Last-Minute Mincemeat Cake

A simple mincemeat cake to enjoy at Christmas time. An easy recipe made with just a few ingredients and ready in no time, a last-minute alternative to a more laborious Christmas fruitcake.

The mincemeat cake is a quick and delicious alternative to a traditional Christmas fruitcake, perfect with a cup of tea. This easy recipe takes minutes to whip up, yet it lets you enjoy the beautiful flavors you want during the festive season.

All you need to do is stir a few ingredients for a couple of minutes, then let the oven do its job. You can either make an extra almond and glace cherry topping or decorate this rich and moist cake with fondant or royal icing.

And if you are searching for more fruit cakes, check out our super-popular Non-Alcoholic Christmas Fruit Cake or the Pumpkin Fruitcake. Or try these wonderful Mincemeat Tarts.

Cake ingredients

• Mincemeat: A mixture of chopped fruit, spirits, and spices. You can use homemade mincemeat (check out our traditional Mince Pies) or a good-quality store-bought product. I used a jar of mincemeat for this recipe.

• Fruit: A small eating apple, chopped prunes, and some raisins.

• Muscovado sugar: An unrefined brown sugar with a strong molasses content and flavor. It is typically used for making fruitcakes.

• Butter: Unsalted butter at room temperature.

• Eggs: Medium eggs at room temperature.

• Self-raising flour or 250 g all-purpose flour mixed with 3 ⅓ teaspoons baking powder.

Ingredients for the topping

• Golden syrup or light treacle is inverted sugar syrup made with sugar, water, and citric acid. It has a deep golden color; it’s thick and sticky.

• Nuts and fruit: Whole blanched almonds, walnut halves, and glace cherries.

• Other ingredients needed for the topping: Unsalted butter, all-purpose flour, and a small pinch of salt.

Substitutes

• Dried fruit: Use any other chopped dried fruit you like (apricots, dates, currants, cranberries, etc.).

• Muscovado sugar: You can replace it with 1:1 unrefined, molasses-containing sugar like jaggery, panela, or Sucanat.
  • The next best thing is dark brown sugar. Use almost the same amount, replacing one tablespoon of sugar with 1 tablespoon of molasses if available.

• Self-raising flour: A typical UK product, not available in most other countries.
  • To make your own self-raising flour add 2 teaspoons of baking powder to each 150 g of plain flour (about 1 cup). Mix 250 g of all-purpose flour with 3 ⅓ teaspoons of baking powder for this recipe.
  • Remember that UK self-raising flour mixture doesn’t contain salt, while American self-raising flour (often used for biscuits) does contain salt. If baking this recipe in the US, leave out the salt needed in the recipe or mix your own self-raising flour without salt.

Cake tin conversions

• Square tin - 18x18 cm/ 7x7 inches
• Loaf tin – 15x20 cm/ 6x8 inches

Do you have an open bag of muscovado? Try some of these recipes: Toffee Apple Cake, Butterbeer Potted Cream Recipe, Mirror Glaze Chocolate Cake, and Rock Cake Recipe.

Step-by-step instructions

• Preparations: Heat the oven and line the cake tin with parchment paper.
• Mincemeat: Mix it with the peeled and finely chopped apple in a small bowl (1).

• Dough: Mix all the ingredients for the dough (except mincemeat and apple) in a large mixing bowl. Beat for 2 minutes with an electric hand whisk until light and creamy (2).
• Stir in the mincemeat mixture with a wooden spoon or a spatula (3).

• Bake: Transfer the dough to the prepared tin and bake for 1 hour and 5 minutes until almost done; the cake should start to come off the sides of the tin, and a toothpick inserted in the center should come out almost clean.
• Make the topping during the last 5-10 minutes of the baking time.

• Heat the golden syrup and the butter in a small saucepan (4).
• Add the remaining topping ingredients and stir well to combine (5).

• Spread the mixture on top of the mincemeat fruit cake and bake for another 13-14 minutes until the topping is shiny and golden (6).

• Cool: Place the tin on a wire rack and let cool completely.

Expert tips

• Always use a digital kitchen scale in baking; it guarantees the best results (Amazon affiliate link).

• Don’t forget to check the mincemeat Christmas cake after ½ - ¾ hour; if the top gets too dark, please cover it loosely with aluminum foil. It is preferable to use a deeper tin; that will also help with keeping the mincemeat cake from getting too dark on top.

• Room temperature: Ensure that the ingredients (butter, eggs) are at room temperature; the butter should be soft. The beaten eggs and sugar will create an emulsion that traps the air in the batter. This air will expand during baking, making the baked goods light and fluffy.

• Tap the pan on the working surface after filling it with the dough. This will force out air pockets that might cause a hollow in the middle of the mincemeat cake.

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