This beautiful Christmas cake is simple, elegant, and entirely gluten and dairy-free. Topped with dried fruit and nuts and an apricot glaze, it tastes just as good as the classic.
You could also top dairy-free Christmas cake with marzipan and sugarpaste. These ingredients are usually gluten and dairy-free, but it’s always best to check the label. It’s also easy to adapt this recipe for a plant-based diet – check out our top tips at the bottom of the recipe.After a more traditional recipe? You can’t go wrong with Mary Berry’sChristmas cake recipe (opens in new tab).
Ingredients
225g (8oz) dairy-free spread
900g (2lb) mixed dried fruit
100g (3 1/2oz) glace cherries
225ml (8fl oz) dark rum
5 free range eggs, separated
100g (3 1/2oz) unsweetened, tinned chestnut puree or silken tofu or 1 large banana
100g (3 1/2oz) rice flour
50g (1 3/4oz) gram flour (chick pea flour)
2tbsp mixed spice
225g (8oz) soft brown sugar
150ml (1/4pt) clear honey
WEIGHT CONVERTER
grams
to
cups
Method
Soak the dried fruit and cherries in rum for 24 hours.
Preheat the oven to 150°C/300°F/gas 2. Using a little dairy-free spread, grease and line a 23cm (9in) deep cake tin with non-stick baking parchment.
Separate the eggs. Add the egg yolks to the chestnut puree and blend until smooth.
Mix the flours and mixed spice together. Cream the dairy-free spread and the sugar together and beat in spoonfuls of the chestnut puree mixture and the flour until all is added.
Stir in the dried fruit with rum and honey. Beat the egg whites until stiff and fold into the cake mixture.
Pour into the prepared tin and bake for 2-2 1/2 hrs. Store the cake wrapped in baking parchment and tin foil until required.
Top tips for making this dairy-free Christmas cake
Make this cake vegan by replacing the honey with agave or maple syrup. Replace the eggs with chia 'eggs' (1 chia 'egg' = 1tbsp of chia seeds mixed with 3tbsp water, left for five minutes until a gel-like consistency) This cake does not have a long shelf life and needs to be eaten within 2 weeks of making.
Rosie Hopegood is a former professional chef turned journalist with a passion for veggie food. She spent several years working as a chef aboard superyachts, catering for the culinary demands of the very rich and sometimes famous. She also worked as a private chef in the Swiss Alps, the Scottish Highlands, and the Balearic Islands. Later, she spent five years looking after the food pages at Reach Plc’s magazines. Rosie lives in New York and writes for Al Jazeera, Sunday Telegraph, and The Guardian.
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