No Added Sugar Fruit Cake
Easy no added sugar fruit cake with dried fruit and spices. Moist, sugar free fruit cake with a gluten-free option, suitable for Christmas.
Ingredients
- 375 g mixed dried fruit
- ½ orange or 1 clementine
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ⅛ teaspoon ground allspice
- 2 large eggs
- 100 g butter, well softened
- 150 g plain flour
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- 1 tablespoon milk
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 160/140 fan.
Preparing the fruit
- Zest the orange and squeeze the orange juice, and make up to 100 ml with water. Add to a pan along with the dried fruits and spices. Bring to a gentle simmer for 5 minutes or until most of the juice has been absorbed. Leave to cool.375 g mixed dried fruit, ½ orange, 1 tsp ground cinnamon, ⅛ tsp ground allspice
Preparing the tin
- Whilst the fruit is cooling, prepare the tin. Line the bottom and sides of a 1lb loaf tin with buttered greaseproof paper or baking parchment.
Making the cake batter
- Beat the eggs, and mix in the softened butter, flour and baking powder. Stir in the milk. Add the cooled soaked dried fruit and mix well. Spoon the mixture into the prepared tin and smooth the top level2 large eggs, 100 g butter, well softened, 150 g plain flour, ½ tsp baking powder, 1 tbsp milk
Baking
- Bake for 1 hour. If you are making double the quantity, increase the baking time to one and a half hours. The cake should be lightly browned, and if you insert a skewer if should come out clean or with a few crumbs. If it looks like there's raw batter on the skewer, pop the cake back in the oven for another 10 minutes and retest.
Notes
- If you want to make a healthy Christmas cake, double the recipe and bake in a 23 cm round tin. Add an extra 30 minutes to the baking time.
- You can also add alcohol such as brandy or orange liqueur instead of the orange juice.
- Chopped nuts will also make this cake more festive - if you making a double quantity, add 100 g of your favourite nuts. Pecans, walnuts or almonds all work well.
- You can add a glaze made with sugar free apricot jam or honey. Just melt the jam in a pan with a teaspoon of water and brush onto the cake. You can also decorate with extra dried fruits and nuts, or this honey and almond marzipan.
- If you want to use the recipe as your Christmas cake, you'll need to make it the week before Christmas. Alternatively, you can make it earlier and freeze it. Wrap the cake well and freeze for up to 3 months. Allow 24 hours for the cake to defrost fully at room temperature.
- For a gluten free fruit cake, use a plain gluten free flour blend.
Nutrition
Calories: 316kcalCarbohydrates: 47.7gProtein: 4.7gFat: 11.6gSaturated Fat: 6.9gFiber: 1.9gSugar: 12.3g
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