Vegan Quick And Easy Christmas Cake

Once cool wrap the cake up in a layer of greaseproof/parchment paper and a second layer of kitchen foil. Some prefer to wrap in 2 layers of parchment paper and and additional 1 or 2 layers of kitchen foil.

Place in a cake tin or other suitable food-safe plastic container or storage.

It's best not to wrap in cling-film or Saran wrap as this can encourage sweating of the cake and encourage mould to grow.

Store for 1 month either decorated or undecorated. Although some Christmas cakes can last for several months if baked and stored properly.

Yes.

Simply wrap up well and place in the freezer for 4-6 months. To defrost unwrap the cake and place on a chopping board or similar until fully defrosted and at room temperature.

Whole cakes or single slices can be frozen, place a piece of greaseproof paper between each slice so that it is easy to remove a few slices at a time.

Christmas cake be frozen either decorated or undecorated.

Of course not.

This cake is delicious as it is without additional decorations but it can be nice to decorate the cake according to any special occasions it may be baked for.

For Christmas or enjoying during the festive season, including Hogmanay or New years Day, a marzipan and iced topping is always tasty. You may be able to source vegan friendly marzipan and royal icing or find a recipe. I don't have one as yet but will link here when I add those recipes to the blog.

The marzipan and/or iced topping can have little marzipan festive hand-made figures added, or ready-made vegan-friendly decorations or inedible décor to suit the occasion. Or a simple water icing topping can be poured over the cake and allowed to drizzle down the sides for an impressive effect. Water icing is simply icing/powdered sugar mixed with a little water until the desired consistency is achieved.

A different decoration is to prepare a fruit glaze and add a whole-nut topping. This is a nice simple alternative to decorating the fruit cake with icing or marzipan. Check out the recipe card below for an easy method.

As well as whole-nuts add some glace cherries or other candied fruits if liked.

A British Simnel cake is traditionally enjoyed during Lent, Easter and Mother's Day. A Simnel cake is a fruit cake with a marzipan top and little balls of marzipan arranged around the top of the cake. Use vegan marzipan if you'd like to prepare a vegan Simnel cake.

Yes and no. Feeding is entirely up to the individual.

Some people prefer to feed their Christmas cakes as they believe it produces a moister, more flavourful cake and it can help to preserve the cake for longer if fed small amounts of alcohol such as brandy or port.

Others prefer not to be bothered with the additional steps of feeding their cake and still end up with delicious Christmas cake.

To feed a fruit cake simply use a skewer or toothpick or similar, to pop little holes over the surface and then drizzle in about 1-2 tablespoon's of your chosen liquid. Popular choices include brandy, port, or sherry.

Festive cakes are usually first fed a day or so after baking.

Fresh orange or apple juice can be used instead but this choice of liquid won't have any preservation effects on how long the cake will keep for, but will still result in a tasty cake.

Just be careful not to overfeed a cake and only to feed the cake a 1-3 times as you don't want to risk moistening the cake too much.

*** just a note to say that this Christmas cake recipe produces a deliciously moist cake and especially more so if the fruit glaze is used. So feeding is likely not necessary, but if storing the cake un-decorated for a longer time period you may choose to feed it a little if preferred***

I have not tested this cake with gluten-free flour but in theory the flour could be replaced with a ready-prepared gluten-free plain flour blend.

Using a flour blend which is a mix of different gluten-free flours tends to provide the best cake result with a better crumb, as opposed to using just one flour such as almond, oat or coconut flour.

As well as a gluten-free flour blend add about ¼-1/2 teaspoon of xanthium gum which helps prevent the cake from being too crumbly and falling apart as the cake is sliced. Lastly ensure that the rest of your ingredients are free from gluten.

***For a gluten-free fruit loaf cake that is also sugar and fat free: gluten-free fruit cake tea loaf.***

A jar of mincemeat is required for this recipe but the mincemeat is not conventional and does not contain meat of any kind!

During British medieval times mincemeat, a mix of fermented fruit and minced or chopped meat, was prepared for pies. But nowadays jars of mincemeat intended for festive pies is often a blend of spices, dried fruits, fruit peel, sugar and suet. With brandy often added.

For vegan mincemeat it is important that the mincemeat contains vegetable suet and not animal suet.

Vegetable suet is prepared with vegetable oil into a hard white looking fat that is formed into little dried pieces.

**In recipes vegetable suet can be replaced by freezing a block of vegan butter and then grating it into the recipe**

For an easy home-made mincemeat recipe check out the BBC Good Food recipe.