vegan festive fruit cake
Are you hunting around for a grain-free, dairy-free, sugar cane-free, egg-free, plus low FODMAP fruit cake that tastes absolutely scrumptious? Well sorry, I don’t have one….because we ate it all!! But what I do have is the recipe to share with you and that means you can stop hunting and start cooking!
So exactly how is it possible to produce a cake that looks like a fruit cake and has the taste and texture of one without using loads of high FODMAP dried fruit? Once again the faithful blueberry comes to the rescue! Blueberries provide that hit of moist fruitiness and a glorious deep hue of plum brown – which is what you expect to taste and see in a fruit cake.
If you are not too sensitive to oligos (one of the FODMAP family of fermentable sugars) then you can use a few dates here to add further improvements to this cake. Six plump, fresh medjool dates per one large fruit cake that yields 10 – 12 servings should not cause too much trouble. Otherwise you can skip the dates and just use the 100g raisins/currants. Raisins and currants also contain oligos but as long as you limit this cake to one serving per sitting then you should not have any problems.
Because this cake is missing the high amounts of dried fruit I like to add toasted coconut chips to give some chewiness and interest. They work a treat!
I am sad to say that brandy and port are both considered high FODMAP so if you are desperate to add a little something then whiskey*, gin or vodka will simply have to do the job. Remember though that 150ml of port spread between 10-12 portions of fruit cake may not do too much damage. What will most likely cause problems is what happens all too often at this time of the year – overindulging! Particularly if you’re digestive system is not wonderful.
*If you decide to use whiskey then you may want to add about 100ml and make the rest of the liquid up in orange juice otherwise the whiskey will be too overpowering.
Coconut sugar is the choice of sweetener for this cake. As Sarah Britton says in her beautiful book entitled My New Roots “coconut sugar is low-glycemic, full of minerals, and sustainably harvested from the nectar of the coconut palm tree”….. plus it is a low FODMAP sweetener! Yippee!
Crucial to the success of this cake is the quality of the spices to be used – especially when there is no brandy or port to provide the punch you would usually expect to get from a festive cake like this. The spices must rise to the occasion and therefore you want the freshest possible. Apart from the ground ginger the other spices are best purchased whole and ground on the day.
I made two of these cakes and added melted dark chocolate to one of them. Everyone at home was delighted with both results so I have included the chocolate version as well.
As far as decoration goes, Festive Vegan Fruit Cake looks wonderful with a creamy coating of Sugar-Free Vegan Icing on which a shower of coconut chips can cling to. Bare in mind though, hot weather is no friend of sugar-free vegan icings as opposed to your more traditional high sugar coatings. Coconut oil, coconut cream and cacao based icings will droop, drip and drop in the heat unless refrigerated. Does anyone have room in their fridge for a fruit cake at this time of year? I don’t think so. Plus refrigerating this kind of fruit cake spoils the texture making it stodgy.
So, I would suggest if you want to eat iced cake on a hot day then prepare the icing in advance, refrigerate and pull out 15 minutes before you want to serve – this will allow the icing which will be rock hard to soften enough for you to work with. Give it a mix and spread carefully over your cake, sprinkle with coconut chips and serve immediately.
Otherwise, you can break the no sugar cane rule and decorate your cake with sifted icing sugar just before you serve it or arrange a pretty pattern of nuts on top before you cook it. Almonds are often used to decorate fruit cakes but there is already almond meal in this cake and too much of this nut will raise the FODMAP level so I would stick to walnuts or pecans.
Having said all of the above, at the end of the day, no one will be disappointed with a slice of undecorated Festive Vegan Fruit Cake that has been blobbed with a generous helping of unsweetened coconut yogurt onto which untoasted, snow white coconut chips have been lovingly sprinkled.
FESTIVE FRUIT CAKE
250g frozen blueberries
50g currants
50g raisins
1 large orange zest
170ml orange juice
150ml gin/vodka/whiskey*/ orange
160g purified coconut oil
1 tbspn cinnamon, ground
2 tspn ground ginger
1 tspn allspice, ground
½ tspn nutmeg, ground
100g coconut sugar
80g toasted coconut chips
50g pumpkin seed meal
50g chia seed meal
150g almond meal
120g potato starch
½ tspn bicarbonate of soda
1 pinch pink himalayan salt
optional, 6 large medjool dates
coconut chips, to decorate
*whiskey is quite strong so you may want to reduce to 100ml and add extra orange juice
ICING
130g macadamia nuts
60g purified coconut oil
50ml maple syrup
1 pinch pink himalayan salt
CHOCOLATE FRUIT CAKE VERSION
200g 72% dark chocolate, dairy-free
Soak dried fruit in orange juice/alcohol overnight.
Preheat oven to 150C . Line the base and sides of a 23cm springform tin with non-stick baking paper and set aside.
Place soaked fruit with liquid, dates if desired, blueberries, orange zest, and coconut oil in a heavy based saucepan. Over low heat gently bring to the boil, stirring occasionally.
In a large mixing bowl add remaining ingredients and combine well together. Pour in the blueberry mixture and stir until just combined. Pour into prepared tin and bake for 1 hour or until cooked.
For chocolate cake version add the chocolate to the soaked fruit, blueberries mix in the heavy based saucepan and stir until chocolate has melted. Continue recipe as above.
To make the icing place all ingredients into a high-powered blender. Blend until smooth. Pour into a bowl and place in the refrigerator until chilled. Stir until smooth and creamy. Spread over cooled cake and sprinkle with coconut chips.
Serve with unsweetened coconut yogurt if desired.
