12 fruitcake recipes

Granny's boiled fruit cake: an old-fashioned eggless, butterless loaf made by simmering raisins with sugar and shortening, then folding into spiced flour. Plump, moist and Christmas-ready.

Holiday fruitcake with a pound of raisins boiled in spiced sugar syrup, mixed with candied fruit, walnuts, and warm spices, baked low and slow in a tube pan.

Easy fruit cake made with applesauce instead of butter for a lighter, lower-fat version. Packed with mixed dried fruit, baked low and slow. No oil, no egg yolks. Makes one dense, fragrant loaf.

Festive fruit cake cookies loaded with candied cherries, pineapple, raisins, and brazil nuts with vanilla and almond extract. All the flavors of fruit cake in a quick drop cookie.

Golden fruitcake with dried apricots, raisins, candied cherries, orange peel, citron, and shaved almonds in a light cake flour batter. Baked low and slow for 4 gorgeous holiday loaves.

Miniature fruitcake jewels are tiny muffin-tin fruitcakes loaded with candied fruit, red and green cherries, golden raisins, dates, and pecans, finished with a brandy glaze. Holiday gifting classic.

These delicious fruitcake cookies are ideal sweets for Christmas.

This cake is absolutely delicious and looks very pretty with the different color fruit on top.

This fat-free blond fruitcake is packed with candied pineapple, dried apricots, and peaches, held together with applesauce instead of butter. Aged in orange liqueur for deep, boozy flavor.

A traditional English fruit loaf where dried fruit soaks overnight in hot tea, then bakes low and slow with self-rising flour, mixed spice, nutmeg, and marmalade. No butter needed. Keeps brilliantly.

Old-fashioned boiled fruitcake with raisins and warm spices. Simple one-bowl method where you boil fruit first then fold into spiced flour for incredibly moist cake.

Summer pudding-style fruit cake lined with sponge cake and packed with kirsch-soaked strawberries, blackberries, cherries, and currants. Chilled overnight and unmolded.