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Vegan Gluten free Christmas Cake Fruit Cake full of nuts, dried fruits, dates, seeds, candied ginger. Soft, Flavorful and great for gifting. Vegan Soyfree Recipe.
I am not sure why fruit cakes have a bad rap. They used to be a treat we would wait for around Christmas. Soft, Sweet, full of fun stuff for us kids I guess. Maybe we just lucked out with a fabulous bakery. 🙂
I make versions of my Spelt spiced fruit cake if not baking a load of cookies every year. This version is adapted from spelt flour version. I use almond flour and rice flour to keep it gluten-free. The cake keeps well refrigerated for a few weeks if you use liquor or a week with orange juice. Serve as is or with a bourbon/rum glaze! Add nuts or seeds that you like, some dates, apricots, cherries. I also added some roasted sunflower seeds and chia seeds, so the cake is also great to snack on.
More gluten-free baking from the blog
- Gluten-free Cinnamon Roll Bread yeast-free.
- Sweet Potato Crumb Cake.
- Gluten-free Brownies
- Sweet Potato Blondies.
- Gluten-free Lemon Donuts
- And many more here
If you make this cake or any of the above gf bakes, let me know how they turned out! Send me pictures, Tag me on social media.
Soak the nuts, seeds, dried and candied fruit in orange juice or juice + liquor.
Whisk all the dry ingredients, them combine with the wet.
Vegan Gluten free Christmas Cake - Fruit Cake
Ingredients
- 1 cup orange juice or a combination with liquor, (upto half cup of rum, brandy, whiskey or a mix)
- 1.25 to 1.5 cups dried fruits and nuts, (I use pecans, cashews, walnuts, roasted sunflower seeds, candied ginger, currants, chopped dates, candied orange peel, cherries/apricots etc)
- 1 tbsp chia seeds, (not optional as they help thicken the leftover orange juice. You an use 1.5 tbsp flax seed meal as a sub)
- 1/4 to 1/3 cup light brown sugar
- 2 tbsp oil, (I use organic safflower)
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup white rice flour
- 3/4 cup almond flour
- 1/4 cup potato starch
- 1.5 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp citric acid, , optional **
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
Instructions
- Add juice, dried fruit, nuts, seeds, and chia seeds to a bowl and mix. Let sit refrigerated for a few hours to overnight.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (180 C). Line a loaf pan with parchment or grease it.
- Take the juice bowl out from the fridge. Add sugar, oil and vanilla to the bowl and mix in until sugar is combined. In another bowl, add the dry ingredients and whisk. (You can omit the citric acid from the dry. I like the air it adds to gluten-free baked goods. See my glutenfree cinnamon roll bread post for details about the use of citric acid)
- Combine the dry and wet and mix to make a batter. Drop in parchment lined pan.
- Bake at 350 degrees F for 45 minutes. Check with a toothpick from the center of the cake. it should come out almost clean. Bake longer if needed.
- Cool for 10 minutes, then remove from the pan. Cool completely before slicing (cool lightly covered by a towel). Store on the counter covered for upto 2 days, refrigerate for upto 10, freeze for upto 2 months. If using liquor, you can store the cake on the counter and refrigerator for longer.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
I made this today, and it is absolutely delicious with great texture! The only change I made in the recipe is I used buckwheat flour instead of rice flour. I loved fruitcake as a child, but this is much lighter and not so sweet. ❤️
Thats awesome! So glad it turned out great!
Hi Richa,
Looks delicious ! If using regular flour , can we substitute Einkorn flour for spelt flour?
yes
I’m going to try a pre-mixed gluten-free flour with some almond flour. My guys have been asking for something like the extremely decadent poppy seed cake we used to get for Christmas morning. Thank you for sharing your inspiring recipes! It always brightens my day when I see one in my inbox.
Awesome! yes many people have made my other recipes with almond flour + bob’s red mill 1 on 1 gf blend for all the other flours and it generally works out fine.
Thank you Richa. Can’t wait to try this as written. I might also try another loaf with say Bob’s Red Mill GF Flour to regular Flour mix…
I like its light on the sugar!
Wow thank you so much for this recipe! I was wondering…..can I leave out the sugar? And could another starch be used other than potato? corn (non-gmo of course)? …otherwise I can eat everything in this cake….thank you so much!
I havent tried it with corn, but it might work. You can leave out the sugar if you have enough balance of dates, currants, etc dried sweet fruit. Chop the dates small for good distribution of sweetness.
Looks delicious!! Is there any replacement could be used for potato starch?
It might work with cornstarch, but i havent tried it.
You are awesome 👏🏻 . Is there a replacement for almond flour,? my daughter is allergic to almonds.
I have tried different flour combinations before if you see my gluten-free baking category with oat and rice flour combination. Almond flour makes the best texture and moisture so far. You can use oat flour + rice flour + some sunflower seed meal+ more starch and add a 1/2 tsp xanthan gum and make it. Make a thicker batter than pictured, and bake a muffin to see if it bakes well before baking a loaf. If the muffin falls a bit after baking, you can add a bit more flour to the batter and adjust before baking the loaf. You also want to cover the loaf with a kitchen towel while cooling as rice and oat flours loose moisture quickly.
Dear Richa
I would love to test this receipe but I never use Rice flour. Would it be possible with buckwheat instead?
Thank you 😉
yes, use buckwheat and definitely the potato starch with it.
Thank you!
Will be the cake for Christmas breakfast and tea time! Definitely! 😉
Merry Christmas!
Awesome!
This makes me so happy! As a child (and pre-vegan days as an adult) I used to look forward to receiving my grandmother’s fruitcake every year. She is no longer with us, but the nostalgia is still there. Thank you for sharing this, it will be wonderful to be able to continue her traditions with something everyone can enjoy!
Thank you. My grandma used to get us the cake from a bakery near her home run by a friend. A small homely shop with all home baked fabulous options. Those are some special memories.
Richa, you’ve been flooding us with delicious recipes! I will add this to my to-do list. You rock 😁
I have 3 more to go i think and I am trying to fit them in before everyone leaves for vacation 🙂 <3 <3