Prue Leith’s Christmas Cake Ice Cream

Name: Prue Leith’s Christmas Cake Ice Cream
Yield: 8 servings

This super easy festive desserts is loved by everyone, says Prue in her book Life’s Too Short To Stuff A Mushroom.

Close-up of a bowl containing 3 scoops of ice cream with a spoon next to it

By Prue Leith | Published - 18 Nov 2025

Few children like Christmas pudding, but I’ve never met one who didn’t like ice cream. About forty years ago, I started using the leftover Christmas cake or lump of Christmas pudding in a Christmas dessert made mostly of vanilla ice cream.

Now everyone expects this version of Christmas “pud”. Some years the ice cream is flavoured with leftovers, sometimes I just buy a jar of mincemeat and use that. Sometimes it’s crumbled mince pies.

But the essential thing is to get enough of that Christmas flavour – so taste as you mix, and add a bit of powdered cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and/or ginger, if you need to.

Serves

Ingredients

1 litre/35fl oz shop-bought soft-scoop vanilla ice cream
about 350g/12oz leftover Christmas cake, pudding or mince pies, roughly crumbled
3 tbsp brandy

Method

In a large, chilled mixing bowl, combine the softened ice cream with the crumbled leftovers and the brandy. Take care not to over-mix – you want to see nice big pieces of Christmas pudding, or whatever, throughout.
Line a large plastic pudding bowl or a large loaf tin with cling film, making sure to leave plenty of overhang so that you can wrap the contents fully. Transfer the mixture into the container, then cover the top and freeze the “pudding” for at least 6 hours.
When it’s time to serve, unwrap the ice-cream pudding or loaf and either turn it out to serve in slices or scoop it from the tin.

Notes

Tips for success:

Before you start, chill the cake or pud that you want to incorporate, and chill the big bowl you are going to mix it in and the small container you are going to freeze it in. Line the smaller bowl or tin with cling film to help you unmould the ice cream later. Use soft-scoop ice cream, so you can mix without having to melt the ice cream first. It’s better to have patches of plain ice cream than to beat all the air out of the mixture and end up with a rock-hard frozen dessert. You want the result to be two-thirds plain vanilla ice cream and one third added pudding/cake/mince pies.

Recipe from Life’s Too Short To Stuff A Mushroom by Prue Leith, (Carnival) RRP £25

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Prue Leith wearing colourful glasses and jacket

Written by: Prue Leith

Dame Prue Leith, DBE, is a South African-British restaurateur, broadcaster, cookery writer and novelist. She started a catering business, which grew into Leith’s Good Food, and opened her Michelin-starred restaurant, Leith’s, in 1969. In 1975, she founded Leith’s School of Food and Wine, which trains professional chefs and amateur cooks. Leith was a judge on BBC Two’s Great British Menu for 11 years, before joining The Great British Bake Off in March 2017, replacing Mary Berry, when the programme moved to Channel 4. She advocates for improving food in schools and hospitals.

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