While there are some excellent small and online bakers offering Christmas cakes, most of us will be sourcing this festive treat from well-known retailers, which makes finding the best supermarket Christmas cake an important undertaking.
** This article is from 2021 but the reviews, prices and links are still valid! **
That’s because most of the supermarket Christmas cakes are reasonably priced and packed with rich fruit, glace cherries, fondant icing, and many do well in various taste tests.
To find the best supermarket Christmas cakes for 2021, we looked for traditional Christmas cake recipes that offered plump vine fruits to impress whether after Christmas dinner, or to entertain family and friends with a cuppa!
Alongside Waitrose, Tesco, Morrisons and Sainsbury’s, other supermarket cakes to impress came from Lidl and Aldi Specially Selected offerings.
There’s also a trend to offer not just rich fruit cakes and iced Christmas cakes but also salted caramel and sponge cake alternatives.
Most supermarket Christmas cakes have nice decorations, including a traditional Christmas tree, Santa or a snowflake design.
The bottom line is that the Christmas cakes available from supermarkets in the UK for 2021 are very impressive and very tasty.
Tesco Finest Rich Fruit Cake
Tesco has some great Christmas cakes this year, but here at Christmas.co.uk we were really taken by their Finest Rich Fruit Cake.
It costs just £10.50 and will serve 12 people, and this is a hand-decorated fruit cake to impress.
This is a cake that is packed with plump vine fruits, festive spices and glace cherries and lashed with brandy and cognac. It’s a tasty offering, with a deep flavour – and a hint of citrus.
The rich fruitcake has been encased in white icing and marzipan and then finished with a hand placed golden snowflake and gold stencilling.
For the money, the Tesco Finest Rich Fruit Cake really does hit the spot, but Tesco also offers a top iced fruitcake and a lovely ‘Very Merry Go Round’ Christmas cake that serves 18.
Iceland Top Iced Christmas Cake
Another popular choice for Christmas supermarket food is Iceland and their Top Iced Christmas Cake is a cracker.
It costs just £7 and has great reviews on their website.
This is a very rich fruitcake and is packed with glace cherries and sultanas and then topped with soft icing and marzipan.
It has also been hand finished with a star-shaped edible decoration.
Again, this is a cake that is suitable for vegetarians and is great value for money.
If you want a rich fruit cake for your Christmas cake, then this is a very fruity and not overly sweet creation that is good to eat at any time.
We also really enjoyed the Iceland Luxury Christmas Cake that weighs in at 1kg and costs just £8.
It has won a vote of approval from the Good Housekeeping Institute and is another popular choice with customers.
There’s also the smaller, Luxury Rich Iced Fruit Cake that costs £3 with a nice taste of cognac and brandy.
Aldi Luxury Iced Fruit Cake
Another popular supermarket destination for Christmas goodies is Aldi and their Luxury Iced Fruit Cake is a very tasty creation.
This brandy-infused offering is packed with vine fruits and has a sweet marzipan and a hand-finished icing topping.
The marzipan is fairly thin, but this is a great offering that doesn’t detract from the excellent selection of fruits in the cake.
The Christmas.co.uk team also like the Rich and Fruity Iced Fruit Cake that costs £2.69 and is a smaller offering.
Again, it’s packed with lots of fruit with a sweet marzipan and icing topping.
ASDA Extra Special Brandy-Soaked Fully Iced Fruit Cake
Asda doesn’t disappoint at Christmas time and their Extra Special Brandy-soaked Fully Iced Fruit Cake is a dream.
It costs £10 and will serve 14 people with a cake that’s made with raisins and sultanas, along with candied citrus peel, glace cherries, split almonds as well as chopped walnuts. There’s also a detectable amount of French brandy and the soft icing and marzipan really is a standout creation. The sugar decorations are edible, and this is an eye-catching offering.
Again, it’s a popular choice with customers who have left rave reviews for a Christmas cake that is also suitable for vegetarians.
One of the attractions is that this is a moist offering without being too sweet and is packed with fruit to delight.
There’s a smaller, cheaper version of a similar cake which costs £3.50 and will serve six people.
It’s still a very tasty brandy-soaked iced fruitcake to impress.
