You only need three ingredients for this Vegan Christmas Cake - dried fruits, self-raising flour, and chocolate flavoured plant-based milk - or an alternative. Ideal for an emergency Christmas cake as it can be quickly and easily baked. It's also great for when you want an everyday fruit cake but are short of time, ingredients, finances, have last minute guests, or just fancy a slice of fruit cake. Although this is a three ingredient Christmas cake you can add extra flavours such as festive spices - ground cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, allspice, mixed spice, or pumpkin spice.
This egg and dairy-free Christmas cake is not heavy like some traditional fruit cakes, instead it is deliciously light, with textures and flavour comparable to a Soreen malt loaf.
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🎄 Origin of Christmas cake
The concept of a celebratory cake during the winter season traces back to ancient times as the Romans had a type of cake called 'Saturnalia', made during Saturnalia, a festival held in December. This cake was made with seeds, raisins, and pine nuts mixed into a barley mash.
In the medieval times, the origins of Christmas cake can be seen with the medieval plum porridge. Plum porridge, was made with oats, breadcrumbs, spices, honey, and sometimes, meat such as beef and mutton, was included. On Christmas Eve folk would fast until Christmas Day where the first meal would often begin with a bowl of plum porridge.
At some point dried fruits were added to the plum porridge which created more of a pudding historically known as figgy or plum pudding. The word 'plum' was used to refer to any dried fruits and the pudding did not have to contain plums!
By the 1700s, Christmas pudding had evolved into a firmer cake with the removal of oats and the addition of wheat flour, sugar, butter, and eggs.
The Victorian era was when the more solid Christmas cake became more of a tradition as the cake became part of the festivities and was often decorated elaborately. The addition of marzipan and royal icing became popular in the Victorian period particularly with the richer classes of society.
This three ingredient Christmas cake is a convenient more modern take on the traditional Christmas cake. It is amazingly moist and delicious. If you like Soreen malt loafs you'll love this fruit cake which has similar familiars.
Nowadays in the UK, Christmas cake is traditionally served near the end of Christmas Day if anyone has any room after the large Christmas dinner, followed by Christmas pudding, then a short while later cheese and biscuits, and possibly a sandwich prepared with leftovers from dinner!
Although, growing up in Glasgow we always had a Hogmanay [New Years Eve] buffet which would have slices of leftover Christmas cake along with shortbread, sultana cake, and madeira cake.
🥣 How to prepare
There are two steps to preparing this fruit cake - the first is to soak the dried fruits in chocolate milk or an alternative liquid overnight - see our recipe notes below for suggestions. The second is to to mix the soaked fruits with flour and bake.
Step 1: Add the dried fruits into a mixing bowl. Pour over the plant-based chocolate milk.
Step 2: Mix and allow to sit overnight or for at least 8 hours so that the dried fruits soak up the milk.
Step 3: Mix the self-raising flour through the dried fruit and milk.
Step 4: Scoop the cake mixture into a lined cake pan.
Step 5: Bake on the middle oven shelf for 50-60 minutes. The cake is ready when a skewer comes out clean, and the cake is dark golden, risen, and just coming away from the cake pan sides.
Step 6: Cool in the cake pan for 30 minutes before carefully removing from the pan and cooling completely on a cooling rack.
Optional: Sift icing sugar [powdered sugar] over the fruit cake. Alternatively, add a layer of vegan-friendly marzipan and/or vegan-friendly royal icing.
📋 Recipe notes
⏲️ Storing
Store wrapped in parchment paper and a second layer of kitchen foil and place in an airtight container for 5-7 days. Store somewhere cool and dry. This cake will not last as long as a regular Christmas cake as it contains less sugar and no alcohol which both act as preservers.
🌡️ Freezing
As this cake keeps fresh for less time than a regular Christmas cake it can be frozen once baked and cooled and then thawed out a few days before Christmas. Store in the freezer wrapped tightly in food wrap and a second layer of kitchen foil, for 3-4 months.
🧾 FAQ'S
Chocolate milk adds a lovely richness and depth of flavour to this cake. It pairs well with the dried fruits, enhancing their natural sweetness and adding a subtle chocolatey background note.
Plus, it's a great vegan alternative to traditional ingredients like eggs or butter, keeping the cake moist and delicious.
Younger family members especially will love the addition of chocolate milk to the fruit cake and to enhance the chocolatey flavour you can always add some chocolate drops to the cake mixture before baking.
Yes you can switch out the chocolate milk but do ensure that your choice of drink is sweetened as the chocolate milk adds to the cakes sweetness level. A few ideas are to use vegan vanilla, strawberry, or banana milk, or for a more traditional touch use sweetened black or green tea, sweet chai tea, sweetened herbal or fruit teas, or go with fruit juices like orange, apple, tropical, and cranberry juice. Sweet iced coffee can also be used.
Preparing your own plant-based chocolate milk is easy. Simply mix your favourite vegan-friendly chocolate milkshake powder with a plant-based milk of your choice. Alternatively, make a vegan hot chocolate, let it cool, and use that.
Yes you can add some alcohol to the dried fruits, just reduce the amount of chocolate milk or an alternative, by however much alcohol you use. If you are using a large amount of alcohol you might want to choose a sweet variety so that it also contributes sweetness to the cake. Adding alcohol will help preserve the cake for longer.
You can use a pre-mixed dried fruit blend or make your own mix with currants, raisins, sultanas, chopped apricots, or dates, etc. Feel free to experiment with different combinations but do chop any larger pieces up.
Soaking the dried fruits is an important step for this cake. Overnight is good, but for an even richer flavour, you can soak them for 1-2 days in the refrigerator. This process plumps up the fruits, making them juicier and infusing them with the liquid you're using, be it the chocolate milk or any alternative.
There are a few tasty ingredients that you can add to this cake recipe - a handful of chopped nuts such as walnuts or almonds, candied citrus peel, candied fruits, glace cherries, chocolate chips, or for extra festive flavours add some ground cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, allspice, ground cloves, mixed spice, pumpkin pie or apple pie spice mix.
If you'd like to prepare this cake with no added sugars then you can use fresh orange or fresh apple juice instead of the chocolate milk. However, although the cake will be added sugar-free it will still contain natural sugars.
Once your cake is baked and cooled you can either dust it with icing sugar [powdered sugar] for an easy snowy effect, or get creative with vegan icing, edible flowers, or even themed decorations like little Christmas trees or stars.
If you would like to cover the cake with a fruity glaze we have an easy method over on our Quick and Easy Christmas Cake recipe.
Alternatively, you could source vegan marzipan or ready made royal icing and use it to add a tasty festive addition to the Christmas cake. We have sourced vegan-friendly marzipan and ready-made icing from Lidl [UK].
It may not be traditional but a slice of this cake spread with vegan butter or margarine is actually very tasty as its similar to a Soreen malt loaf.
👪 More vegan Christmas recipes
We love traditional Christmas cakes, puddings, and dumplings so we have a few more deliciously vegan recipes to share - two tasty pudding recipes - our Slow Cooker Christmas Pudding and this Old-Fashioned Christmas Pudding [can be cooked on the stove-top or microwave] that is a war era recipe originating during the 1940.
For the easiest Scottish Clootie Dumpling ever you can't go wrong with this quick microwave recipe, and for a traditional festive cake our Quick and Easy Christmas Cake recipe is prepared with festive mincemeat and wholemeal flour.
***please note: for US measurements click the 'US customary button' within the recipe and the measurements will switch to tablespoons, cups, and ounces.***
📖 Recipe
Vegan Three Ingredient Christmas Cake
Equipment
- Mixing bowl
- Cake pan about 8 inch diameter by 3 ½ inch height (20 cm x 8-9 cm)
- parchment or baking paper
- sieve
- cooling rack
Ingredients
- 225 grams self-raising flour [self-rising flour]
- 550 grams dried fruit mix [either a ready prepared dried fruit mix or a mixture of currants, raisins, and sultanas]
- 550 millilitres chocolate plant-based milk [or an alternative, see recipe notes]
Instructions
Soak the dried fruits and milk together the night before you bake the cake
- Add the dried fruit to a mixing bowl and pour in the milk. Stir and leave to soak for at least 8 hours or pop the bowl in the refrigerator and soak for 1-2 days before using.550 grams dried fruit mix, 550 millilitres chocolate plant-based milk
Bake the cake:
- Preheat oven to 150 fan, 170 Celsius, 375 Fahrenheit or Gas 3.
- Prepare a cake pan by greasing with margarine or oil and lining with parchment paper.
- Sift the flour into the mixing bowl with the soaked dried fruits and milk.225 grams self-raising flour
- Scoop the cake mixture into the cake pan and level out the top.
- Place the cake pan on to the middle shelf of the oven. Bake for 50-60 minutes until a skewer comes out clean. We baked the cake using a fan oven and the cake was baked after 55 minutes.
- Leave the cake in the pan for at least 30 minutes before carefully removing to cool on a cooling rack.
Notes
- Nutritional data is provided for guidance only and is not a strict calculation as ingredients vary.
- Store this fruit cake wrapped in parchment paper and a second layer of kitchen foil and place in an airtight container for 5-7 days.
- This cake will not last for months compared to a Christmas cake baked with sugar and alcohol, or fed with alcohol, as the alcohol helps preserve cakes.
- Freeze the fruit cake for up to 4-5 months. Wrap tightly in greaseproof paper or food wrap, and a second layer of kitchen foil. An additional layer in the form of a freezer proof bag is a good idea.
- You can make your own plant-based chocolate milk by mixing vegan-friendly chocolate milkshake powder with plant-based milk. Or by preparing vegan hot chocolate and then cooling the drink to use for the cake.
- We have used Alpro chocolate soya milk for this recipe, as well as Co-op [UK supermarket] Gro cookies and cream plant-based shake - which is oat milk and cocoa powder.
- A few ideas to replace the chocolate milk if preferred: vegan vanilla milk, vegan strawberry milk, vegan banana milk, chilled sweet coffee, cold sweet black tea or similar, sweetened herbal or fruit tea, sweet chai tea, orange juice, apple juice, cranberry juice, or your favourite fruit juice.
- Any combination of dried fruits can be used for this recipe, chop up any large pieces of dried fruits such as dried apricots or dates.
- For an extra festive flavour you can add warm spices such as ground cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, allspice, ground cloves, mixed spice powder, pumpkin pie spice, or apple pie spice.
Nutrition
💬 Comments
Prepared our Vegan Three Ingredient Christmas Cake? We would love to know how you got on with the recipe and whether you substituted any of the ingredients, so do drop us a comment below and click the star ratings. It's very much appreciated. Thanks so much! Love Jacq x
Mavis Hunt says
This is my come to recipe for the family now. my daughter has an egg allergy and other family members have diabetes. This means it's family friendly if eaten in moderation. That's not easy because it's so tasty.
Jacq says
Aww, that's lovely the Christmas cake recipe is one of your family favourites. Comments like this always bring a smile to my face. Thanks! 🙂
Mavis Hunt says
Have used this recipe many times and it is now a family and friends favourite. We use it a our Christmas cake now as it pleases everyone. Thank you.
Jacq says
You're very welcome, Mavis, thanks for your lovely comment. My family also loves this recipe. Jacq x
Mavis says
used your recipe last year it was a great success. Just made it again this year so much easier than my traditional recipe. with arthritis it's much easier to prepare. Thank you.
Jacq says
That’s great you’re very welcome! Glad you found the recipe easy with your arthritis. I have an autoimmune condition that causes inflammatory arthritis so I do understand the need for recipes that are easier on the hands and wrists x