I have been so exited to share this recipe on my blog as it is wonderful.
My Healthy Christmas Cake Recipe is Gluten/Dairy and Egg Free ! Yet it is the most delicious xmas cake you will ever taste, that I promise you, the taste is outstanding.
My Christmas cake recipe does not need to be soaked in brandy, does not need marzipan or royal icing, yet it is moist with a fudge texture, packed with flavour and has a wonderful roasted almond topping with a tasty dust of icing sugar on top.
My xmas cake recipe is gluten free, so uses no wheat or gluten products, this Christmas cake recipe is also dairy free which means it uses no cream, milk or even butter or eggs.
How can a christmas cake taste so good, without those added ingredients ?
Well.. Try it yourself and you will see why, as this is the most delicious xmas cake you will ever taste! I promise that if you served this cake to your family or friends they would be certain they were eating an "indulgent cake" full of butter and wheat etc, but the truth is they will be eating a very tasty cake that is so healthy and good for you !
My gluten/dairy free christmas cake is truly AMAZING.
Ingredients for my xmas/christmas cake recipe:
1 Vanilla Pod (chopped in half)
2 Heaped Tbsp Honey
2 Level tsp Candied Peel
1 Handful Almonds
5 Figs (chopped into quarters)
6 Dates (chopped in half)
8 Dried Apricots (chopped into 3 pieces)
1 Handful Sultanas
3 tsp Molasses Sugar
2 Level tsp Olive Oil
1 cup of Hot Water
1/4 Cup Hot Water
3 Large Tbsp Buckwheat Flour
3 Large Tbsp Brown Rice Flour
1 Large tsp Sweet Mixed Spices
3 Tbsp Honey
120g Tin Prunes
1 Level Tbsp Brown Rice Flour
1 Level Tbsp Molasses Sugar
For the Topping..
5 Tbsp Ground Almonds
2 Tbsp Honey (I used white English honey)
Powdered Sugar to Dust
Honey to Spread
Almonds
Apricots
Cocoa Powder or Carob Powder to Dust
2 Heaped Tbsp Honey
2 Level tsp Candied Peel
1 Handful Almonds
5 Figs (chopped into quarters)
6 Dates (chopped in half)
8 Dried Apricots (chopped into 3 pieces)
1 Handful Sultanas
3 tsp Molasses Sugar
2 Level tsp Olive Oil
1 cup of Hot Water
1/4 Cup Hot Water
3 Large Tbsp Buckwheat Flour
3 Large Tbsp Brown Rice Flour
1 Large tsp Sweet Mixed Spices
3 Tbsp Honey
120g Tin Prunes
1 Level Tbsp Brown Rice Flour
1 Level Tbsp Molasses Sugar
For the Topping..
5 Tbsp Ground Almonds
2 Tbsp Honey (I used white English honey)
Powdered Sugar to Dust
Honey to Spread
Almonds
Apricots
Cocoa Powder or Carob Powder to Dust
Getting Started on your Gluten free Christmas Cake Recipe...
Place 2 heaped Tbsp of honey into a bowl with your vanilla pod that has been cut into half.
Add your 2 level tsp of candied peel, handful of almonds, figs, dates, apricots and sultanas.
Now add your 3 tsp of molasses sugar and 2 level tsp of olive oil. Mix well.
Now carefully add your 1 cup of hot water and your 1/4 cup of hot water. Stir well and leave for 2 hours.
After 2 hours you will see that your fruit and nuts have softened and plumped up. Take out both vanilla pods, scrap out the seeds and discard the pod shells. Place the seeds back into your Christmas Cake mixture.
Now sieve into your bowl 3 large Tbsp of buckwheat flour, 3 Large Tbsp of brown rice flour and 1 tsp of sweet mixed spice.
Mix your xmas cake mixture very well.
Mix your xmas cake mixture very well.
Stir your other 3 Tbsp of honey into your mix. Take 12 prunes out of your tinned prunes and discard the prune juice.
You MUST TAKE OUT THE SEEDS FROM THE PRUNES! Once the seeds have been removed from the prunes mush them a little in your fingers as you add them to your cake mixture.
Mix very well.
Add your 1 level Tbsp of brown rice flour and 1 level molasses sugar. Stir very well.
With olive oil and brown rice flour grease and dust a flan dish or cake tin. Pour your cake mixture into your oven dish.
Place into the middle shelf of a pre-heated oven at 180C for exactly 40-45 minutes. Take your christmas cake out of the oven and turn the oven down to 125C - place your cake back into the oven and cook for another 40 minutes.
When 40 minutes is up turn off your oven and leave your cake inside it for another 5-10 minutes. When you take out your christmas cake it will be quite dark in colour but it should not be burnt.
Leave your cake in its tin for 15 minutes or so then take a small sharp knife and gently help the cake from the sides of your tin. Turn it upside down then gently remove the bottom.
Leave your christmas cake upside down on your plate.
Put your cake to the side. Take a flat pan and warm it up with your ground almonds, make sure you keep stiring your almonds around with a spatula until it turns golden brown. If you take your eye of the pan for a moment they may burn so make sure you keep stiring, this takes only a minute or two.
Place your ground pan roasted almonds into a little bowl straight away. Now add your 2 tsp of honey (here I used a white set honey you can use which you like).
Mix well.
Mix well.
Spread a thin layer of honey on top of your xmas cake, this is to help your roasted almond topping stick to the cake. Spread your almond mixture ove rthe top of your christmas cake.
Dust generously with powdered sugar.
Place a christmas tree biscuit cutter in the middle of your cake, dust gently with cocoa or carob powder. Remove the tree shaped biscuit cutter and decorate the edges with strips of almond nut and dried apricot.
Enjoy your Gluten,Dairy, Egg Free Christmas Cake!
I hope you have enjoyed reading Jeenas Christmas Cake Recipe!
Do you enjoy eating Christmas cake ?
Do you enjoy eating Christmas cake ?
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30 comments:
wow! this is quite some recipe and an awesome pictorial. nice one Jeena :)
Its nice to see a Christmas cake without liquor. I, personally, do not like the smell and taste of the fruit cake that takes over at Christmas:(
Happy Christmas, Jeena!
Nice cake,loved the way you did it.
tomorrow we have Eid, here.So going to do some biryani preparations..
Delicious. Really surprised that it is without eggs and butter.
The piece you are holding really looks moist.
Jeena,
I just felt like watching a video!!That's really a step by step ...sorry frame by frame presentation~:))
Wishing you a Happy Christmas Jeena!
I just adore the look of your Christmas cake, full of wonderful fruits,nuts, honey etc mmmmmmmm.... It looks very moist and I could just take a bite out of a slice now!!! :)
Rosie x
Jeena;
What a lovely cake! I don't think I will have time to try it this year, but for sure this recipe is going into my recipe binder. Thanks for this!
What an interesting Christmas cake. Lovely photographs.
Happy Christmas and New Year. Mx
looks great jeena, and with all those nuts and fruits and molasses, it's going to be pure delight! thanks for sharing such a ncie recipe girl!
Merry X'mas:)
Wow, gluten, daury and egg free! That's awesome. I will try to make one for my Christmas Party. Looks like a great recipe.
Hi Jeena,
Hey buddy your X-mas cake looks awesome..presentation is making me to feel little jealous....you are tempting with a bit huh:((
Advance Christmas wishes..
Wow Jeena ! Awesome !! Its a wonderful recipe, and the cake looks just too tempting! You should really be proud of yourselves for this innovative recipe. You put in a lot of effort in posting your recipes, it helps a loot with all those step by step pictures. Thanks for sharing :-)
www.monaafzal.wordpress.com
woah! An Xmas cake minus the month-soaking of fruits...To tel you the truth I aint a fan of fruit cakes...This looks great..do the almonds need to be skinned?
jeena, what an awesome recipe! so creative of you :D
Thanks Nags. :)
Aparna yes my recipe is not as rich as other cakes even with all the fruit. :)
Seena Happy Eid I would love to hear about your biryani. :)
Happy cook it really does taste moist too. :)
RAKS KITCHEN thanks for stopping by I'm glad you liekd the recipe. :)
Thanks Rosie happy christmas to you too. It was a real moist sticky treat. :o)
Lisa you are very welcome thanks for stopping by I'm glad you liked my recipe. :-)
Thanks Mageret Im glad you liked it. :)
Mansi merry xmas,thanks for dropping by glad you liked my cake. :)
Carol it really tastes lovely too, let me know how it goes. :-)
USHA your pictures are great they always make me hungry. :-) I'm glad you like my recipe, thanks for stopping by. :)
Mona thankyou I'm glad you like all the pics. :) I really wanted to make a gluten free cake and it turned out wonderful. :-)
Rachel I use almonds with the skin on you can use which ever you like in this recie. :) Thanks for stopping by. :)
Wow Jeena!
You are a very creative person. This is just a must try cake .Thanks for the nice recipe dear.
Madhavi
This is one of the best eggless fruit cakes i've seen, Amazing!!
I will try this soon, Jeena!
I do keep buckwheat flour & brown rice flour, what can i substitute it with? i don't mind all purpose flour and wheat flour if i get the texture like ur cake :)
Also, the prunes that i've are not stored in any juice, so should i add them to the solution with other dry fruits.
Thanks in advance for your advice.
Hey Richa I have never done this recipe with wheat flour as I made it to be gluten free so I am not too sure how the texture would be. If you have buckwheat and brown rice flour use these you won't believe how good it tastes! If you tasted this cake without knowing about the flours you would probably think it was wheat in there it tastes so nice. I'm gla dyou like this recipe Richa I am sure if you did decide you use wheat flours instead it would taste lovely and moist.
If you don't have the tinned prunes then I would soak a few less in some hot water to soften them up. When prunes are out of a tin they give the cake a real 'fudge' taste to the cake9they are very soft). Also my tinned prunes are soaked in concentrated fruit juice so into your hot water I would maybe add half a teaspoon of molasses sugar maybe, just to give the prunes a little lift.
I hope this helps Richa do let me know if you have any other questions. Let me know how the baking comes along. :-)
P.s remember to drain and discard the juices off your prunes before adding to your cake mixture. :-)
thanks for ur detailed answer, Jeena! really appreciate it.
I mis-typed earlier, i mean't to say I DO NOT keep buckwheat & brown rice flour :(
I've not had very good success with wheat flour, do you think i should go ahead with all purpose flour, i'm so excited about this cake :)
will follow ur advice on prunes, the ones i've are real tasty :)
thanks Jeena!
Hi Richa thanks for getting back to me. I have never used wheat flour for this recipe but I think if your replace the brown rice flour with plain white all purpose flour and replace the buckwheat wheat flour with plain all purpose wholewheat flour. If not I think just using plain white all purpose flour as a replacement for the buckwheat and rice flour will work fine. Remember this is not a cake that is going to rise so don't use any self raising.
Hope this helps let me know how it goes Richa. :)
can i use all purpose flour instead of buckwheat flour and rice flour coz we don't get that back home.secondly, what do i substitute for vanilla pod? will vanilla extract be ok?we don't get vanilla pod here.last of all, the cakes which i bake rise up in a dome shape instead of being level. what do i do?
Hi Anonymous thank you for stopping by my blog.
You can use all purpose flour instead and rice flour. Also vanilla essence or extract will be fine to use instead of a pod.
This cake will not rise in a dome shape because of the ingredients used. It stays much the same as it cooks.
If your other cakes rise into a dome like sponge cakes... make sure you do not open the oven to check on them until they have been in the oven for most the cooking time.
I hope this helps this is a delicious cake I'm sure you will enjoy it. :-)
Your fruitcake looks so moist and tasty! I like the many sweet and healthy ingredients :). The little tree is so cute! :)
Hi Jeena, this looks fantastic, and I've managed to get most of the ingredients I couldnt get here in Spain from the UK. One question, how long will it last in an airtight container? Can I make it now ready for Christmas?
Hi Fizz,
This christmas cake recipe has only lasted two days in our house as it gets eaten up so very quickly.
I would bake the cake a day or two before you want to eat it.
This cake recipe is not like the traditional christmas cake which can last weeks.
Please let me know if you have anymore queries.
Thanks, Jeena. :-)
Thanks Jeena, I'll do a trial run before christmas then and let you know how I get on. I meant to say before - what a fantastic layout, clear, easy to follow instructions and great pictures. Happy Christmas!
What can be used in the place of Prunes, as I am highly allergic to them? Can other fruit like raisin work in their place or some other fruit?
I want to make a fruit cake, but now that I cannot have the gluten, I wanted to find a recipe to use.
Thank you for whatever help that you can suggest.
Hi BealcAs Pad,
In this xmas cake recipe you can not replace the prunes as they play a vital part in the whole texture of the cake.
If you want to make a nice fruit cake try using rice flour in replacment of wheat as it is fantastic in baking.
A good tip is; rather than mixing together the butter and sugar at the beginning of a cake recipe try rubbing the butter and sugar together with the flour just like pastry. Then add the other wet ingredients and fruit etc.
I hope this helps.
Thanks, Jeena. :-)
The Christmas Cake recipe looks really interesting. What are the "Sweet Mixed Spices" in this recipe? Is this something common in the UK? Thank you!
Wow. Wow. Wow. This looks absolutely divine!!
I am set on making this, only problem is I cannot eat honey, so, Jenna, what would you suggest in its place? Would maple syrup or agave nectar be okay or would their flavors not go well with the rest of the ingredients?
Much thanks in advance.
Erroll
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