How To Candy Almost Any Fruit—And Bake With It Too

Candied fruit isn’t very popular where I live. Perhaps it’s because supermarket candied cherries are bleached, which explains why they taste like nothing. And those pieces in much-maligned grocery-store fruitcake are often candied turnip! It’s no wonder some people think they don’t like candied fruit.

I’m mostly of British heritage, so making my own candied fruit for family classics like fruitcake and hot cross buns was a revelation that resulted in much better baked goods. 

It may look like magic, but it’s not! I share some methods that I’ve tested to make candying as easy as possible—because I am a lazy Taurus who would rather read novels than measure syrup concentrations all day. Figuring out when a batch is perfectly candied might take a little practice, but so does almost everything worth doing.

Allow me to be your Virgil. Welcome to the sweet, fascinating world of candying fruit, one of the most ancient and gorgeous preservation methods in the universe.

Riz à l’Impératrice

This classic French moulded rice pudding flavoured with kirsch-steeped candied fruits is a showstopper, especially if you use a fun mould and go a little ham on the decor. Get this rice pudding recipe.

Welsh Cakes

My granny served these most often from a waxed-paper-lined decorative tin that had been squirrelled away in the freezer. I managed to recapture this beloved cookie-scone hybrid of my youth, including my granny’s special touches of candied citrus and extra spice mixed into the coating sugar. Get this Welsh cakes recipe.

Quince and Mascarpone Cheesecake

I don’t like to pick favourites...but this might be my favourite recipe in the book. Not only is it positively stunning, but I could eat the whole thing myself. Get this quince cheesecake recipe.

Recipes and text by Camilla Wynne. Photography by Mickaël A. Bandassak. Published by Appetite by Random House®, a division of Penguin Random House Canada Limited. Reproduced by arrangement with the publisher. All rights reserved.