AIBU to think that, Italy, hands down, wins the international battle of the Christmas cake.

[KenDodd]

British, heavy fruit cake, just horrible.
Germany, stollen, not much better.
France, chocolate log, very nice but not very christmassy.
Italy, panettone, just delicious!

Stollen for the win.

I've just pigged down a fabulous slice of heavy fruit cake.

I would rank the cakes in exactly the opposite order to you OP. Panettone is an expensive dried out disappointment Every. Single. Time.

Panettone is bread so you can’t compare it with Christmas cake. I bought the wilkos one because I liked the tin and it was delicious. And it makes amazing French toast.

Toasted and buttered pannetone is the best thing with a cup of tea in the afternoon.

I've just had a couple of slices of trad British Christmas cake and it's the best. Panettone and Stollen have their place but I will have the heavy fruit cake any day.

Fruit cake and cheese. Yes please.

Mincemeat shortbread also a winner here.

Panettone - bread and butter pudding at Easter.

Eurgh no… can’t stand it! Fruitcake or chocolate log for me

@JassyRadlett

I love good panettone. I always wonder if the haters have only ever had the UK supermarket versions.

I also love fruit cake, though the insistence of people about adding cheese to it seems a really good way to ruin a decent cake.

Lebkuchen are even better, though I know they’re biscuits.

From a point of national pride, I’ll say pavlova for the win though.

No, I lived in Milan for two years and had all the good ones but I still really dislike panettone. It is marginally improved by crema di mascarpone but then most things are improved by the addition of booze and cheese. I can also confirm that panettone makes a flipping awesome bread and butter pudding.

Another favourite way to eat fruit cake is to cut off a slice, butter it, sprinkle with cinamon or mixed spice and toast it.

YABVU. Decent panettone is... ok. Crap panettone is absolutely rubbish.
Proper stollen is gorgeous, as is a well-made chocolate log.
YANBU about Christmas cake though - too heavy and solid. And I like the marzipan, but not the teeth-aching layer of pure boring-tasting sugar that is the icing!

YABU. Stollen is scrumptious. Beats the rest by a salivating mile!
With a cup of tea. Quite literally my favourite part of Christmas.

We were given a Stollen, made by a local German bakery (a lot of Germans in our area.). It’s unbelievably dry.

I’ve started putting it out for the birds.

I’ve only had panettone once, didn’t think it was anything special, but I’m sure a proper Italian one would be a lot nicer.

A really, good, moist, fruity Christmas cake is very nice if you like fruit cake. Personally I prefer a lovely, homemade Christmas pudding. You can keep the shop ones - far too dark, dense and heavy.

@BIWI oh yes it was iced and beautiful - a very definite crowd pleaser!

DP are both from the Caribbean but used to make their’s English style so that’s how I make mine. But seeing your recipe I may give it a try next year. Thank you for sharing

I had a gluten free panettone for the first time this year and it was AMAZING. Plump, moist fruit, soft cakey, bready cloud- like deliciousness. I loved it. I had regular panettone years ago and I didn't think I would ever get to eat it again