Caramel Fruit Cake is an easy dump and bake grain free confection perfect for celebrating the holidays.

Caramel Fruit Cake is a family favorite Christmas treat with a rich caramel base studded with brightly colored fruit and nuts. And it is so easy to make, just mix up a few ingredients and bake.

Sliced fruit cake on a plate with text overlay "caramel fruit cake"

In my family this is called Eleanor Stone's Fruit Cake. Eleanor Stone was a friend of my grandparents whom I'm sure I met, but really don't remember. In case you were curious.

I think Caramel Fruit Cake is a bit more SEO friendly.

Technically, "Fruit Cake" is kind of a misnomer. There are no traditional cake ingredients such as egg, flour, butter (or oil), or leavening.

It is more of a candy that looks a bit like cake.

Caramel Fruit Cake Ingredients

As I said above there aren't any typical cake ingredients in this recipe. So, what are the actual ingredients?

sweetened condensed milk - This is the glue that holds the other ingredients together and gives it the beautiful caramel color and flavor.

shredded coconut - sweetened or unsweetened doesn't make much of a difference with all of the sugar in the other ingredients

nuts - use your favorite, or combination of favorites: pecans, almonds, walnuts, etc.

glace cherries and pineapple - not maraschino cherries and canned pineapple, those have too much liquid. You want the candied cherries and pineapple used in fruit cake. If you want a little lemon flavor, you can use fruit cake mix that also includes candied citrus peel.

Caramel Fruit Cake

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Ingredients

1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 cup chopped nuts (such as pecans, walnuts, almonds, etc.)
1 cup shredded coconut
1 cup glace cherries
1 cup glace pineapple

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350° F. Line an 8 inch cake pan or 1 pound loaf pan (8½ x 4½ inches) with foil and lightly grease.
Combine all ingredients in a mixing bowl, stirring by hand until thoroughly mixed.
Pour into prepare pan.
Bake until brown on top, about one hour.
Place on a cooling rack to cool completely. Remove from pan and remove foil, slice and serve. Store extra in a zip to lock bag.