This is not your average fruitcake. It’s not dry and heavy, but instead soft, lightly sweet and studded with a balanced variety of dried fruit and nuts. It will completely bust the bad rep of mass-made fruitcake and convince you to keep this recipe in your box of favorite recipes.
Keks świąteczny [kehx sh-viow-teh-chnyh] is often made in many Polish homes for Christmas. More often than not, you will also see a piernik, poppyseed cake or roll, apple cake and cheesecake served along side of keks. In my home, we also made shortbread cookies. No Christmas is complete without my grandmother’s cookies, and a good variety of sweet desserts to go along with the vast array of 12 Christmas dishes.
Polish Christmas Fruitcake {Keks Świąteczny}
Ingredients
- 1 lb / 500 g of mixed dried fruit and nuts - raisins, mangos, prunes, walnuts, almonds
- 8 oz / 225 g of butter at room temperature
- 1 cup / 120 g of powdered sugar
- 5 eggs - whites and yolks separated
- 1 tsp of vanilla extract
- 2 cups / 250 g of all purpose flour
- 1 tbsp of baking powder
- Pinch of salt
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350°F / 180°C.
Crush and slice dried fruit and nuts.
Cream butter with sugar until well combined and fluffy. Add egg yolks one by one and keep mixing. Add vanilla extract and gradually add flour mixed with baking powder. Finally add fruit/nut mixture.
In a separate bowl, whisk egg whites with salt on high speed until stiff foam forms. Gently fold into fruitcake batter until well combined.
Transfer batter into a loaf pan lined with parchment paper and bake at 350°F / 180°C for 20 min. Turn heat down to 325°F / 160°C and bake for another 30-40 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into cake comes out clean and top of the cake is golden brown. If top is browning too fast, cover with aluminum foil.
With the help of a small strainer sprinkle with powdered sugar before serving.
What will your family prepare to satisfy the sweet tooth this year? Leave me a comment below.
Smacznego!
With love,
Anna
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Is this best eaten fresh or should it mellow a few weeks like stollen or American fruitcake?
It does not need to rest, enjoy right away.
Keks świąteczny sounds and looks nice I will have to try it. How long will it keep as we won’t eat it quickly ?
It’s interesting that it has no spice at all in it but the mangoes and other dried fruit sound nice.
Looking forward to making it!
It will keep for a week for sure.
Have you ever added any liquor to this???
What a wonderful recipe. It’s lighter than the dried fruit cake I normally make. I think I’m going make some into french toast.
What a great idea!! 😍
Anna, I made this and it is delicious. I have a question. The batter before I folded in the egg whites was very stiff. Is that normal, or did I do something wrong. It was delicious, but the folding in was a lot of work…but worth it.
Yes, it is quite stiff. But it looses a bit after folding in the egg whites.
Thank you, I wanted to be sure I was not missing some step. By the way it was delicious and got rave reviews from my friends.
Hello! This recipe says to line the loaf pan with parchment paper. I have had trouble with parchment paper burning with other things I’ve baked. Do you have any tips or tricks to share to minimize this problem? I can’t wait to try this recipe!
You could try buttering the pan and then sprinkling it heavily with bread crumbs. Alternatively, perhaps place the pan lower in the oven, maybe it’s just too close to the heating element?
Help, batter seems very stiff before adding the egg whites is this normal?
Yes, it is quite stiff, that’s normal. It will loosen a bit after folding in the egg whites.
It looks delicious. Thank you for sharing this recipe.
I have been invited to a Polish friends Christmas Eve celebrations and want to take some food with me to share, I’m fairly short on time and wondered Could this cake be made in advance and froze? Do you know if it freezes well?
This cake can actually stand to be made ahead (1-2 days) and keep fresh. Just wrap it in foil after it’s completed cool. It’s really good.