Christmas · soaked for months
Rum-soaked Christmas fruit cake, baked to order
Most fruit cake sold at Christmas was baked in a factory in the summer. Mine is the other kind. The dried fruit goes into rum and cherry brandy months ahead, drinks its fill, and gets baked into a dense, dark cake close to when you actually want it. Freshly baked fruit cake is rare because it cannot be rushed, and that is exactly why it is worth ordering rather than picking one off a shelf.
(the fruit has been soaking since summer. it is more patient than I am)
Orders open 1 October
The fruit is soaking. The shop opens soon.
Christmas ordering opens on 1 October, and everything is baked and sent from 1 November. Join the list and you will get one email the moment the cake goes on sale.
How it works
One cake, done properly
There is no list of variations here on purpose. It is one recipe, from the same generational line as everything else in this kitchen, and the only decision you make is the size.
On sale from 1 October, when Christmas ordering opens.
Available now, locally
Ordering one for Christmas 2026
Christmas orders open on 1 October, for collection in Peterborough or posted straight through your letterbox from 1 November. You pick the day. The fruit is already soaking, so the earlier you order, the better your date. The whole festive list lives on the Christmas menu.
See the Christmas menuMonths in the jar before a minute in the oven
The point of a proper fruit cake is time. The dried fruit sits in rum and cherry brandy for months, swelling and softening until it stops tasting of the packet and starts tasting of the soak. Bake it too soon and the fruit sits in the crumb like gravel; give it the months and every piece cuts soft and dark all the way through. That soak is why this cake cannot be a last-minute order.
Why fresh matters for a cake famous for keeping
Fruit cake keeps beautifully, and the supermarkets lean on that hard: the one in the box may have been baked half a year before you buy it. Keeping well and being baked fresh are not the same thing. A fruit cake that comes out of the oven weeks rather than months before Christmas still has its moisture and the full voice of the rum, and it will still keep for the whole season once it is yours.
The cake that suits the post better than any other
Of everything I bake, this is the cake most at home in a letterbox: dense, moist, structurally solid, and genuinely better after a couple of days of settling. It goes on sale with the rest of the Christmas menu on 1 October, posted anywhere in the UK with the postage in the price, and the first cakes go out from 1 November. Order early: each cake's fruit was set soaking months ago, so when the soaked fruit is spoken for, that is the year's batch.
What is actually in it
Dried fruit, rum, cherry brandy, real butter, free-range eggs and the spices a fruit cake has always carried. There is alcohol in the finished cake. Soaking is the whole method, and it does not vanish in the oven, so it is one to keep from the children and from anyone avoiding alcohol. Everything is baked in a registered home kitchen where all fourteen major allergens are present, and every order carries a full ingredient and allergen label.
Sizing and when to speak up
Fruit cake is rich, so portions run smaller than a sponge: a modest cake feeds a surprising number of people in thin slices. Tell me how many you are feeding and I will tell you the size honestly, the same as with any cake here. Orders open 1 October and the batch is finite, because each cake's fruit was set soaking months ago. When the soaked fruit is spoken for, that is the year's batch.
What is on the label
Every box carries a full ingredient and allergen label to UK requirements, with a best-before date on it, so you know exactly what you are eating and when to eat it by.
Everything is baked in a home kitchen where all 14 major allergens are present, including nuts. Allergens & ingredients
The other letterbox gifts
Christmas fruit cake, answered
When can I order a Christmas fruit cake from Sploffin?
Christmas orders open on 1 October, for collection in Peterborough or posted anywhere in the UK, baked and sent from 1 November. The batch is finite because the fruit is soaked months ahead, so earlier is genuinely better.
Does the fruit cake contain alcohol?
Yes. The dried fruit is soaked for months in rum and cherry brandy, and the alcohol does not disappear in baking. It is not a cake for children or for anyone avoiding alcohol.
How long does a fresh fruit cake keep?
Wrapped well, through the whole season and beyond. Fruit cake is famous for it. The difference with a freshly baked one is that its keeping time is yours, rather than spent in a warehouse before you ever met it.
Can you post a Christmas fruit cake?
Yes. It is the best-suited cake to the post of anything I bake, and it sells as part of the Christmas menu from 1 October, posted anywhere in the UK by Royal Mail with the postage in the price. The first cakes are baked and sent from 1 November.
Why order a fruit cake instead of buying one in a shop?
Time and freshness. A shop fruit cake is often baked months before it is sold. This one is baked to order from fruit soaked in rum and cherry brandy since the summer, so it arrives with its moisture and its flavour intact, and every order carries a full ingredient and allergen label.
Boxes are baked to order in Peterborough and posted anywhere in the UK. If you are local and would rather collect, that is the pastries and pies side of the kitchen.