Christmas Edition: Easy Spiced Fruit Cake

One of my fondest memories of Christmas growing up is having fruit cake. Almost every friend’s or relative’s house I went to had fruit cake and I loved them all. I loved the moistness of the fruit cake and satisfaction that my tastebuds got when I bit into the fruit cake.

Most store bought fruit cakes and even some homemade fruit cakes are laddened with sugar and hence, it is not an everyday cake that I should be snacking on. So, I have tried to recreate a fruit cake recipe that I would not feel guilty eating everyday. This fruit cake is only sweetened with mixed dried fruit (although dried fruit do contain a lot of fruit sugar) and I have used a combination of wholemeal flour and semolina (sugee) to replace the normal white flour that are in most fruit cake recipes. I have also not used any butter or oil in this recipe, so some of you may think the cake will be a little dry, but the cake turned out relatively moist. The trick to keeping the cake moist is to not overbake the cake 🙂

So, this is my healthier fruit cake recipe and I would not be afraid serving this fruit cake at Christmas 🙂 This recipe is vegan friendly, nut free and low GI, so it will keep you fuller for longer. I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I have. As always, please let me know what you think of this recipe.

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Serves 10-12

Ingredients

• 2 cups mixed dried fruit;
• 2 cups boiling water;
• 2 tea bags of your favourite tea (I used Rooibos vanilla tea);
• 1 cup fine semolina/sugee;
• 1 cup wholemeal flour (but you can use normal white flour;
• 1 tbsp. chia seeds;
• 1/2 tsp baking powder;
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon; and
• 1 tsp ground cardamom.

Method

1. In a medium sized bowl, place the dried fruit, boiling water and tea bags and allow to soak for at least 4 hours ( I soaked my dried fruit for 24 hours);
   

   

2. Preheat the oven to 170 degrees Celsius and grease or line a 19cm round baking pan with baking paper;
3. In a large bowl, place all the above ingredients including the soaked dried fruit with the liquid and mix until well combined;
4. Transfer the fruit cake mixture to the baking pan and place in the oven;
   

   

5. Bake for 35-40 minutes or until golden brown. Do not overbake the cake as it will become dry;
6. Remove the cake once baked and allow to cool overnight (the cake will become moist overnight); and
7. Enjoy with a cup of tea or coffee. The cake stores for up to 7 days in a Tupperware.