[1][2] Dundee cake recipes often incorporate ingredients like butter, sugar, lemon zest, orange zest, marmalade, flour, baking powder, eggs, milk, dried fruit, glacé cherries, candied citrus peel, currants, sultanas, ground almonds, and finally blanched almonds for a decorative finish.

The only ingredients allowed according to the Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) application for Dundee cake are as follows: salted butter, sugar (caster, granulated, light or dark soft brown), free-range eggs, thick peel Seville oranges (concentrated or other), finely grated orange zest, plain cake flour, sherry (optional), ground almonds (optional), sultanas, whole blanched almonds or split almonds.

After 1980, the cake was withdrawn from the market; however, it continued to be supplied privately as a corporate Christmas gift by the maker.

Queen Elizabeth II was reported to favour Dundee cake at tea-time.

[8] In The Gathering Storm, Winston Churchill is depicted as a fan of the Dundee cake.