Old Fashioned Fruit Cocktail Cake

Old Fashioned Fruit Cocktail Cake

A Farmish Kind of Life is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. You can view our full affiliate disclosure here.

Golly darn it, I love this recipe for Old Fashioned Fruit Cocktail Cake because it is ridiculously simple.

I also love it because it’s one of my dad’s favorite old recipes from his mom (my grandma, who passed away thirty-ish years ago).

Oh, and I forgot. I also love this fruit cocktail cake because it is tasty. Downright yummy. It’s a super light, super delish cake that you can make with ingredients that are often on hand.

Ingredients for Old Fashioned Fruit Cocktail Cake

2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
2 tsp baking soda
2 eggs
2 cans of fruit cocktail (15.25 oz each) with juice/syrup

Old Fashioned Fruit Cocktail Cake

How to make Old Fashioned Fruit Cocktail Cake

It’s so simple. Are you ready? All you do is combine the ingredients together in a large bowl. Mix by hand if you want the fruit pieces to stay whole in the cake, use a mixer if you want them mashed up in the cake.

Old Fashioned Fruit Cocktail Cake

Pour the batter into a greased 9×13 pan.

Top with:

1/2 cup brown sugar and/or 1/2 cup pecans or walnuts.

I usually just do brown sugar because although my family is pretty nutty, they don’t like nuts in their desserts.

Old Fashioned Fruit Cocktail Cake

Bake at 350 for 1 hour.

The cake has a light flavor, and the brown sugar caramelizes a bit on top to make it even better.

Some people prefer Fruit Cocktail Cake a little bit thinner…

You can cut this recipe in half and bake it for 30 minutes in a 9×13 pan for a thinner cake.

I prefer the thicker version, but when I bake it for my dad, I make the thinner version because that’s how he remembers eating it as a kid.

And aren’t memories worth recreating? I think so.

Old Fashioned Fruit Cocktail Cake

Try it up. It’s good eating from a simpler time.

Old Fashioned Fruit Cocktail Cake
5 from 3 votes
Print

Old Fashioned Fruit Cocktail Cake

A cake right out of my grandma's recipe box.

Ingredients

Cake

  • 2 cups flour
  • 2 cups sugar
  • 2 tsps. baking soda
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 15.25 oz cans fruit cocktail with juice/syrup

Topping

  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup pecans or walnuts

Instructions

1. Combine the ingredients together in a large bowl.

2. Mix by hand if you want the fruit pieces to stay whole in the cake, use a mixer if you want them mashed up in the cake.

3. Pour the batter into a greased 9×13 pan.

4. Sprinkle topping (brown sugar and nuts) over top of batter in pan.

5. Bake at 350 for 1 hour.

NOTE: You can cut this recipe in half and bake for 30 minutes in a 9 x 13 pan for a thinner cake.

Need another excuse to stay in the kitchen today? Why don’t you try making…

Amish Coffee Cake

Simple Granola: Fast and Slow

Carrot Pie: Yes, I’m Serious

Crusty Round Loaf: Simple and Delicious

Amish Cinnamon Flop Bread

Grandma's recipe for Old Fashioned Fruit Cocktail Cake is ridiculously simple and delicious. The light flavor and slightly caramelized topping is yumtastic.

Do you homeschool? So do we! Check out my book — The Homeschool Highway: How to Navigate Your Way Without Getting Carsick.



25 thoughts on “Old Fashioned Fruit Cocktail Cake”

  • Thanks for the memories! My grandmother, dad’s mom, made this frequently. We lived with her for a number of years. She often served it with a dollop of whipped cream. She passed in 1975, think I’ll be baking it soon!

  • My mother-in-law used to make this all the time. She passed away many years ago. I never made it because if I made her recipes, they never tasted as good as when she made them. Now that I am a grea-grandmother of 5, maybe it’s time I made this again. Thank you.

  • Oh yes this brings back memories of baking this with my grandpa. . I’ll be trying it again soon. Thank you for a. Cherished memory.

  • I have been looking for this recipe that was my Aunt ‘s It was from at least 50 years ago. I’m trying to remember if it had cinnamon or vanilla in it Any thoughts? It definitely was a darker cake so your comments on the sugar content in the fruit cocktail make sense..
    Thanks..

  • 5 stars
    This is a holiday staple in our family. The only things I do different is use the juice from only can of fruit cocktail and use 3/4 cup each of walnuts and brown sugar. The biggest difference, though, is my recipe calls for the dessert to be baked at 275 degrees for 70 minutes or until a knife comes out clean.

  • I love this cake. So easy and Yummy! At school, many years ago, they had a sauce on top. Do you know what that might have been? Maybe a vanilla sauce. Is there a recipe for that?

    • Here’s the recipe my grandma used for the sauce:

      1 cube butter or margarine
      1 1/2 cup sugar
      1 tsp vanilla
      2/3 cup evaporated milk
      Heat on stove then remove to add vanilla. The longer you heat the thicker it gets. We usually heat for 1-2 minutes at a small boil

  • Can the cake be made ahead and put in the freezer for a couple of weeks? We called this ‘Gravy Cake’ growing up because of the sauce. It is so good warm with warm gravy on top.

  • I have yet to make this cake, but it sounds delicious! Would it hurt the recipe if I cut back the sugar to just one cup? Thanks

  • What is the amount of “1 cube of butter”equivalent to ? Cannot rate this recipe because haven’t made this sauce yet , however I will give the cake it will cover glowing five stars. My Mom had fruit cocktail cake on her restaurant’s menu with choice of ice cream OR real whipped cream once a week for many years.

  • thank you for this recipe! My 94 yr old mother used to make this when I was young and I lost the recipe. I always loved the slightly crunchy top and we would serve it with whipped cream. I will serve it this Mothers day and I know it will bring a smile to her face

  • 5 stars
    Passed down throughout 5 generations, we do it in 2 loaf pans! Add the warm sauce just when ready to eat!
    Note on my great grandmother recipe: fruit commodity cake, lumber company.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating