Traditionally Christmas Cakes are supposed to be made months ago and  months ago  in order for it to soak it in booze  weeks before the big day. Now it is safe to safe I am a big fan of food traditions but this is not one I adhere to!

 I made mine yesterday and it tastes delicious and perfectly festive! Today for the penultimate Christmas Countdown post I will show you how you can easily make your own.

But why bother to make your own?

Firstly homemade cake always taste better than shop bought cake. Always.

Secondly  there are some weird ingredients in shop bought ones. Here are a few bizarre ingredients I picked out from the (very long) Tesco Finest Christmas Cake ingredients:

Stabilisers (Tragacanth, Xanthan Gum)  , Maize Starch ,Salt ,Colours (Titanium Dioxide, Caramel, Anthocyanins, Beta-Carotene, Iron Oxide, Silver) ,Glazing Agent (Shellac) , Free Range Dried Egg White ,Preservative (Potassium Sorbate) , Anthocyanins) ,Citric Acid ,Preservative (Sulphur Dioxide) ,Candied Citrus Peel contains: Orange Peel ,Glucose-Fructose Syrup ,

Shellac?? Surely that was just for manicures??

So I have set about making my own version. This can be gluten/grain free or made using spelt flour. I have adapted it from a Delia Smith Recipe, so most of the credit goes to her! If you don’t have any gluten allergies feel free to use her recipe just please use butter not spreadable margarine, and spelt flour not white self raising flour.

I use my homemade mincemeat and decorated with my Coconut Butter Icing found here but feel free to decorate however you wish!

Enjoy:)

Grain Free Christmas Cake

Kezia Hall

A gluten free Christmas Cake using mincemeat that is as luxurious as it is easy!

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Cook Time 2 hours hrs

Ingredients

  

• 500 g Mincemeat
• 100 g Prunes - chopped finely
• 100 g Dates - chopped finely
• 185 g Mixed Dried Fruit
• 2 tbsp Honey
• 3 Organic Eggs
• 200 g Ground Almonds/ or 225g Spelt Flour
• 1/4 tsp Nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp Ground Cloves
• 1 tsp Cinnamon
• 1 tsp Ginger
• 130 g Organic Butter / 150g Butter if using Spelt Flour
• 150 ml Liqueur or spirit
• 1 tsp Bicarbonate of soda

Instructions

 

• Preheat oven to 160c and line your cake tin.
• Place all the dried fruit and mine meat in a bowl and cover in chosen alcohol. Leave for ideally a few hour or if in a hurry 10-15 minutes.
• Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl.
• Then add the butter, honey and eggs and whisk until fluffy.
• Then add the fruit mixture and mix thoroughly.
• Pour into cake tin and place in oven for roughly 2 hours or when the top of the cake springs back when lightly pressed.
• Remove from oven and ice as desired.

Notes

Feel free to add different fried fruits .
The traditional liqueur used is brandy but I used some homemade clemencello vodka which was lovely, so feel free to experiment.

Adapted from Delia Smith