Fruit Cake - Is It Baked?

Our answer

We suspect that the cake should be fine to eat as larger fruit cakes (such as 30cm/12-inch cakes) can take 5 to 6 hours to cook through. Salmonella is killed at above 75c so as long as the centre of the cake is cooked thoroughly and has risen above this temperature (which it should if the lower shelf of your oven is running at something close to 130c/275F) then the risk of food poisoning is low. To check the cake you could always cut a small plug out of the cake from the base close to the middle. Check the centre of the cake is cooked properly and if you want you can taste the cake to make sure that the flavour is satisfactory. Fill the hole with some marzipan, or if you are very dexterous you may be able to slide the remaining part of the plug back into the cake. When a large cake like this is cut up at a wedding the pieces are usually fingers and not wedges and the small plug section can be trimmed away from one or two portions.

If you still feel unhappy or unsure, as a wedding cake is a big responsibility, then by all means make another cake. But we would suggest that rather than discarding the first cake you either use it to make the Christmas Puddini Bonbons from Nigella's book Christmas (you can use fruit cake instead of leftover Christmas pudding) or feed the cake generously with the spirit of your choice, wrap it in a double layer of baking parchment (parchment paper) and then a double of foil and keep it in a cool, dry place to enjoy at Christmas instead.