Tropical Christmas pudding cake
Serves: 12
Prep time: 45 mins Total time: 
Photograph by Ria Osborne
Tropical Christmas pudding cake
Serves: 12
Prep time: 45 mins Total time: 
See more recipes
Nutritional information (per serving)
Calories
528Kcal
Fat
22gr
Saturates
14gr
Carbs
76gr
Sugars
58gr
Fibre
4gr
Protein
6gr
Salt
0.6gr
Frances Quinn
Frances became famous during GBBO 2013 with her consistently spectacular bakes. She creates stunning cakes for various publications and published her first book Quinntessential Baking in 2015.
See more of Frances Quinn’s recipes
Frances Quinn
Frances became famous during GBBO 2013 with her consistently spectacular bakes. She creates stunning cakes for various publications and published her first book Quinntessential Baking in 2015.
See more of Frances Quinn’s recipes
Ingredients
- 1 x 425g tin pineapple in juice
- 150g dark muscovado sugar
- 150g salted butter, plus a little extra for greasing the tin
- 300g mixed dried fruit
- zest of 1 orange
- 3 tbsp rum
- 100g glacé cherries
- 3 medium eggs, beaten
- 150g desiccated coconut
- 300g self-raising flour
- 1 tbsp ground mixed spice
For the decoration:
- a little cornflour or icing sugar, for rolling
- 150g ready-to-roll white fondant icing
- 150g ready-to-roll white marzipan
- a little rum, for brushing
- 3 glacé cherries
- a sprig of holly
Step by step
Get ahead
The cake can be made up to 2 weeks in advance. Wrap it in foil and store in an airtight tin. The uniced cake can also be frozen.
- First, whiz the contents (fruit and juice) of the tin of pineapple in a food processor or blender, then tip into a large pan with the sugar, butter, dried fruit, orange zest, rum and glacé cherries. Heat the mixture over a low heat, stirring until the butter has melted, then simmer it for 5 minutes, stirring every now and then, to plump up the fruit. Remove the pan from the heat and leave to cool completely – overnight is fine.
-
Preheat the oven to 150°C, fan 130°C, gas 2, and lightly butter a 20cm round cake tin (about 8cm deep), then line the base and the sides with 2 layers of baking paper.
- Once the mixture has cooled, mix in the eggs and coconut, and sift and fold in the flour and mixed spice.
- Transfer the cake mix to the prepared tin and smooth it down with the back of a spoon. Bake for 1 hour 30 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. Leave the cake to cool on a wire rack before removing from the tin.
- To ice the cake, first draw around the base of your 20cm tin on a piece of nonstick baking paper with a black permanent pen or a pencil. Next, draw on a Christmas pudding sauce outline and then turn over the sheet of paper.
- Roll out the fondant and the marzipan on a clean surface dusted with a little cornflour or icing sugar. Then transfer the fondant onto the paper and place the marzipan on top. Roll over both layers to gently stick them together. Now carefully turn the paper back over so the fondant and marzipan are underneath it.
- With a sharp knife, carefully cut around the outline, then peel off the paper. Lightly brush the surface of the cake with rum and carefully lift on the marzipan and fondant shape. Smooth down onto the cake with your hand or a piece of leftover fondant. Place the three saved glacé cherries at the top of the cake with a sprig of holly. You will have some icing and marzipan left over – use the icing to top cupcakes and stuff Medjool dates with the marzipan as a treat to serve with coffee.
