Irish Fruit Cake
A crowd-pleasing vegetarian built around sultanas or golden raisins and mixed citrus peel — roughly 65 minutes start to finish, and rated medium to make. You'll find the full ingredient list (with a scaler to change the servings), 7 steps of method, substitutions, and ideas for what to serve alongside.
You'll mainly reach for oven. At medium difficulty across 7 steps, it's manageable with a little attention. As written, it's meat-free.
What you'll need
Shopping list (2)
Pantry staples (you likely have these)
🔁 Unit converter
How to make it
- Heat the oven to 170 C (340 F). Grease and line an 18 cm round cake tin with baking paper.
- Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together, then toss a spoonful of it through the sultanas and citrus peel to keep the fruit from sinking.
- Cream the softened butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy, then beat in the eggs one at a time, adding a little of the flour with each to prevent curdling.
- Gently fold in the remaining flour, followed by the floured fruit and peel, adding enough milk to give a soft dropping consistency.
- Spoon the batter into the prepared tin, level the top and make a slight hollow in the centre so it rises evenly.
- Bake for 1 hour 15 minutes to 1 hour 30 minutes, until golden and a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean; cover loosely with foil if the top browns too quickly.
- Cool in the tin for 15 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely before slicing.
You'll use: Oven
Ingredient substitutions
- Butter
- olive oil (¾ the amount) · coconut oil · margarine
- Eggs
- ¼ cup unsweetened applesauce (baking) · 1 tbsp ground flax + 3 tbsp water per egg
- Milk
- any unsweetened plant milk · ½ cup evaporated milk + ½ cup water
Tips & common questions
How long does Irish Fruit Cake take to make?
About 65 minutes from start to finish — an estimate based on the 7 steps and 9 ingredients. Times vary with your kitchen and how much prep you do ahead.
What can I use instead of butter?
Try olive oil (¾ the amount). See the substitutions section above for more swaps.
Can I scale this recipe up or down?
Yes — use the servings control above the ingredients and every quantity rescales automatically (fractions included). Cooking times stay roughly the same; very large batches may need a little longer.
Is Irish Fruit Cake vegetarian?
Its ingredients contain no meat or fish, so it's suitable for vegetarians. Check any cheeses for animal rennet if that matters to you.
Related recipes
Irish Fruit Cake is an original recipe developed in-house by Consomee. Photo: Fruit Cake - geograph.org.uk - 5122419.jpg by Graham Hogg, CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons. We add the serving scaler, ingredient tools, timing and structure on top — how we source recipes.