Gluten Free Christmas Cake - Coeliac Sanctuary

https://www.coeliacsanctuary.co.uk/recipe/gluten-free-christmas-cake

Posted On: 2nd November 2014

Christmas isn't complete without a Christmas cake, this one is gluten and dairy free and is easy to make, plus it is lovely and moist too with the added Sherry! We have packed it full of delicious mixed fruit and cherries, just like a proper Christmas cake and added almonds to the mix to make it lovely dense but still moist and full of flavour as a fruit cake should be. If you don't want to use Sherry, switch to orange juice

Ingredients

500g (combined weight) mixed fruit, mixed peel and glace cherries
100ml sherry (or orange juice if you want to keep it alcohol free)
125g sunflower spread
125g brown sugar
150g gluten free plain flour
3 eggs
2tsp mixed spice
100g ground almonds

To Decorate
40g apricot jam
Ready to Roll marzipan
Ready to Roll icing

Preparation Time: 3 Hours 30 Mins
Cooking Time: 2 Hours

This recipe contains

Egg, Tree Nuts

Method

1.Place the mixed fruit, peel and cherries in a large bowl, pour on the sherry and mix well. Cover and leave to absorb for a minimum of 3 hours but ideally overnight.

2. Cream together the sunflower spread and brown sugar in a large mixing bowl until light and fluffy.

3. Drain the unabsorbed sherry from off the fruit into a jug.

4. Beat the eggs, 2tbsp of the unabsorbed sherry (or extra if you have none left over) and mixed spice into the creamed sugar and sunflower spread

5. Fold in the flour, until its mostly mixed it, then give it a good beat, this should bring the mix together.

6. Stir in all the fruits and the ground almonds and mix well.

7. Grease and line and 8 inch cake tin, pour in the mixture and bake in the oven on gas mark 4 for between 1 hour 15 to 1 hour 30. Once a skewer or knife pushed into the middle of the cake comes out clean the cake is done.

8. Remove from the tin and allow to cool on a cooling rack. This cake will keep for a good few months so you can make it well in time for xmas, just keep feeding the bottom of the cake with a few teaspoons of sherry every week to keep it moist, then nearer to Christmas you are free to decorate it it however you want!

NB: To ice the cake, level the top off with a knife, spread over half the jam (and round the sides if you want to fully ice). Roll out the marzipan and then drape over the cake, trim off excess and smooth out. Once again cover in jam, roll out the icing and again drape over, trim excess and smooth.

Sunflower spread can be replaced with normal margarine if dairy free is not required

This recipe makes 12 servings
Nutritional info per serving