These cakes have no less than 900g dried fruit added to them. They also contain significant amounts of rum and red wine, making them perfect for Christmas. They are dense and really rich, so serve them in really thin slices.
For best results, fruits should be soaked in wine for at least 3 weeks or boiled in the wine.
Use a combination of raisins, currants, golden raisins, prunes and dried cherries or any dried fruit of your preference.
Additional wine or rum can be brushed onto cake as needed to keep moist.
I followed the recipe but when it came to adding flour I had to add 50-100g more otherwise mixture would have been too runny. It's cooling and it smells delish. My whole house smells of the Caribbean 😊. I am going to store for a week and will update on how it tastes. Thanks Sharon. - 20 Aug 2017
I used this recipe and it came out just as I wanted it. I love it and it is just like the Christmas cake my mother bakes in Jamaica. I live in the U.K. now and I have search the internet looking for a good recipe and Sharon's is the best of them all. Although I had the fruit blended instead of having them in as they were just soaked and I have also added 1/2 bottle of red label wine, 1/2 bottle of Grace Browning and even 1/2 cup more of white rum to my cake. While baking I placed a baking tray with water below to ensure my cake remain soft. - 27 Dec 2003 (Review from Allrecipes US | Canada)
I'm really disappointed at this recipe. After I spent time and money, it turned out to be something completely different from what I was expecting. I ended up with so much batter, I filled up the two 9-inch round cake pans the recipe asks for, plus one 9x13 rectangular pan!! When I put the cake pans in the oven, the batter started to rise nicely, but it suddently flattened, and I didn't open the oven door or did something to make it flatten. The taste is not bad, but I couldn't taste the wine or rum at all. I don't know if I did something wrong, but I read the instructions very carefully to make sure I was doing everything right. This fruitcake turned out to be a pain in the neck. - 24 Dec 2003 (Review from Allrecipes US | Canada)