Here’s a recipe for a delicious, gluten-free, dairy-free Christmas cake that’s rich, moist, and packed with festive flavours. This cake combines a variety of dried fruits, warming spices, and a hint of citrus, making it a perfect holiday treat!

Dairy and Gluten-Free Christmas Cake

Ingredients:

Dried Fruits
– 1 cup raisins
– 1 cup sultanas
– 1/2 cup dried cranberries
– 1/2 cup dried apricots, chopped
– 1/4 cup chopped dates
(or grab one of our 1kg bags of Christmas cake mixed fruit and nuts!)
– Zest and juice of 1 orange
– Zest and juice of 1 lemon

500 g mixed dried fruit
150 g dried apricots – roughly chopped into small pieces
150 g dried dates – roughly chopped into small pieces
100 g dried prunes – roughly chopped into small pieces
100 g glace cherries – roughly chopped
150 ml amaretto – or alcohol or juice of choice
150 g soft brown sugar
125 g hard margarine
125 g coconut oil – melted
1 lemon – zest and juice
1 orange – zest and juice
2 tsp mixed spice
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp vanilla extract
100 g ground almonds
175 g plain gluten free flour blend
2 tsp ground flax seeds
1/2 tsp baking powder
6 free range eggs – beaten

Instructions:

Place the mixed fruits (you could use what you have/want) into a large bowl and cover with 150ml alcohol or juice of your choice. Leave to soak for at least 6 hours.

Line a deep 20cm round cake tin with 2 layers of baking paper. Wrap 2 layers of baking parchment around the outside of the tin too and secure with string (see link below for how to do this).

Once the fruit has soaked, take a huge pan and melt the coconut oil and margarine, along with the sugar.

Once melted remove from the heat and add the spices, orange and lemon zest and juice, vanilla extract and soaked fruit. Stir well.

Add the remaining dry ingredients and stir well again.

Add the beaten eggs and stir to combine.

Place the mixture in your prepared tin and place in a pre-heated oven at 150 degrees (130degree fan-forced), for 2 hours. (You can decorate with nuts if you like at this stage, before baking, or you may like to leave it plain to decorate with marzipan or dried fruits and nuts before serving.)

Remove from the oven, spike all over with a skewer or fork and drizzle with 2 tbsp of your alcohol or juice of choice.

Leave to cool in the tin before wrapping in the baking paper and storing in an airtight container.

You can ‘feed’ your cake every couple of weeks with 2tbsp cointeau or whatever alcohol or juice you like, and this will make sure it is lovely and moist (and boozy!). If you’re using juice rather than alcohol though, it won’t last as long so make the week before Christmas and consume within a week – and store in the fridge!

If you decide you want to ice with marzipan, leave the cake for a week without feeding it before icing to make sure it sticks.

ENJOY!