Countdown to Christmas 2025: 2 delicious soaking-based Christmas cake recipes you can make at home

Explore two easy fruit soaks and egg or eggless cake recipes using Chef Meenal Shejwar's soaking methods for a simple, cosy Christmas treat.

Published on: Dec 2, 2025, 16:30:23 IST

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Christmas in my kitchen starts early. The mood sets in the moment dried fruits, citrus zest and warm spices come out. That simple mix signals the start of all the festive baking. With Christmas 2025 approaching, I finally sat down to study soaking methods and found myself stressed when most people suggested soaking months in advance. That is when I called Chef Meenal Shejwar to ask if I was too late.

A tray of golden Christmas cakes rests beside jars of soaked fruits, bringing the festive baking, warmth, and holiday charm to the home. (Ai Generated)

By Neha Ravi Khandelwal

Neha Khandelwal
Content Lead, HT Travel | Travel & Lifestyle Journalist
With over 10 years of content writing experience, Neha Khandelwal is a lifestyle journalist and the Content Lead at HT Travel. She specialises in destinations, hotels, aviation, luggage, travel gear, and practical guides that help readers plan smarter and travel better. Her work combines first-hand experience, expert insights, and extensive research to create stories that are informative, useful, and easy to follow.

Career Journey & Experience
Neha began her writing career as a freelance journalist in 2010 before entering mainstream media with The Times of India in 2022. She later joined Hindustan Times, where she has written extensively across travel, lifestyle, home, and consumer trends. Her professional background extends beyond journalism. Before moving into digital media full-time, she spent nearly a decade in interior design, managing residential projects from concept to execution. She also trained in visual merchandising with Shoppers Stop and Pantaloons and worked with women-led startups across design and operations. These experiences continue to shape her storytelling, especially in how she evaluates hotels, design-led stays, hospitality spaces, and travel experiences.

A naturally curious learner, Neha has completed beginner certifications in pottery, scuba diving, baking, creative writing, and other creative pursuits. She has read more than 2,000 books, trained in Bharatanatyam for 8 years, and ghostwritten a book on Ladakh tourism.

Subject Expertise
Travel is at the heart of Neha's work. She covers destinations, hotels, airlines, luggage, packing strategies, travel accessories, and emerging travel trends through a mix of reporting, product testing, and conversations with industry experts. A frequent traveller herself, she approaches every trip with a journalist's curiosity and a planner's mindset, focusing on experiences that readers can realistically recreate. From choosing the right cabin bag to decoding hotel openings and destination trends, her writing prioritises practical advice over promotional claims. Her background in interior design also gives her a distinct perspective on architecture, hospitality design, boutique hotels, luxury stays, and thoughtfully designed spaces.

Education & Professional Background
Neha holds a Master's degree in Interior Design. Her early experience in interior design, visual merchandising, and design operations gives her a unique understanding of aesthetics, functionality, and user experience, adding depth to her coverage of hotels, resorts, and travel spaces.

Editorial Philosophy
"As an avid, research-driven traveller, my goal is simple. To answer the questions you actually have before booking a trip. I cut through the promotional noise with honest reporting and expert insights. Making travel planning seamless, smart, and reliable so you always know where to go next."

Christmas cake recipes

Meenal Rai Shejwar is a chef and restaurateur with more than twelve years in food and hospitality. She trained under French chefs, later taught a large number of students through her baking academy and spent two years writing a monthly food column that focused on thoughtful home cooking. Her guidance for Christmas cake mixing was straightforward: “For home-sized fruit mixes, around twenty days is enough. A longer soak adds depth, but you can still begin now and get a balanced result.”

She shared two soaking methods that could work perfectly for home bakers.

Alcohol-based Christmas soaking recipe: Kerala style

Raisins black - 50 grams
Raisins golden - 50 grams
Cashews - 100 grams
Walnuts - 100 grams
Apricots - 250 grams
Prunes - 250 grams
Cherries - 100 grams
Candied peel - 50 grams
Orange plus lemon zest - 20 grams
Cinnamon powder - 10 grams
Star anise powder - 5 grams
Nutmeg powder - 5 grams
All spice powder - 5 grams
Dark rum or brandy - enough to cover the fruits

Mix everything in a clean glass jar and pour rum or brandy till the fruits are fully covered. Close the jar and let it rest for at least three weeks. Give the jar a small shake at times.

Non-alcoholic Christmas soaking recipe: Kid-friendly

Simply use the same ingredients as above! But for soaking, instead of alcohol, use a combination of orange juice and apple juice that is enough to cover the fruits.

Warm the juices with the spices on low heat. Pour this over the fruits and rest it for twenty to thirty minutes. For a deeper flavour, refrigerate for one to two days. This mix can be prepared just three days before baking, which makes it a useful shortcut for the busy end of the year.

Now that you know how to soak dry fruits for your cake, let me share two cake recipes you can try it with. Both versions bring out the cosy fruit flavour beautifully.

Christmas fruit cake with egg

Butter - 200 grams
Brown sugar - 200 grams
Eggs - 4
Maida - 220 grams
Baking powder - 1 teaspoon
Cocoa powder - 1 tablespoon
Vanilla extract - 1 teaspoon
Caramel syrup - 2 tablespoons *optional* *can be replaced with jaggery syrup too*
Soaked fruits - 350 to 400 grams
Soaking liquid - a small splash

Preheat your oven to 160 °C.
Beat the butter and sugar till light.
Add the eggs one by one. Continue to beat.
Fold in the maida, baking powder and cocoa.
Add the vanilla and caramel.
Stir in the soaked fruits with a spoon of the soaking liquid.
Mix and fold well.
Pour into a lined tin and bake for fifty to sixty minutes. Cool fully before slicing.

Eggless Christmas fruit cake

Curd - 1 cup

Brown sugar - 1 cup

Oil - 1/2 cup

Maida - 2 cups

Baking powder - 1 ½ teaspoons

Baking soda - ½ teaspoon

Cocoa powder - 1 tablespoon

Vanilla extract - 1 teaspoon

Caramel syrup - 2 tablespoons *optional* *can be replaced with jaggery syrup too*

Soaked fruits - 2 cups

Soaking liquid - 2 tablespoons

Preheat your oven to 160 °C.
Whisk curd and sugar till smooth.
Add the oil and whisk again.
Sift in the maida, baking powder, baking soda and cocoa. Fold gently.
Add the vanilla, caramel, and soaked fruits, along with a spoonful of the soaking liquid.
Spread into a lined tin and bake for fifty to sixty minutes.
Let it cool completely.

These soaking recipes and cakes make Christmas baking simple and joyful. Start now, fill your kitchen with festive aromas, and enjoy the warmth of homemade fruit cake magic.