A boxed spice cake mix is loaded with chopped nuts, dates, and candied fruit, then finished off with a sweet glaze, in this quick and easy holiday fruitcake recipe.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
If you’re a fan of fruitcake, then you’re going to love this Shortcut Cake Mix Fruitcake that starts off with a box of spice cake mix. Because who doesn’t love saving time during the holiday season?
Now, if you don’t like fruitcake, this version probably isn’t going to win you over–at least it didn’t convince the fruitcake-haters in my family to change their minds.
But if you love fruitcake like I do, you will love the simplicity of this recipe. Using a spice cake mix means all of the delicious flavors and aromas are already in the cake.
You just add the chopped nuts and candy fruit. And in true fruitcake fashion, you do add a lot of nuts and fruit. My personal preference is pecans, but walnuts–or a combination of both–work well too.
I also like to save time by using a premixed, chopped fruitcake mix. You can often find this in stores around Christmas, but I usually order mine, along with candied cherries and pineapple, from the Paradise fruit company.
I also add a box of instant vanilla pudding mix to the batter, to make it extra moist and dense. Honestly, know one will ever know you didn’t make this cake from scratch!
When you’re mixing up the batter, you may think, “Wow, that is a lot of fruit and nuts! There’s almost more fruit and nuts than batter!” Don’t worry. This is how it should be.
To finish the cake off, I borrowed the glaze from my grandmother’s fruitcake recipe. It’s just not fruitcake without a layer of sweet, sticky glaze on top.
Admittedly, fruitcake is not for everyone. In fact, I’m the only one in my family who likes it. I think I get it from my dad–he loves fruitcake almost as much as I do.
But beware, this is a lot of cake to eat on your own, so if you make this Shortcut Cake Mix Fruitcake, make sure you have some fellow fruitcake lovers to share with. Or save half in the freezer for later.
Be sure to save this recipe to your favorite Pinterest board for later.
Ingredients
- Spice cake mix
- Candied fruit mix, cherries and pineapple
- Dried dates
- Pecans or walnuts
- Instant vanilla pudding mix
- Eggs
- Vegetable oil
- Vanilla
- Flour
- Sugar
- Buttermilk
- Corn syrup
- Baking soda
Shortcut Cake Mix Fruitcake
Ingredients
For the cake
- 8 ounces candied red cherries
- 16 ounces candied fruitcake mix
- 8 ounces candied pineapple chopped
- 1 1/2 cup chopped pecans or walnuts
- 1 cup chopped dried dates
- 1/4 cup flour
- 1 box spice cake mix
- 1 3.5 oz. box instant vanilla pudding
- 3 eggs
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 1/4 cup water
- 1 tablespoon vanilla
For the glaze
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup buttermilk
- 1 tablespoon corn syrup
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Generously grease and flour a 9-10 cup bundt pan.
- In a large bowl, toss together candied fruit, dates and nuts with the flour; set aside.
- With an electric mixer, beat cake mix, pudding mix, eggs, oil, water and vanilla on medium speed until smooth, about 3 minutes. Fold in fruit and nut mixture. The batter will be very stiff.
- Spoon batter evenly into prepared bundt pan. Bake for 2 hours, or until toothpick inserted in the center come out clean. Cool completely in pan before turning onto a wire rack.
- Meanwhile, make the glaze by heating sugar, buttermilk and corn syrup in a small saucepan over medium heat until simmering. Remove from heat and stir in baking soda and vanilla. Pour glaze evenly over cooled cake.
Nutrition
If you love this recipe, you might also like:
[mv_create key=”1742″ layout=”circles” thumbnail=”false” title=”More Delicious Bundt Cake Recipes” type=”list”]
14 comments
Ulrike Hittson
Nice! I love hearing about great service. It’s always awesome when a website really takes care of its customers. Makes shopping way more fun!
Steve Williford
I made this cake and I loved it even though it was a little drier than I would have liked it to get. Any suggestions?
Cynthia
Best cake mix fruit cake I’ve ever had