Can you bake Christmas cake in an air fryer? I did, and this is how much quicker it really was

Put your air fryer to good use this Christmas and bake your Christmas cake in it - it’s much quicker than the oven and cooks just as well too.

Christmas is coming and for you avid bakers out there, it’s time to start thinking about making that all-important Christmas cake (if you haven’t already!). Preparing your Christmas cake a few months ahead is a great way to ensure this festive favourite has plenty of flavour come the big day, and feeding a Christmas cake with sherry, brandy, tea, or juice, will guarantee your cake is super moist and flavoursome ready to be enjoyed during the holidays - which is why I’ve baked mine in October.

Traditionally over the years, like most, I have baked my Christmas cake in a conventional electric or fan oven keeping it simple, however, now the air fryer has come into my life I have thrown caution to the wind and thought why not bake it in one of our best air fryers for families? The question is, can you bake Christmas cake in an air fryer? And the answer simply is yes, you can. And it took half the time of the original recipe, cooked just as well, and tasted just as good. For those of you new to the air fryer world, an air fryer is essentially a mini oven that circulates air around the food to cook it quickly and efficiently. It’s said to be much speedier than a conventional oven and costs less to run too. 

First, you need to make your Christmas cake mixture and decide on a recipe to suit. Now we have a variety of Christmas cake recipes on Goodto including Mary Berry’s classic Christmas cake recipe, and Mary Berry’s fruit cake, however, for my Christmas cake I made our easy Christmas cake recipe - a favourite that I’ve made a few years in the running and would highly recommend for those who are looking for a quick prep recipe with only a few ingredients.

 How to bake Christmas cake in an air fryer 

Before you get started you will need an air fryer that is big enough to hold an 18cm/7" round cake tin and the tin itself. 

For the air fryer, I used my trusty Breville Halo VDF126 5.5L air fryer and for the cake tin, I used Lakeland Round Loose Based PushPan Cake Tin.

The cake tin needs to be suitable for air fryer use and must fit comfortably into your machine with a gap around the edges for airflow. Make sure you line the cake tin with baking parchment or grease the tin (depending on whether it's non-stick or not) before adding the cake mixture. 

Follow my easy step-by-step instructions below.

You will need:

• 3 large eggs
• 300g (10oz) plain flour
• 250g (8oz) butter, softened
• 250g (8oz) light muscovado sugar
• 1 tbsp ground mixed spice
• Pinch of salt
• 410g jar of mincemeat
• 500g (1lb) dried mixed fruit
• 4 tbsp brandy
• 18cm/7" round cake tin lined with baking parchment
• And an air fryer of course!

Step 1

In a large mixing bowl, add all ingredients; eggs, plain flour, butter, light muscovado sugar, ground mixed spice, salt, mincemeat, and dried mixed fruit, and mix until combined. Leave the brandy out.

Step 2

Once the cake mixture is smooth and thoroughly mixed, transfer it to your cake tin and press the mixture into the tin, smoothing the top so it's level. Put the cake in the air fryer drawer, and bake for 30 minutes at 160°C.

Step 3

After 30 minutes, carefully add some tin foil to the top of your cake. This will stop it from browning any further on top and will help the cake to cook evenly inside too.

Ensure the tin foil is pinched around the edges so it's 'attached' to your cake tin otherwise the fan will move the tinfoil around the machine uncovering the cake. Bake for another 1 hour and 20 minutes (1 hour and 50 minutes total).

Step 4

After 1 hour and 20 minutes, poke the centre of the cake with a skewer to see if it's cooked all the way through. If the skewer comes out clean, the cake is done. If not, pop back into the air fryer and cook for another 10 minutes checking again, and repeat. You shouldn't need to cook your cake any longer than 2 hours.

Step 5

Leave the cake to cool completely in the tin before carefully removing. Once fully cooled, wrap in a layer of baking parchment or greaseproof paper and a layer of tin foil and store in a cake tin or air-tight container. 

'Feed' fortnightly with brandy, sherry, cooled tea, orange juice, or liquid of your choice in the run-up to Christmas to ensure your cake is moist and full of flavour come Christmas time.

 Top tips for baking a Christmas cake in an air fryer 

Go small 

The smaller the cake, the more success you’ll have in cooking it as they tend to cook quicker and more evenly than large cakes. Plus if you have a small air fryer, you won’t be able to cook a large cake in it anyway. Always make sure you leave plenty of space around the cake tin and the air fryer basket for airflow.

Low and slow

You ideally want to cook the cake from the inside out so start on low heat for a longer period of time. This should stop browning on the top of the cake, however, if this does occur, you can cover the cake loosely with a sheet of tin foil. This will stop it from burning but allow it to continue to cook.

Go for dry cakes over wet

A pound cake would be a much more successful cake to bake in an air fryer than a banana cake for example, as banana cakes are overly moist and have a lot of liquid in them from the fresh fruit, etc. A pound cake, or classic Victoria sponge, or simple chocolate cake may bode well as they have a good ratio of dried ingredients to wet e.g. flour and caster sugar vs. butter and egg. The wetter the cake mixture, the longer it’ll take a cook.

Select the right cake tin

Choosing the right cake tin is the first step in making a Christmas cake in an air fryer - in fact, any cake in an air fryer. You don’t want to jump ahead and go for a large cake tin when firstly it doesn’t fit in the machine or it does, but it's going to take forever to cook.

Keep in mind that if you have a square air fryer drawer, it may be better to use a square tin for your cake, or a round air fryer and you can probably use a classic round tin, rectangular and you can opt for a rectangular tray bake-style pan. 

Make sure the cake tin fits and that air can circulate around it in the machine. I've used an 18cm/7" round cake tin for this recipe, however, you may need to go smaller for different machines.

Use preset functions

If your machine has a preset function for baking you can use it when you first start out baking in your air fryer. The preset function is often set to the optimum temperature. If unsure, start with baking something smaller to test out your machine - a batch of cupcakes for example. That way you can ensure that the preset function is the right choice for you. You can also manually override most air fryer preset functions too so you could set the time and temperature according to that specific recipe.

Best air fryers - my top picks

Breville Halo VDF126 5.5L Air Fryer - View at Amazon

Breville Halo VDF126 5.5L is a large air fryer and just perfect for baking my Christmas cake this year. It has a range of preset functions to cook chicken, chips, vegetables, etc., and can easily be used on the manual setting adjusting to your own time and temperature using the simple digital display. When cooking is complete, this air fryer beats loudly which is ideal if you live in a noisy household like me. It's a powerful machine that heats quickly and doesn't need to be preheated.

• Read more about this air fryer in my Breville Halo VDF126 5.5L Air Fryer review

Lakeland Digital Crisp Air Fryer 3L - View at Amazon

A good-sized, round basket makes this air fryer the perfect candidate for baking small cakes (15cm round cake tin) It has a variety of preset functions and is quick and easy to use with a digital touchscreen, digital clock countdown, and loud beep when the machine is finished cooking. It’s great for smaller kitchens that don’t have much kitchen space to work with as the cylinder shape makes it good for tucking into corners, etc. This model also includes a very thorough cooking guide which came in handy when setting up and using the machine correctly. Ideal for beginners.

• Read more about this air fryer in my Lakeland Digital Crisp Air Fryer 3L review

Proscenic T31 Air Fryer Oven 15L - View at Amazon

Deputy Editor (former Consumer Editor) Heidi Scrimgeour recommends the Proscenic T31 for baking. Heidi says; “The Proscenic T31 air fryer oven is big. Bigger than your average air fryer. In fact, it’s so big that I had to buy a new shelf unit for the kitchen to accommodate it - no joke. It would certainly house a large cake comfortably as it has a roomy two-level cooking space. Featuring 12 preset functions, as well as a warming function, this air fryer is a game changer for my family of five, and makes meal times much less stressful.”

• Read more about this air fryer in Heidi’s Proscenic T31 air fryer oven review

COSORI 9-in-1 Air Fryer 4.7L - View at Amazon

Editor Sophie Bird recommends the COSORI 9-in-1 Air Fryer for baking cakes. She says; “The basket can fit a 20cm round cake tin with enough space for air to flow around it making it a good option for baking a small cake, or individual cupcakes. I’m a keen cook and hardly used my oven at all while I was testing this air fryer because the machine works so fast, and it was much more convenient. This COSORI model is a sleek machine with a decent capacity and the air fryer itself doesn't take up too much counter space which is a bonus.”

• Read more about this air fryer in Sophie’s COSORI 9-in-1 Air Fryer review

Now you’ve mastered the art of baking a Christmas cake in an air fryer, how about trying hot chocolate in a slow cooker? Christmas is the perfect time to experiment in the kitchen especially when it comes to those traditional festive Christmas foods - be it classic buttery pastry mince pies or the showstopping Mary Berry’s Christmas pudding.