Elevate your upcoming holiday dessert with Florida’s Natural orange juice. This Orange Holiday Fruit Cake is a delicious fresh take on a classic dessert that is going to make you want to reach for seconds.
A Fresh Take on the Classic: Orange Holiday Fruit Cake
While the holidays may look a little different this year, we are not compromising on delicious meals! I’ve partnered up with Florida’s Natural to bring a fresh, from-the-grove taste to our meals throughout the holiday season. This holiday fruit cake using orange juice is such a delicious and fun twist on a classic holiday dessert!
Did you know that Florida’s Natural orange juice is made from one simple ingredient? Florida oranges! There are no artificial flavors or ingredients, and no water, sugar or preservatives are added to the juice. The juice is made from seven different varieties of Florida oranges, giving you fresh-tasting orange juice year-round.
Florida’s Natural Brand Orange Juice is crafted with care by five generations of Florida farmers with no imported oranges. I always share that it’s important to use quality ingredients when cooking for the best tasting meals, so I recommend using Florida’s Natural No Pulp Orange Juice when making this Orange Holiday Fruit Cake.
Fun fact: a single 8-ounce glass of our premium orange juice provides nearly two servings of whole fruit, as well as essential vitamins and minerals like folic acid, potassium—and your daily recommended dose of vitamin C!
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- It’s fresh and flavorful. It uses the best orange juice, so your fruit cake tastes fresh and light instead of heavy.
- It’s easy. You mix everything together and into the Bundt pan it goes!
- It’s quick to make. Have this cake ready in around an hour. No need to soak anything for this recipe!
What You’ll Need to Make This Cake
- 2 ¾ cup all purpose flour, plus 3 tbsps. for dusting fruits
- 5 large eggs, room temperature for the best results
- 1.5 cups granulated sugar
- 1 cup butter, unsalted and softened for easy creaming
- 1 tbsp. baking powder
- 1 tbsp. vanilla extract, pick a good quality vanilla extract and not artificial extract
- ¾ cup Florida’s Natural No Pulp Orange Juice¼ cup whole milk yogurt
- ½ cup golden raisins
- 1 cup Fruit cake dried fruit mix
- ¾ cup glace green cherries
- ¾ cup glace red cherries
- ½ tsp orange extract, optional if you want additional orange flavor.
How to Make This Holiday Fruit Cake
Prepare the oven and dry ingredients – Preheat the oven to 325 F and in a bowl, mix
the dry ingredients (flour and baking soda) together Set aside.
Coat the dried fruits – In another bowl, coat the dried fruits (golden raisins, fruit cake
dried fruit mix, glace green cherries, glace red cherries) very well with 3 tbsps. of flour
(other than the 2 3/4 cups). Set aside. This step is a MUST or the fruits will sink to the
bottom of the cake pan.
Cream butter and sugar – In a stand mixer bowl, whisk together the softened butter and sugar until the mixture becomes fluffy and the color becomes almost off white in color. About 3-5 minutes
Add in the wet ingredients – Reduce the speed and gradually add in the eggs one at a time. Boost the speed to medium speed and whisk until the mixture fluffs up and becomes almost double in size. This will take about 2-3 minutes. Lower the speed and add in the yogurt and vanilla extract. If you are using orange extract, add in at this step as well.
Add in the dry ingredients – On low speed, add in the dry ingredients gradually, alternating with the Florida’s Natural orange juice. Continue mixing the mixture on low speed for about 2 minutes. The cake batter should be thick in consistency.
Add in the dried fruits – Fold 3/4 of the dried fruits into the cake mixture with a spatula. Do not over mix or mix on the mixing stand.
Prep the pan and add in the batter – Spray a non-stick Bundt cake pan with non-stick baking spray generously and pour in the batter. Top with remainder of the dried fruits.
Bake the fruit cake – Bake in a preheated 325 F oven for 1 hour on the middle. Insert a thin wooden skewer into the deepest part of the cake and make sure it comes out clean before removing from the oven.
Cool and serve – Remove from the oven and cover with a kitchen towel until it cools down completely at room temperature. Cut and serve when cool.
Tips and Notes
- You must coat the dried fruits with flour, or they will sink to the bottom of your Bundt pan.
- If you can’t find the fruit cake fruit mix, you can buy different types of dried fruits like green cherries, red cherries, pineapple, apricot, kiwi, papaya and cut them up into small pieces and use that instead to make your own homemade fruit mix.
- Must use a nonstick baking spray before pouring into the pan even if the pan is nonstick as your fruit cake will stick.
- If you want more orange flavor, add 1/2 teaspoon of orange extract or some orange zest into the mixture.
- You can also add nuts like pecan or walnut to your fruit cake. If you do, make sure you break them up a little and coat with flour before adding into the cake batter.
How to Store A Fruit Cake
- At room temperature: Cover the orange fruit cake in foil or plastic wrap at room temperature. When stored properly in an airtight container at a cool room temperature, fruitcake can last up 10 days but I would recommend you eat it before then for the best texture!
- In the fridge: Properly covered in the fruit, the fruit cake will up to 2 weeks! Again, I would recommend you finish the fruit cake before that! Either way, I doubt it will not be gone in a couple days because it’s delicious!
- In the freezer: Wrapped up tightly and stored in a freezer bag, your fruitcake will pretty much last as long as you want it to. I’d suggest finishing before the one-year mark though.
More Fruit Desserts Recipes You Might Enjoy
- Best Lemon Bars Recipe
- Moist Pear Cake
- Blueberry Bundt Cake
- Strawberry French Tart
- Raspberry Puff Pastry Tart
I hope you enjoy all the recipes I share with you, including this delicious Orange Holiday Fruit Cake recipe. I hope you try it, enjoy it, rate it and share it with your friends and family!
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Orange Holiday Fruit Cake
Ingredients
- 2 3/4 cups all purpose flour sifted, plus 3 tbsps. for dusting fruits
- 5 large eggs room temperature
- 1.5 cups granulated sugar
- 1 cup unsalted butter softened
- 1 tbsp. baking powder
- 1 tbsp. vanilla extract
- 3/4 cup Florida's Natural Orange Juice
- 1/4 cup whole milk yogurt
- 1/2 cup golden raisins
- 1 cup Fruit cake dried fruit mix
- 3/4 cup glace green cherries cut in half
- 3/4 cup glace red cherries cut in half
- 1/2 tsp. orange extract optional, if you want a bold orange flavor
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325 F.
- In a bowl, mix all the dry ingredients together. Set aside.
- In another bowl coat the dried fruits very well with 3 tbsps. of flour (other than the 2 3/4 cups). Set aside. This step is a MUST or the fruits will sink to the bottom of the cake pan.
- In a stand mixer bowl, whisk together the softened butter and sugar until the mixture becomes fluffy and the color becomes almost off white in color. About 3-5 minutes
- Reduce the speed and gradually add in the eggs one at a time. Boost the speed to medium speed and whisk until the mixture fluffs up and becomes almost double in size. about 2-3 minutes.
- Lower the speed and add in the yogurt and vanilla extract. If you are using orange extract add in now as well.
- On low speed, add in the dry ingredients gradually, alternating with the orange juice. Continue mixing the mixture on low speed for about 2 minutes. The cake batter should be thick in consistency.
- Fold 3/4 of the dried fruits into the cake mixture with a spatula. Do not over mix or mix on the mixing stand.
- Spray a non-stick Bundt cake pan with non-stick baking spray generously and pour in the batter. Top with remainder of the dried fruits.
- Bake in a preheated 325 degree oven for 1 hour on the middle rack of your oven. Insert a thin wooden skewer into the deepest part of the cake and make sure it comes out clean before removing from the oven.
- Remove from the oven and cover with a kitchen towel until it cools down completely at room temperature. Cut and serve when cool.
Notes
- You must coat the dried fruits with flour or they will sink to the bottom of your Bundt pan.
- If you can’t find the fruit cake fruit mix, you can buy different types of dried fruits like green cherries, red cherries, pineapple, apricot, kiwi, papaya and cut them up into small pieces and use that instead to make your own homemade fruit mix.
- Must use a non-stick “baking spray” before pouring into the pan even if the pan is non stick as your fruit cake will stick.
- If you want a bolder orange flavor, add 1/2 teaspoon of orange extract or some orange zest into the mixture.
- You can also add nuts like pecan or walnut to your fruit cake. If you do, make sure you break them up a little and coat with flour before adding into the cake batter.
I made this about a week ago, and it is superior!! The used defrosted orange juice concentrate (undiluted), and it added extra orange flavor. Other than that I followed the recipe exactly.
I will recommend this recipe to other fruit cake lovers as well!!!
Kathy
Hi Kathy,
I am glad you enjoyed the recipe! Concentrated orange juice sounds delicious as well. The orange flavor always brings out the best of this cake.