I was determined to try my hand at making my own vegan friendly Christmas cake this year and I'm pleased to say that I have succeeded! I'm so pleased with how this cake turned out, I just had to share with you all on the blog and hopefully inspire some of you to get your aprons out and have a go at making one yourself. Considering I hadn't made a Christmas cake for about roughly twenty years since my Food Tech class at school, I found it pretty easy and straight forward to do. And that's coming from someone who really doesn't bake much!
Ingredients
500g Dried fruit of choice - I went for sultanas, raisins, glacier cherries, apricots
1 small bottle of brandy
2 tbsp ground chia seeds
6 tbsp water
225g self raising flour
225g vegan butter i.e Pure / Vitalite / Flora Dairy Free
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp mixed spice
1 jar of apricot jam
Ready to roll icing (I got mine in Waitrose)
Ready to roll marzipan (I got mine in Waitrose)
Reindeer decorations
Method
Place all of your dried fruit into a bowl and soak with brandy. Cover over with foil and leave to soak for as long as you desire. I started mine in November so it sat soaking for a good few weeks but it's also fine if you only have a day or so.
Pre-heat your oven to 150 / gas mark 3.
Grease your baking tin.
Add the sugar to your soaked fruit and stir well.
Place your ground chia seeds into a bowl, add 6 tbsp of water and stir until you have a gloopy paste.
Add the chia seed mixture, the vegan butter, flour and spices to your bowl of fruit.
Stir well to combine and then pour the mixture into your baking tin.
Place into the oven for one hour and then cover your tin with some tin foil and place back into the oven for a further hour.
Remove your cake tin and the tin foil to check how your cake is baking after 2 hours in the oven. Place a cocktail stick through the middle of the cake and then remove. If your cocktail stick has any sticky residue on it then place your cake back into the oven for a further 15- 30 minutes, checking again as you go along.
Once your cake is baked allow to cool down for a few hours at least.
Once cooled used a spatula to spread apricot jam all over your cake. This will act as a glue for your marzipan.
Knead your marzipan for a good few minutes before rolling out with a rolling pin. It will help to scatter some icing sugar onto whatever surface you are using for this stage.
Cover your cake with marzipan and trim away the edges. If you have any sinkage on your cake then you can attempt to cover this by layering with marzipan.
Cover your cake with apricot jam again so your icing has something to stick too.
Roll out your icing to a suitable thickness and place over your cake on top of the the marzipan layer. Don't roll your icing out too thin or it will break when you move it! You want it to be a good few mm in thickness.
Using your hands, gently rub the icing all over the cake and down the sides using a brushing technique to ensure a smooth finish. You can see how I do this in my cake making vlogmas episode!
Again, trim away any excess icing and if you'd like to keep it just wrap it up in some tin foil. I plan to use my excess icing on some homemade vegan mince pies soon.
Finally place your decorations in their correct position and et voila! Your vegan Christmas cake is finished.
We've already cut into this cake and I can confirm it tastes as delicious as it looks! I also think the decorations on this cake are key to making it a real show stopper and yet they're so easy and straight forward to apply. If you're looking to impress your family this Christmas and show them how easy and tasty vegan cake can be then this is the recipe for you.
If you do have a go at making one be sure to send me your photos of your own creations as I'd love to see them!
Merry Christmas!
x
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