You don’t need to go without anything if you are vegan. You can certainly have your cake and eat it too especially at Christmas.
This vegan Christmas cake is a favourite of many of my newsletter subscribers. You can sign up to my newsletter here.
It is certainly best made a few months before wanting to eat it but also is lovely freshly made.
It will last 12 months or more if stored well in the fridge. It needs to be wrapped up in baking paper and then put in an airtight container.
As it is very rich you only need a small piece.
Christmas Cake
For a nut free version check the notes below.
Ingredients
175g currants
175g dried apricots cut up finely
175g sultanas
120g figs cut up finely
100ml brandy
¼ cup gluten free self raising flour
1¾ cups almond meal
75g crystalised ginger cut finely (you can get the one these days that is rolled in rice flour rather than sugar)
2/3 cup rapadura sugar
Finely grated rind of 1 lemon,
Finely grated rind of 1 orange
½ tsp ground cinnamon
¼ tsp fresh nutmeg
½ tsp all spice
2 tbsp chia seeds
½ cup soy milk – you may need more if it feels too dry
20 blanched almonds
Extra brandy for feeding the cake before eating
Method
- Soak the fruit in the 100ml brandy from anywhere between 12 hours and 5 days. The longer the better it seems.
- Mix the chia seeds with the almond milk and wait for the seeds to swell. Mix the flour, almond meal and sugar with the cinnamon, nutmeg and all spice. Fold in the fruit and, ginger and lemon and orange rind. Mix in the chia seeds.
- Line a square or heart shaped tin with baking paper and then spoon in the cake mixture. Press the blanched almonds into the top of the cake in whichever shape you like.
- Cut a piece of baking paper to cover the top of the cake. Cut out a little hole in the centre of this paper and then place over the cake.
- Bake in the oven at 100°C for up to 3.5 hours.
- Once the cake is cooked (to test if it is cooked it will spring back when you press on it), place it on a wire rack.
- When it is cool, place it in an airtight container in the fridge. Before eating you can prick some holes in the bottom of the cake and then feed more brandy into it.
*If you want a nut free version- use gluten free flour instead of almond meal- I make a mix with sorghum, buckwheat and millet flour. And use soy or rice milk instead of almond milk.
