and ginger are the basic spices that goes in a plum cake. You can add pumpkin pie spice mix if you have that on hand.

Orange Juice - I used 1 cup of orange juice which I squeezed from fresh oranges to boil the dried fruits. 

Flavourings - orange zest and vanilla are the flavourings. 

What Dried Fruits to Use in Plum Cake

Raisins - You have to use seedless black raisins in plum cake. Raisins with seeds is not recommended. You can add a handful of sultanas in the cake.

Dates - chop dates into small pieces which helps make the cake soft.

Tutti frutti - tutti frutti helps adding texture in the cake.

Candied fruits - mixture of dried pineapple, kiwi, strawberries, candied citrus peel adds flavour to the cake.

Prunes - prunes helps to keep the cake incredibly moist. 

Nuts - chop cashews or almonds into small pieces and add in cake. 

Why this Plum Cake is Festive

Instant Fruit Cake

This cake needs no soaking of fruits in rum for a month. It can be made under 30 minutes excluding baking time. If you feel like you want a festive fruit cake, you can make this cake in a jiffy.  It is an instant fruit cake which is perfect for busy holiday season.

No Alcohol Needed

This is a non alcohol cake so even kids can relish. The cake is made with fruits, nuts and spices. The dried fruits is cooked in orange juice and added in the cake batter. 

Taste Great

Moreover in the end everyone wants is a best, moist, fruity and delicious fruit cake. This is the one you are looking for. 

How to Make Plum Cake (6 Easy Steps)

Pre-Preparation - Preheat oven to 180 degree c. Line a 8 inch round pan with parchment paper. Grease it lightly with oil and set aside.

Boiling Dry Fruits - Now take all dried fruits in a pan.  Add 1 cup of orange juice and mix well. cook it for 5 mins. Set aside cool.

Making Caramel - Now in a separate pan take sugar and cook on medium heat till it caramelise. Add ¼ cup water and mix well till smooth. Set aside to cool. 

Dry Ingredients- Take flour, baking soda, spices in a bowl and mix well. Set aside till use. 

Plum Cake Batter - Now in a bowl, take butter, sugar, orange zest and vanilla and cream for 2 minutes. Add in eggs and mix well. Add in the flour mixture, dried fruits, caramel and fold the batter gently till combined. 

Baking - Spoon the batter into the pan and bake for 45 mins and 1 hour. Remove and cool completely in the pan. Un mould the cake from pan and enjoy.

Expert Tips

• You can use any dried fruits and nuts you prefer. But raisins are essential for perfect tasting plum cake.
• Instead of orange juice for boiling the fruits, you can use rum or any liquor of choice.
• You can reduce the quantity of dried fruits.
• Don't over bake the cake, else it may turn hard. 

How to Make Plum Cake (Stepwise Pictures)

Pre-preparation

1)Preheat oven to 180 degree C. Line a 8 inch (20 cm) round cake pan with parchment paper. Grease the parchment paper with some oil or butter and set aside.

Boil Dry Fruits

2)Take seedless black raisin, dates, dried mixed fruits, candied citrus peel in a pan.

3)Add in prunes, tutti frutti in the same pan. You can add any dry fruits in a pan.

4)I removed the pulp of the orange in a blender and puree till smooth. Add this orange juice into the dry fruits and heat this for 3 to 4 minutes till the dry fruits gets soft.

5)Now the dried fruits has turned soft. Set this dried fruits aside till it gets cool.

Make Caramel

6) Dark caramel is essential for making plum cake. The caramel adds flavour and colour to the cake. Take a frying pan, add sugar and cook till it gets caramelised. For making smooth caramel, don't stir the sugar with spoon or spatula instead just swirl the pan which makes all the sugar get golden in colour.

7)Once the sugar turns dark amber in colour. Add in ¼ cup water and swirl the pan again till it gets smooth. Be careful when you add water to the hot caramel as it may splatter on you.

8)Now dark caramel is ready. Set aside to get warm.

Dry Ingredients

9)When the dry fruits and caramel is getting cool, let's mix the dry ingredients together. Take flour in a bowl. Add in baking soda to plain flour.

10)Add in ground cinnamon, nutmeg, dry ginger and ground cardamom into the flour.

11)Mix this well and set aside. This is your dry ingredients.

Make Plum Cake Batter

12)Take a large mixing bowl. Add softened butter (I used salted butter), sugar.

13) Add in grated orange zest and vanilla extract to the butter and sugar.

14)Cream butter and sugar for 2 to 3 minutes till it gets creamy.

15)Add in two eggs into the butter and sugar mixture.

16)Mix eggs into the creamed butter and sugar.

17)Add in the dry flour mixture into the egg butter mixture.

18)Now lets add in all the ingredients. Add in chopped cashews. You can add any nuts.

19)Add in the boiled dried fruits.

20)Pour in the caramel.

21)Mix the dry fruits into the flour so you get a thick batter.

22)Spoon the batter into the prepared cake pan. Place it into the preheated oven and bake for 1 hour. Sometimes it may take upto 1 hour and 10 minutes.

23)Once the cake is baked, remove it from oven and cool it completely. Gently remove the plum cake from the pan and slice.

24)Enjoy super moist fruit cake.

Try my Other Christmas Fruit Cakes

📖 Recipe Card

If you have any questions not covered in this post and if you need help, leave me a comment or mail me @[email protected] and I’ll help as soon as I can.

Follow me on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest ,Youtube and Twitter for more Yummy Tummy inspiration.

IF YOU MAKE THIS RECIPE OR ANYTHING FROM YUMMY TUMMY, MAKE SURE TO POST IT AND TAG ME SO I CAN SEE ALL OF YOUR CREATIONS!! #YUMMYTUMMYAARTHI AND @YUMMYTUMMYAARTHI ON INSTAGRAM!

More Cake Recipes to try