This recipe for vegan gluten free traditional fruit cake is an ideal basis for gluten-free Christmas cakes, New Year cake and Easter cakes. Icing, gluten-free marzipan and other decorations and ornaments can be added for a festive holiday touch.
The best thing about this recipe is that it is free from added fat, sugar, dairy, egg, nuts, soy and gluten.
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Gluten-free traditional fruit cake it is an amazing bake that is surprisingly naturally sweet and tasty.
This recipe is super simple to prepare and packed full of everyday ingredients.
The fruit cake weighs just over 1 kg/2Ibs and will easily provide 13 servings.
Reducing calories and fat intake but would love a nutritious sweet treat?
A slice of this gluten-free vegan fruit cake is perfect. It has about 213 calories a slice and 2.3 grams of fat.
Even better a slice of this fruit cake provides about 2mg of iron and 5.9g of fibre. Ideal for helping keep hunger at bay.
I love a guilt-free slice with my 3-pm afternoon coffee or even as a quick on-the-go breakfast.
Servings: 13 slices
Calories: 214kcal
Equipment
- 1 kg or 2 pound (Ib) sized loaf pan
- Saucepan
- grater/fruit rind zester
Ingredients
- 170 grams gluten free plain flour I use the Doves Farm brand
- ¼ teaspoon xanthan gum Find this on Amazon or in your local health shop, it helps to prevent the cake from being too crumbly when its sliced.
- 3 teaspoons gluten-free baking powder, sieved if lumpy
- 1 teaspoon mixed spice
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 200 grams dates, chopped and stones removed if any I just use the regular dried dates that you can find on the baking/dried fruit aisle in the supermarket. (If your in the UK Home Bargains has inexpensive dried dates)
- 300 ml water, or 20 and a 1/4 tablespoons!
- 4 tablespoons orange juice
- 50 grams ground sunflower or pumpkin seeds Or any other seed. If you can't have seeds you could try some gluten-free coconut or oat flour. I grind my seeds with my little coffee/nut grinder attachment that I have for my blender. Although you may be able to purchase already ground seeds.
- 500 grams dried mixed fruit use a dried fruit mix, or a combination of any you happen to have. Dried cranberries would be ideal for the festive season.
- 1 whole orange or lemon rind, grated alternatively use 2 tsp of mixed fruit peel
- 2 tablespoons water
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 140 Fan/160 Celsius/325 Fahrenheit/Gas 3.
- Prepare your loaf pan by greasing with either oil or margarine, and lining the greased pan with baking parchment.
- Place the dates with the 300mls of water into a saucepan. Bring to the boil. Lower the heat and simmer for about 10 minutes until the dates are soft.Take the dates off the heat and using a potato masher or fork mush up the dates. Add the orange juice and mix.
- To a mixing bowl add the flour, xanthan gum, baking powder, ground sunflower seeds, mixed spice, and cinnamon.Mix well.
- Scrape the date mush into the mixing bowl with the flour mix. Add the dried fruit, ground almonds and grated rind.Add 2 tablespoons of water.
- Mix well.Spoon into the loaf pan.Using a spoon level the loaf surface.
- Optional: Sprinkle over some whole sunflower, pumpkin or mixed seeds.
- Place onto the middle rack of the oven.
- This loaf cake can take anywhere between 55-90 minutes to bake depending on your oven. It takes about 55-60 minutes to bake in my fan oven.Check after 50 minutes and see if your cake looks golden, and a skewer/knife/fork inserted comes out clean. If not bake for a further 5-10 minutes, and then check again.
- Once baked, leave the loaf in the tin for about 20 minutes before carefully tipping out and placing on a wire rack to cool. If you don't have a wire rack then just leave the loaf on a chopping board sitting in the baking parchment until cool.
- Store your fruit loaf wrapped in clean baking parchment and kitchen foil in a covered container. It should be fine for up to a week, and will taste better each day!If your family can't eat the entire loaf in a week, the leftovers can be wrapped up well and frozen for up to 3 months. Just defrost at room temperature. You could always heat the loaf cake up in the oven after it has defrosted, and serve with some custard for a yummy dessert.
Notes
Recipe notes:
- Fruit cake will keep fresh for up to 5 days, wrapped in parchment paper and kitchen foil, and placed in an airtight container. Store in a cool, dry place.
- Fruit cake can be frozen, for 4-6 months, if well wrapped to avoid freezer burn. Place a piece of parchment paper between each slice for ease of removing single slices. Defrost before eating.
Nutrition
Calories: 214kcal | Carbohydrates: 48g | Protein: 4g | Fat: 3g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 1g | Sodium: 8mg | Potassium: 507mg | Fiber: 6g | Sugar: 29g | Vitamin A: 19IU | Vitamin C: 3mg | Calcium: 117mg | Iron: 2mg
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!
Vegan Gluten Free Traditional Fruit Cake Recipe Notes
- Your fruit cake will keep fresh for up to 5 days, perhaps longer, if kept well wrapped in parchment paper and kitchen foil, and placed in an air-tight container. Store somewhere cool and dry. The fridge is fine as long as the cake is well wrapped.
- Slices or wedges of fruit cake can be frozen for up to 3 months. If individual slices are frozen place a piece of parchment paper between each slice for ease of removing single slices when frozen. Wrap well to prevent freezer burn. Defrost before eating.
- Replace the orange juice with apple or even pineapple juice. I freshly squeezed my orange after I grated the rind for the loaf. I managed to get all 4 tablespoons needed for the recipe from the one orange. If you use apple juice then you could always replace the orange rind with lemon, lime or grapefruit rind if you prefer.
- Any type of dried fruit can be used for this fruit cake.
- Try a slice spread with some jam/preserve/jelly. Check out my vegan sugar-free blueberry chia jam. Yum!
- If your fruit cake does not have to be nut-free then the ground sunflower seeds can be replaced with ground almonds.
- Sub out ground sunflower seeds for ground pumpkin seeds.
- To grind up the sunflower seeds, I use my coffee/nut grinder attachment that came with my cheap blender from Aldi. It whizzes the seeds in seconds.
I purchase my xanthium gum, an essential gluten-free baking ingredient, from Amazon UK as the prices are competitive compared with the supermarkets.
More traditional tasty desserts to discover…
Vegan chocolate custard pudding
Traditional British vegan chocolate flapjacks
Old School Dinners Chocolate Concrete Cake
