Need a smaller Christmas cake this year? Or perhaps you want to make Christmas cakes as gifts? Either way, this Small Round Christmas Cake recipe is your answer! Better still it’s ready in 1 hour 15 minutes, it requires just a handful of simple ingredients, and can be decorated and served on the same day you make it!
This blog post contains affiliate links, this means if you click on a link and go on to buy the product I recommend, I will get a small commission, but you will not be charged a penny more – thanks in advance!
Need a smaller Christmas cake this Christmas?
Christmas cake is a wonderful thing to bake at Christmas time, but so often the classic Christmas cake recipes make HUGE cakes… great if you are feeding a crowd, not so good if you are not!
If you love Christmas cake, but find the traditional recipes too big, I have just the thing for you: this Small Round Christmas Cake. It looks just like a traditional Christmas cake – just smaller!
This cake is perfect if you are on your own, or if you are only feeding a few this Christmas. It’s also great if you are the only one in your household who eats Christmas cake!
Better still, it’s ready in 1 hour 15 minutes, it requires just a handful of simple ingredients, and can be decorated and served on the same day you make it!
Small Round Christmas Cake – ideal for gifts!
Alternatively, this Small Round Christmas Cake is the perfect size for making as gifts. A Christmas cake is a lovely thing to give as a gift, but a full-size Christmas cake might seem a bit too big… this mini Christmas cake is a lovely size for a gift!
How to make a small Christmas cake
This small Christmas cake is so easy to make!
All you need to do is place 250g dried fruit in a saucepan, add sherry (see the recipe card for alternatives), orange juice and boiling water. Bring to the boil, then simmer.
Meanwhile, beat together butter and sugar, and then add eggs, flour and spices. Next, add in the boiled fruit and plus some glacé cherries and tip the cake mixture into a lined 15cm / 6inch tin.
Finally, bake in a preheated oven for 35-45 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean! (No skewer? No worries! Just use a teaspoon handle instead 😀 )
(Full recipe given in the recipe card below.)
How to decorate a 6 inch Christmas cake
And it’s not just the small Christmas cake that’s easy to make… the decoration is also super easy!
Simply roll out shop-bought marzipan and cut out a circle the same size as the cake. Lightly brush the cake top with a very small amount of water and then pop the marzipan circle on top.
Next, roll out shop-bought fondant icing and cut out a circle the same size as the cake. Lightly brush the marzipan with a very small amount of water and then pop the fondant circle on top.
Finally, use an assortment of star cutters (or other Christmas shapes!) to cut out stars from the remaining marzipan. Lightly brush the underside of the marzipan stars with water and arrange on top of the cake.
All of this takes just 15 minutes to do, but looks very effective… And it is SO MUCH easier than trying to cover the whole cake – sides and all – with marzipan and fondant icing.
(Full instructions given in the recipe card below.)
Why boil the fruit?
You might be wondering why I boil the fruit for this recipe…
Most Christmas cake recipes require you to soak the dried fruit overnight… it makes the cake wonderfully moist and infuses it with sherry (or whatever tipple you choose).
Well, boiling the fruit achieves all the same benefits of this overnight soaking… but in a fraction of the time – just 10 minutes, in fact!
Honestly, once you’ve tried this method, you’ll never bother soaking the dried fruit overnight again – it’s so easy peasy!
(And if you want to make this alcohol free, simply use apple juice instead of the alcohol.)
No need to feed…
Because this cake is already stuffed full of boozy, plump and juicy fruit, there’s no need to feed this cake with alcohol. It tastes amazing, just as it is. (Though if you want to feed it, that’s totally fine too – see below.)
How to feed a 6 inch Christmas cake…
This cake tastes great, just as it is. But if you want to feed it with alcohol here’s how…
- Leave the cake to cool completely.
- Make several small holes in the top of the Christmas cake, using a skewer or knitting needle (or similar).
- Spoon approximately 3 teaspoonfuls of brandy over the top of your cake. (If you don’t like brandy… gin, whisky and rum also work well.)
- Carefully wrap the cake in a layer of baking paper and two layers of foil.
- Repeat once a week, up to a maximum of 4 times.
- Ensure you re-wrap your cake carefully each time after feeding.
- Leave at least a week after the last feed before you ice your cake.
What size tin should you use for a Small Round Christmas Cake?
I did a lot of testing to figure out what size tin would be perfect for this Small Round Christmas Cake recipe.
The best size for a small round Christmas cake is 15cm / 6inches in diameter and 5cm / 2inches in height.
I recommend this one from Amazon >>> Anodised Aluminium Round Cake Pan 6 x 2-Inch
A cake this size will give you 6-8 slices, depending on how generous a slice you cut!
How to line a 6inch cake tin
You will definitely need to line the tin for this recipe, but it’s really quick and easy to do! Simply take a sheet of baking paper and draw around the cake tin, then cut out this circle. This is to line the base of the cake tin.
Next, cut out two fat strips of baking paper – they should each be more than half the circumference of the tin and more than the height of the tin. (For a 15cm / 6inch tin, each strip should be roughly 7cm by 30cm or 3inches by 12inches.) This is to line the sides of the tin.
Then, lightly grease the base and sides of the tin with a little butter and place the circle in the base of the tin. Place the strips round the sides of the tin – they should slightly overlap and, height-wise, they should come to about 2cm / 1inch above the height of the tin.
Finally, grease the base and sides again, just for good measure. (In theory, cake shouldn’t stick to baking paper – in practice, an extra layer of butter really does help the cake come off the paper better!)
Alternatives to a Small Round Christmas Cake
I have several other options if this cake is not quite right for you!
Option 1 is this Easy Christmas Loaf Cake recipe – it makes 2 x 1lb loaf cakes. So you could make one for now and one to store / freeze / give away.
Option 2 are these delicious Christmas Cake Muffins – all the flavours of Christmas in muffin form!
Option 3 is this All-In-One Christmas Cake – this cake is made all in one pan, so even less washing up to do! It makes a cake roughly twice the size of this Small Round Christmas Cake – perfect if you need something slightly larger, but still not too huge.
Easy Christmas Loaf Cake
How to store this Christmas cake
I’ve designed this cake so you can make it and decorate it all in one day. Once decorated, this cake should ideally be kept in an airtight tin to stop it going stale.
Alternatively, if you want to store this Christmas cake BEFORE decorating, simply wait until the cake is completely cold, then wrap first in a layer of baking paper and then a layer of foil. Ideally you would then put the cake in an airtight tin. However, if you can’t find a cake tin the right size, simply wrap in a second layer of foil.
How long will this Christmas cake last?
Un-decorated, and correctly stored (see above), this Christmas cake will last for up to 6 months, though I recommend eating within 3 months for the optimal flavour and texture.
Once iced, this Christmas cake will only last for a few weeks – a month at most. But for optimal flavour, I recommend eating within 2 weeks.
Can you freeze Christmas cake?
Amazingly yes! You can freeze the un-decorated cake. First wrap in baking paper and a double layer of foil – as explained above, then pop it in your freezer, where it will keep for up to a year.
Defrost at room temperature and decorate as above.
I wouldn’t recommend freezing an iced Christmas cake, however, as the marzipan and fondant icing do not fare well in the freezer!
If you like this recipe…
…you might also like:
- What to cook for a small Christmas dinner?
- Easy Mincemeat Christmas Cake (The BEST Christmas Cake Hack!)
- Puff Pastry Mince Pies (Only 3 ingredients!)
- Crumble Topped Mince Pies
- Iced Mince Pies
- Easy Christmas Rocky Road
- Easy Mincemeat Brownies
Easy Mincemeat Brownies
Small Round Christmas Cake (6 Inch Tin)
Ingredients
For the cake…
- 250 g mixed dried fruit (ideally including mixed peel – see Note 1)
- Juice of 1 orange
- 50 ml sherry (or brandy / whisky / gin / rum - or use apple juice if you want this to be alcohol free)
- 75 g butter (plus extra for greasing)
- 75 g soft dark brown sugar (or muscovado sugar)
- 1 large egg
- 75 g self-raising flour (US - self-rising flour)
- 1 teaspoon mixed spice (or pumpkin spice)
- ½ teaspoons cinnamon
- 100 g glacé cherries halved
To decorate…
- 350 g marzipan I prefer the paler ‘natural’ colour… but the bright yellow stuff works too!
- 175 g white fondant icing
- Icing sugar US - confectioner's sugar (for rolling out the marzipan and fondant icing)
Instructions
For the cake…
- Place the dried fruit in a large saucepan. Squeeze over the juice of the orange and pour over the sherry. Bring to the boil, then simmer for 10 minutes, stirring every couple of minutes. Leave to stand until needed.
- Preheat your oven to 160C / 140C fan / gas mark 3 / 325F. Grease and line your cake pan with baking paper (see above).
- In a medium-sized mixing bowl, beat together the butter and sugar thoroughly.
- Add the egg, and beat the mixture until smooth.
- Gently fold in the flour, mixed spice and cinnamon until fully incorporated.
- Add the glacé cherries and the dried fruit, plus any remaining liquid from the saucepan. (There should be very little liquid left, as most of it will have soaked into the fruit or evaporated.) Stir gently until the fruit is evenly distributed.
- Tip the cake mixture into your prepared cake tin and get it straight into the oven. Bake for 35 minutes to 45 minutes or until a skewer, inserted into the middle of the cake, comes out clean.
- Leave to cool for 10 minutes in the tin (or until cool enough to handle without burning your hands!), then remove the cake from the tin and allow to fully cool on a wire cooling rack… The cake should take approximately 2 hours from the time it comes out of the oven to cool fully. Do not decorate until completely cool!
To decorate…
- Dust your worksurface with icing sugar. Take half the marzipan and roll it out to just a fraction larger than the cake. Cut out a circle the same size as the top of the cake, using a knife – use the cake tin as a guide to help you get the circle just the right size!
- Brush the cake with a very small amount of cold water. (This is to help the marzipan stick to the cake – be very sparing, you don’t want to make the cake wet!)
- Place the marzipan circle on top of the cake and trim any overhanging edges with a sharp knife.
- Roll out the white fondant icing to just a fraction larger than the cake. Cut a circle the same size as the top of the cake, using a knife – again, use the cake tin to help you get the circle just the right size!
- Brush the marzipan layer with a very small amount of cold water.
- Place the fondant on top of the cake and trim any overhanging edges with a sharp knife.
- Roll out the remaining marzipan and cut out a variety of different sized stars. (Or whatever Christmas shapes you like!)
- Place these stars at random on top of the cake, using a little cold water on the back of each star to stick them down.
- Your cake is now ready to eat!
Notes
- Ideally you want the dried mixed fruit to be a mix of sultanas, raisins, currants and candied mixed peel. You can usually find this ready mixed in supermarkets. If you can't find it ready mixed, buy the ingredients individually and go for these proportions: 40% sultanas / 30% raisins / 20% currants / 10% candied mixed peel.
- Suitable for freezing (if un-decorated).
- Nutrition information is approximate and meant as a guideline only.
- The un-decorated cake is approximately 275 kcal per slice.
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*This blog post contains affiliate links, this means if you click on a link and go on to buy the product I recommend, I will get a small commission, but you will not be charged a penny more – thanks in advance!
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