Description
Skip the boring fruit cake and make these tasty Fruit Cake Bites instead! They’re easy to make and they’re a fun and festive treat!
Ingredients
Scale
- 1 ½ cups all purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ginger
- ¾ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
- ⅛ teaspoon cloves
- 10 tablespoons butter (room temperature)
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- ⅓ cup firmly packed brown sugar
- 4 eggs (save 2 yolks!)
- 2 yolks
- ⅓ cup orange juice
- 3 tablespoons milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- zest of 1 orange
- 1 cup chopped dates
- 1 cup raisins
- 1 cup chopped green cherries
- 1 cup chopped red cherries
- 1 cup chopped pecans
- 4 cups chocolate chips (melted)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 F.
- Line the bottom of a 9×13 baking pan with parchment paper and gently spray with baking spray.
- In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together the flour, cinnamon, ginger, baking powder, salt, nutmeg and cloves and set aside.
- In a separate large bowl, whisk together the butter, sugar and brown sugar until smooth and creamy.
- Add in the eggs and egg yolks and mix to combine.
- Whisk in the orange juice, milk, vanilla and orange zest until fully incorporated.
- Mix the flour mixture in just until combined. Fold in the dates, raisins, green cherries, red cherries and pecans.
- Pour the batter into the prepared baking pan.
- Place into the preheated oven to bake for one hour or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean or with moist crumbs.
- Once the fruit cake has baked, remove from the oven and place onto a cooling rack to cool completely.
- Once cooled, remove the fruit cake from the pan and slice into 35 – 1 inch squares.
- Dip each square into the melted chocolate to coat ensuring that any excess chocolate drips back into the bowl.
- Place onto a sheet of parchment paper to allow chocolate to harden. Top each square with a half slice of red and green cherry, if desired.
- Place the chocolate-covered bites into the fridge to set up more quickly.
Notes
- When making this bread, it is very cake-like so do not over mix the batter once you have added the flour as this will cause the gluten to overdevelop which can cause the cake to become rubbery instead of tender.
- These fruit cake bites are very delicious when they are cold so I recommend serving them somewhat chilled.
- Fruit cake is generally far more delicious on the second day as the spices as well as the fruits have had time to mix and all of the flavors become more congruent and rich.