The best Christmas cakes both taste delicious and look stunning on our Christmas table and I have for you here, my top 10 best Christmas cake recipes that do just that.
There really is a Christmas cake here for everyone from traditional British fruit cake, French Yule log, Italian panettone and beautiful bundts to gorgeously modern alternatives.
There are both super simple and slightly trickier Christmas cake ideas you can make ahead or whip up fast, last minute including :
- Christmas Truffle Cakes
- Chocolate Christmas Cakes
- Italian Panettone
- Christmas Bundt Cakes
- Gingerbread House Cakes
- Christmas Ginger Cakes
- French Yule Logs
- Stollen
- Traditional British Christmas Cake
- Christmas Apple Cakes
Christmas Truffle Cakes
Christmas truffle cakes are lusciously luxurious on the Christmas table without being too-too heavy after all our other Christmas food.
This white chocolate truffle cake is perfect if you want a stylish but easy Christmas cake to make ahead …
Or for a still simple and super stylish alternative make Delia Smith’s classic chocolate truffle torte …
Chocolate Christmas Cakes
If you do adore chocolate cakes there are all sort of wonderful ways to make stunning chocolate Christmas cakes with a twist :
- Cranberry chocolate cakes
- Blackberry chocolate cake
- Chocolate hazelnut cake
- Spicy chocolate cake
- Black Forest chocolate cake
- Red wine chocolate cake
- Double chocolate Christmas cake
- Mulled wine vegan Chocolate cake
- Sugar free chocolate cake
Cranberry Chocolate Cakes
This luxuriously rich chocolate Christmas cake is oozing with cranberries doused in port …
And this chocolate expresso Christmas cranberry cake is filled with sour cream, mascarpone and cranberries …
Blackberry & Cherry Chocolate Espresso Cake
This rich chocolate espresso Christmas cake is covered in chocolate frosting and topped with blackberries and cherries …
Chocolate Hazelnut Cake
This super elegant Christmas chocolate cake recipe is filled with hazelnut ganache and topped with meringue buttercream …
Spicy Chocolate Cake
This cream cheese frosted chocolate Christmas cake is spiced with ginger and cinnamon …
Double Chocolate Black Forest Christmas Cake
This sumptuous black forest Christmas cake full of bourbon soaked preserved cherries and topped with fresh cherries would be a stunning addition to your Christmas table decor …
For more Black Forest recipes try these Black Forest Christmas Cheesecake, Black Forest Trifle and Black Forest Cupcake recipes.
Chocolate Christmas Cake With Red Wine Frosting
This super moist chocolate Christmas cake recipe includes apple sauce and red wine and has red wine in the frosting …
Double Chocolate Christmas Mousse Cake
For a stunning dark and white chocolate combo in your Christmas cake go for this double chocolate mousse cake recipe …
Vegan Mulled Wine Chocolate Christmas Cake
For a super decadent vegan chocolate Christmas cake try this mulled wine recipe …
Sugar Free Chocolate Cake
Chocolate cake can also be one of the best ways to make a sugar free Christmas cake like this spiced chocolate torte …
Italian Panettone
Panettone is of course the most popular Italian Christmas cake.
Traditional Christmas panettone take time but there are all sorts of scrummy ways to speed it up and add in your own fave flavours …
- Quick Christmas Panettone
- Chocolate Orange Panettone
- Coffee & Maple Panettone
- Chestnut & Rum Panettone
- Speedy Campari Panettone
- Leftover Panettone Cake
Quick Christmas Panettone
Traditional Christmas panettone takes time but this delicious – genuinely Italian – panettone with an almond glaze is much quicker …
And yes the recipe is in Italian but Google translate sorts that instantly!
If you prefer a recipe in English try this easy panettone recipe which is again much quicker than traditional Italian Christmas cakes.
Chocolate Orange Panettone
If you adore chocolate orange cakes you will love this chocolate orange panettone recipe …
It involves fresh yeast so if you want to keep things simple with dried yeast this similar panettone will be a better Christmas recipe for you …
Coffee & Maple Panettone
This Christmas panettone is another quick-ish recipe with rich coffee and maple syrup dough …
Chestnut & Rum Panettone
This luxurious Christmas panettone recipe combines chocolate, chestnuts and candied peel with rum soaked raisins …
(The recipe is in French – again Google translate makes everything clear except failing to recognise “blond grapes” are raisins.)
Super Speedy Campari & Mandarin Panettone
This stunning recipe has to be the best Christmas cake hack ever …!!
It cheats by using a bought almond panettone but is transformed in minutes into a show-stopping Christmas dessert with Campari flavoured mascarpone-cream, oranges and sugared cranberries.
Nigella Lawson’s Leftover Panettone Christmas Cake
You can also transform leftover – or not great – bought panettone into an amazing Christmas cake with this recipe from Nigella Lawson …
For more ideas to use up leftovers try these Christmas leftover recipes.
Christmas Bundt Cakes
Christmas bundt cakes make gorgeous table centrepieces and are wonderful drenched in your favourite Christmas flavours …
- Chocolate & Cranberry Bundt
- Chocolate & Pomegranate Bundt
- Gingerbread & Rum Bundt
- Espresso & Ginger Bundt
- Mulled Wine Cherry Bundt
- Spicy Chocolate Bundt
- Orange & Cranberry Bundt
- Orange & Saffron Bundt
- Gluten, Nut Free, Vegan Bundt
Chocolate Bundt Cake With Sugared Cranberry
This gorgeous chocolate Christmas bundt cake is decorated with sugared cranberries & rosemary …
The recipe comes with handy tips on prepping bundt tins and how long to leave bundts in the tin so your Christmas cake comes out cleanly.
Chocolate Bundt With Pomegranate & Almonds
This chocolate bundt is topped with chocolate ganache, almonds and pretty pomegranate seeds …
Gingerbread Bundt With Cinnamon & Rum Glazing
This gingerbread bundt makes a stunning Christmas dessert and centrepiece with its fabulous cinnamon and rum glazing …
Espresso & Ginger Bundt
This is another gingerbread Christmas bundt but has the added flavour of espresso and a dark chocolate glaze …
Mulled Wine Cherry Bundt
This luscious chocolate Christmas bundt is oozing with cherries cooked in mulled wine and decorated with a chocolate and ginger glaze …
Spicy Chocolate Bundt With Ginger Frosting
This spicy chocolate Christmas bundt is topped with ginger cream-cheese frosting and decorated with redcurrant …
Cranberry Orange Bundt
This stunning cranberry and orange cake is wonderfully moist and easy to make and would look lovely with rustic Christmas decorations.
Orange & Saffron Bundt
This beautiful Christmas bundt cake is flavoured with orange, saffron and covered in an orange glaze …
Gluten & Nut Free Vegan Cranberry Bundt Cake
If you love Christmas bundt are being super careful about your diet, this cranberry and apple bund cake is gluten and nut free and vegan …
Gingerbread House Cakes
Gingerbread house cakes are a delightful Christmas tradition but can be super stressful to build.
A gingerbread house cake is a great alternative as it is still super cute but far less likely to fall down!!
There are a bunch of the best recipes for easy gingerbread house cakes :
- Iced Gingerbread Houses
- Gingerbread Cookie Houses
- Mini Cake Top Gingerbread Houses
- Gingerbread House Bundt Cake
- Iced Ginger Cake
- Very Simple Gingerbread House
Iced Gingerbread Houses
The easiest quick way to make a gingerbread house cake is simply to ice houses onto a ginger cake …
You could also paint gingerbread houses onto a chocolate Christmas cake with an edible ink pen …
Gingerbread Cookie Houses
Another simple option is to add little gingerbread houses to the edge of a Christmas cake like this …
You can even create a whole gingerbread house village very easily with this approach …
(The recipe is in French but the Google translation is super easy to follow).
Mini Gingerbread Houses On Top Of Christmas Cakes
You can build this little gingerbread house on top of a cream cheese frosted ginger cake very easily …
And this tiny gingerbread house looks super sweet in a forest of winter berries and rosemary trees …
Mini Gingerbread Houses On A Christmas Bundt Cake
You could also pop a cute little gingerbread house onto a bundt cake with a snow drift of frosting …
Iced Ginger Cake
A super clever way to make a gingerbread house easily is to ice a ginger cake and build up the roof with thick swirls of frosting …
Simple Gingerbread House
If you really do want to bake a “proper” gingerbread house, this is – I promise you!! – the easiest way to do it as you’re not trying to balance the roof on top of walls …
Christmas Ginger Cakes
If you really haven’t the patience to make any kind of gingerbread house – or are too scarred by previous attempts!! – try this fabulous alternative which again shouts Christmas but really can’t fall down …
Or for a beautifully paired back alternative simply make a classic ginger cake and decorate with scrapings of butter cream frosting and garlands of thyme …
Christmas Yule Logs
In France a yule log – or Buche de Noel – traditionally takes pride of place as Christmas cake on the Christmas table.
Classic Buche De Noel
This classic French yule log is super light with it’s delicious whipped cream filing.
Yule Log With Marzipan
If you adore marzipan on your Christmas cake, you have to try this gorgeous yule log recipe which looks trickier than it is and could be simplified further by just using whipping cream and powdered sugar for the filling as in the previous recipe …
Stollen
Stollen bread is great if you want to eat traditional German Christmas food, however it takes quite a while to prepare so I wouldn’t advise it if you’re in a hurry.
If you are gluten-free – or have anyone gluten free in the family – stollen might seem like a non-starter as it is such a bready Christmas cake but gluten free stollen as in the recipe below can be delicious …
Traditional British Christmas Cakes
British Christmas cake is best made well in advance so if you are considering this recipe you will probably want to make this cake sometime in November.
Easy British Christmas Cake
If you’re looking for a quicker and simpler traditional Christmas cake this could be the one for you.
Traditional Gluten Free Christmas Cake
If you’re gluten free or know someone else who is you can still enjoy a traditional Christmas cake with this gluten free Christmas cake recipe.
Christmas Apple Cakes
Christmas apple cakes – or Weihnachten Apfelkuchen – are a classic Christmas cake favourite in Germany and always found at German Christmas markets.
Christmas Apfelkuchen
Traditionally German Christmas apple cake is somewhere between a cake and an apple pie as in this recipe …
Jamie Oliver’s Gluten Free Apple Christmas Cake
But for a completely different take on a Christmas apple cake try this fabulous gluten free apple Christmas cake from Jamie Oliver …
I really hope you enjoyed these top 10 best Christmas cake recipes. For more scrumptious Christmas food ideas do check out these other posts.
- 30 Christmas Cupcake Designs
- 50 Stunning Christmas Desserts
- 30 Best Christmas Cookies
- 16 Christmas Candy Recipes
- Easy Christmas Fudge Recipes
- 12 Christmas Cake Pop Ideas
- 30 Cheap Christmas Recipes
- 18 Homemade Christmas Preserves
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