Vegan Christmas Cake

This dark vegan Christmas cake is full of seasonal spice and vine fruits soaked in brandy. It’s essentially a very traditional Christmas cake recipe with a few tried and tested vegan tweaks.

As long as you keep the core quantities, you can experiment with flavours – substitute whisky for brandy, for example, or orange for lemon, introduce a new spice, or replace glace cherries for some of the dried fruit.

A spoonful of blackstrap molasses adds depth to the colour and flavour. Along with the apple puree (and the large slug of brandy) it also helps to produce a really moist cake.

Like other rich fruit cakes, this will improve over time. It should certainly be left for a few days at least before being cut, to allow the moisture in the fruits to permeate the cake. If you are keeping it for a few weeks, you can periodically feed it with a little more brandy.

vegan Christmas cake…

ingredients

• 350 g raisins
• 350 g sultanas
• 60 g currants
• 140 ml brandy plus extra for soaking
• grated zest and juice of a large unwaxed lemon
• 175 g vegan margarine (not a low fat variety – 70% fat is good)
• 180 g unrefined dark brown sugar
• 120 g apple puree
• 20 g finely ground flaxseed
• 30 g blackstrap molasses
• 330 g plain white flour (or a 50/50 mix of wholemeal and white)
• 3 tsp baking powder
• 50 g ground almonds
• 50 g chopped pecans
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground cloves
• 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp ground ginger

method

1. First soak the dried fruit. Place the raisins, sultanas and currants in a bowl and add the lemon juice, zest, and brandy. Stir well, cover and leave, ideally for twenty-four hours, but overnight at least.
2. Set the oven to 160°C/320°F and line the sides and base of an 8″ round cake tin. Make sure the lining reaches an inch or two above the top of the tin to help shield the cake from direct heat.
3. Unless you have ready-made apple puree, cook the apple down in a lidded pan with a spoonful of water until soft. Transfer 120g to a blender and add the ground flaxseed, molasses and 100 ml of cold water. Blend to create a thick, rather gloopy mixture. Set aside.
4. Cream the margarine and sugar in a large bowl until light and fluffy, then add the apple mixture and beat further. Don’t worry if it starts to separate, the flour will bring it all back together.
5. Tip the soaked fruit, almonds and chopped pecans into the mixture, and turn over with a spoon until well combined.
6. Sift in the flour, baking powder and spices and turn over again thoroughly, until there are no little pockets of unmixed flour.
7. Transfer the mixture to the baking tin and level the top (don’t make a dip in the middle, as this cake will rise evenly).
8. Bake a little below the centre of the oven for around 2.5 hours, After 1 hour, reduce the temperature to 130°C/265°F. Check the cake with an inserted skewer after about 2 hours 15 minutes. If it comes out clean, the cake is probably ready. If you think the cake needs more time but is browning too much, place a disk of baking paper on top.
9. Leave it to cool before spooning over more brandy (several tablespoonfuls). Once the brandy has soaked in, wrap it well and store it in a tin until you’re ready to eat it.

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