Dundee Cake

Appears in
Oxford Companion to Food

By Alan Davidson

Published 2014

  • About

Dundee cake a rich, buttery Scottish fruit cake containing sultanas, ground almonds, and candied peel. Before baking, the top is covered with whole blanched almonds.

The name appears to have been first recorded in the late 19th century. According to sources in the city of Dundee, the cake originated as a by-product of the orange marmalade made by Keiller’s, the famous and long-established marmalade-makers of that city, who found it convenient to make the cakes during the part of the year when they were not making marmalade (and may well have had citrus peel to spare).