Pavlina's Christmas Cake

This is a wonderful dense cake full of dried fruit and topped with chocolate. Don't worry, it's NOT fruit cake. I don't like fruit cake myself, but this is completely different!

It's perfect for breakfast and would make a great gift, too!

I created a tradition for myself in 2010. I eat all the other desserts on Christmas Eve, and have a piece of Pavlina's Christmas Cake for breakfast on Christmas Day. 

Here's the one I made.

Pavlina's Christmas Cake 2010

Pavlina's Christmas Cake 2012

Pavlina's Christmas Cake 2013 

Pavlina's Christmas Cake 2014

Pavlina's Christmas Cake 2016

Pavlina's Christmas Cake 2018

Pavlina's Christmas Cake 2019

Pavlina's Christmas Cake

12-16 servings

Ingredients

• 3 eggs
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 4 tablespoons milk
• 4 tablespoons vegetable oil
• ½ cup melted butter (cooled)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• ½ cup chopped walnuts
• zest of one lemon and one orange
• 1 cup chopped dried fruit and candied citrus peel
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1/4 cup semi sweet chocolate chips

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350F.
2. Beat eggs with sugar on high speed until fluffy. Add milk, oil, melted butter and vanilla. Mix by hand.
3. In a separate bowl, mix flour, cinnamon, baking powder, zests, dried fruit and walnuts. Add to egg mixture and mix by hand until creamy.
4. Put the mixture into a buttered bundt pan.
5. Bake for 20-30 minutes then reduce the heat to 325F and bake another 30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 1/2 hour before removing from pan.
6. Melt chocolate chips in the microwave for about 60 seconds. Stir and spread over the cake once it's cool. Decorate with sprinkles if desired.

Tips:

• I used a combination of raisins, dried figs, dried apricots and candied orange peel. Cranberries would also be nice!