Mincemeat cake
If you’ve got any leftover jars of mincemeat in the cupboard it’s a good excuse to make a cake. The other weekend we went to visit my parents and my mum had made one of these cakes, from a Mary Berry recipe (Mary’s becoming a theme!). It’s a really tasty, moist fruit cake and it didn’t last very long at all. I knew I had a jar of mincemeat left over from Christmas (I didn’t manage to make any homemade mincemeat this year and even had to pay my daughter to make mince pies at one point). Homemade mincemeat is unlikely to last the year so this is a good use for it if you still have any. I thought my store-bought jar would need using up but the best before date on it was actually 2016. I still made the cake anyway…
This cake takes just a few minutes to put together but needs a long, slow cooking time. I think I had my oven a little hot as the top and edges are very brown but I don’t think it matters. I covered the cake with aluminium foil towards the end of the baking time and probably should have done it sooner. Mary’s recipe is an all-in-one but I added the ingredients in stages, just to make sure they were properly mixed and the flour didn’t get overworked: you could just throw everything except the flaked almonds into the bowl and mix.
Recipe
Ingredients
150g softened butter or margarine
150g soft brown sugar
2 eggs
410g jar of mincemeat
75g sultanas
225g SR flour
25g flaked almonds
Method
Heat the oven to 160ºC. Grease, and line the base of, a deep-sided, loose-based 8″ cake tin.
Put the butter or margarine, sugar, eggs and mincemeat into a mixing bowl and mix well.
Add the sultanas and mix in.
Sieve in the flour and fold in.
Tip the mixture into the cake tin and level gently. Sprinkle the almonds over the top.
Ready to bake
Bake for around 1¾ hours, until the cake is golden brown and firm to the touch. A skewer inserted into the centre should come out clean.
Allow to cool in the tin for a while before removing and putting on a cooling rack.
Allow to cool in the tin for a while
lovinghomemade 
Oh wow! it looks great… beautiful pictures!
Thank you!
Wow! Yum! It astounds me that there was ever a time in my life that I didn’t adore mincemeat! Now that I live in a country where it is not part of the Christmas tradition, I eat it when I can! Thanks for sharing this 🙂
Thanks – I love mince pies at Christmas so would really miss them!
The cake looks moist and delicious. I wouldn’t mind a slice at all. Have a nice weekend!
Thank you – hope you had a lovely weekend!
I’ll be making this right away! And by ‘making’ I mean ‘coming round and eating all your cakes instead.’
Have made this twice now……delicious.
Glad you like it!
I have been making this for over thirty years. It was in a magazine pull out – Family Circle I think. My daughters have been making it since they were little more than toddlers and still love it today. It never fails to please.
That’s really cool – I wonder if Mary Berry wrote the original recipe 30 years ago! It’s almost time to make it again this year… Thank you very much for your comments.
Just spotted your tin is identical to mine! Happy baking.
Happy baking to you too!
Cooked it for an hour and a half and it came out burnt. Are the baking directions correct?
Hi, I’m sorry your cake came out burnt – as I mentioned in the post mine also came out a little dark around the edges and I had covered it with aluminium foil before the end of baking. It would probably benefit from a shorter cooking time as long as it’s cooked in the middle: mine didn’t taste dry or burnt, hope yours wasn’t either x
Made this delicious cake last weekend as using up leftover mincemeat. It was perfect moist, beautiful in colour and tasted wonderful. Instructed by my husband to make another for Easter, so it’s baking in the oven right now!!! Thanks for the great recipe 😀
Glad you’re enjoying it, thank you very much!
I found you via Google when searching for mincemeat cake recipes. Just wanted to say thanks for sharing this. Like others have said, it was so good that my second one is in the oven as I type and I’m wondering where I can get my hands on more mincemeat in the middle of spring!
Hi, thank you very much for your lovely comment – I’m glad you’re enjoying the recipe!
Can I use whole almonds as can’t find almond flakes???
Hi! Yes you could, or omit them. Thank you
Can you tell how make this cake gluten free please
You can just use any gluten-free flour instead and check that there’s no gluten in your mincemeat (there shouldn’t be). If it’s not self-raising flour just add a teaspoon of baking powder (gluten free) too. Thanks very much for commenting.
Is possible to use gluten free flower in this recipe thanks
Apologies for not seeing your comments previously, not sure how I missed them!
Can you make this as a loaf cake ? Would be easier to cut & freeze.
How long does the cake last? I was thinking of making for a Christmas gift.
Hi Kylie, thank you for your comment. Cakes never hang around for too long at my house so I couldn’t say for sure but I would treat it like a normal fruitcake rather than a traditional Christmas cake. It should still be good after a week – I would expect it to either go dry and stale or mouldy after it’s been around for too long, depending on how it has been stored. I hope that helps!