My family love a slice of Christmas cake during the festive season and if I am visiting them for Christmas, I’ll make each of them a vegan Christmas cake. It’s nutritious, rich and moist without using eggs, sugar or flour. The cake is made of fruit and nuts and uses almond meal instead of flour and orange juice as the sweetener. Making it is easy because you simply combine all the ingredients into a bowl and stir, pour into a lined cake tin and bake for two hours. The cake can be stored up to 3 weeks.

Health benefits:

·       Dried fruit is highly nutritious, contains a lot of fibre, is a great source of antioxidants which improve the blood flow, aids digestive health and reduces the risk of many diseases.

VEGAN CHRISTMAS CAKE

Use a 20 cm springform tin

PB, V, DF, RSF, GF

1 cup (150 g) sultanas

1 cup (150 g) raisins

1 cup (160 g) currants

½ cup (70 g) glace cherries

½ cup (110 g) mixed peel

OR 4 cups mixed fruit

1 cup (240 ml.) orange juice

zest of 1 orange

1 tsp (3 g) ground cinnamon

1 tsp (3 g) mixed spice

½ tsp (1.5 g) grated nutmeg

1 tsp (4.2 g) vanilla extract

3 tbsp (40 g) grapeseed oil

2½ cups (300 g) almond flour

1 tsp (3 g) baking powder

2 tbsp (20 g) flaxseed meal

Cake top decoration:

sugar-free apricot jam

walnuts and blanched almonds

glace fruits - cherries, figs, orange slices, pears, peaches

Preheat the oven to 170’C. Line a 20cm cake tin with four layers of baking paper on the sides and bottom. Add the dried fruit to a bowl with orange juice and soak for 2 hours, stirring several times. Add the remaining ingredients and stir into a batter. Pour the batter into a cake tin and bake in the middle of the oven for 1 hour 45 minutes. Insert a skewer into the middle of the cake and if it doesn’t come out clean, bake a further 5-10 minutes. Cool on a wire rack and then remove from the cake tin still covered in baking paper. The cake may be stored in an airtight container up to 3 weeks.

When ready to prepare for Christmas, place on a cake stand. Brush apricot jam over the top surface of the cake. Decorate with walnuts and blanched almonds and glace fruits like cherries, pears, peaches, figs and orange slices. Optional topping: use marzipan before adding glace fruits and nuts.