Friendship Fruitcake

This old-school friendship fruitcake is a labor of love that builds flavor over 30 days of natural fermentation. Peaches, pineapple, fruit cocktail, and maraschino cherries ferment in sugar to create a boozy, fragrant fruit mixture that gets folded into a thick yellow cake batter with vanilla pudding mix.

The process is simple but requires patience. Each day you stir the fruit mixture, and every ten days you add a new fruit and more sugar. By day thirty, the fermented fruit smells incredible and the juice gets divided into starter portions to share with friends (that’s the “friendship” part).

The batter itself comes together quickly with a box cake mix, eggs, oil, and instant pudding. It bakes up dense and moist in a Bundt pan, with pockets of sweet fermented fruit throughout.

Kitchen Tips

• Use a gallon container with a lid, not a sealed jar. The fermentation produces gas and needs room to breathe.
• Stir every single day. Skipping days can lead to mold or off flavors.
• The batter is supposed to be thick. Don’t add liquid to thin it out.
• These cakes freeze beautifully for up to two years, making them ideal for holiday gifting.

Variations

• Swap the yellow cake mix for spice cake mix to lean into warm holiday flavors.
• Add dried cranberries or golden raisins with the final fruit addition for extra texture.
• Drizzle a simple powdered sugar glaze over the cooled cake for a polished finish.