I just love this time of year. There's something so magical about Christmas.Christmas songs on repeat, the scent of pine from the tree and the aroma from a delicious Festive dessert baking away in the oven. It just cant get no better than that!
I have decided to try my hand at the traditional Christmas Cake to share with my loved ones over the holidays. I've kept the main flavours of this Christmas favourite alive but made a few healthy tweaks here and there. The result? A Vegan, Gluten free and Refined Sugar Free Christmas Spiced Fruit Cake.
Im so pleased with how this turned out, the consistency is dense but moist (for lack of a better word) and it holds together nicely with the addition of Chia Egg. I’ve also snuck in a few goji berries in for extra antioxidant points.
If you like your Christmas Cake I would recommend trying this recipe. It goes amazing served with a dollop of coconut yoghurt or vanilla bean nice cream.
What you’ll need
For Soaking:
1/2 cup currants
1/2 cup diced dried apricots
1/4 cup gojis
1/4 cup cranberries
1/4 cup sultanas
1/4 cup dried figs roughly chopped
1/2 cup walnuts
finely grated orange rind from 1 orange
juice from 3 oranges (approximately 1 1/2 cups)
Cake Batter:
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tbsp spices (cinnamon, all spice, cloves, nutmeg)
2 cups gf oat flour
1/2 cup buckwheat flour
2 chia eggs
1/2 cup coconut oil
1/2 cup maple syrup
1 tsp vanilla essence
2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup nut milk
What to do:
Soak dried fruit, nuts and orange peel in your orange juice overnight or atleast 7 hours, this process gives the cake so much more flavour and juiciness and will help the fruit stay moist during the baking process.
The next morning preheat oven to 350F fan forced bake
Prepare your chia egg by mixing 2 tbsp chia seeds with 8 tbsp warm water, stir well and set aside to thicken
Sift your flour, baking powder and spices into a large mixing bowl.
Add maple syrup, oil, chia egg, vanilla essence and the soaked dried fruit mixture (including any leftover juice) and stir well.
In a separate bowl mix together your nut milk, apple cider vinegar and baking soda. (sounds weird but trust me on this) the mixture will start to expand and bubble. Quickly add this to your cake batter and stir in. Ensure you don’t over mix and there’s no time wasted here.
Transfer to your lightly greased spring form cake tin and place in the oven for 1 hour
Check on your cake 40 minutes in. If its starting to brown on the top, cover with a baking tray and continue to bake for the remaining time.
The cake will be done when you can place a skewer in and it comes out clean.
This cooking time will result in a moist cake, if you like your cake a bit more dry I would suggest leaving to bake for an additional 10 minutes.
Once the cake has cooled, carefully remove from your cake tin
Decorate with some rehydrated gojis, dried figs and a sprig of mint
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