Did you forget to make your Christmas cake 6 months in advance this year? Or maybe you just want a healthier easier option for your special day celebrations. Well go no further than a vegan raw Christmas cake. Don’t be scared off by the long list of ingredients (that is just what a Christmas cake is like!). You can easily cut down the number of ingredients and this recipe will still work.
If you think about it Christmas cake is mostly dried fruit and nuts and is quite dense. So this vegan raw Christmas cake recipe adapts very well. Linseeds and coconut oil are used as the binders instead of egg and nut flour is used instead of wheat flour. It really is very easy to make…
Vegan Raw Christmas Cake Ingredients (serves 10):
Wet ingredients:
- 100g figs
- 50g goji berries
- 50g raisins
- 50g cranberries
- 50g pumpkin seeds
- 50g almonds
- 50g brazil nuts
- 50g hazelnuts
- 50g cacao nibs
- 50ml brandy or whisky (I used Armagnac)
- 2 orange juice + zest
- 2 lemon zest
Combining Ingredients:
- 50g coconut oil (2 tbsp)
- 1/3 cup linseeds
- 2 cups water
Dry ingredients:
- 100g brazil nuts
- 100g almonds
- 100g hazelnuts
Garnish:
- 10g goji berries
- 10g desiccated coconut
- 10g cacao nibs
Vegan Raw Christmas Cake Method:
This recipe is actually quite flexible. As long as you adhere to the simple principles of combining wet ingredients (ground nuts – any variety that you want) and wet ingredients along with the combining ingredients you can mix and match the types of dried fruits and nuts as you wish. So feel free to use less varieties of ingredient to help keep the cost down – just make sure you increase the measurements if you cut down on ingredients.
Put all of the dried fruit along with the lemon and orange zest (and juice) with the brandy and leave to soak while you continue with the other steps in the recipe.
Put the linseeds into a pot along with the 2 cups of water and boil on a low heat for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes strain the ‘liquid’ (it will actually be a gooey consistency at this stage) from the seeds. Throw the seeds away – or dehydrate them along with some sundried tomato and salt to make delicious raw crackers!
Whip the linseed goo in a mixing machine for 15 minutes on high speed. Check out our post on vegan whipped eggs for more detailed instructions if you wish. The goo should turn white and fluffy much like whipped egg whites. If you don’t have an electric beater you can do this by hand, but you won’t get very good results. But don’t worry, the whipping just makes the cake slightly lighter. If you can’t whip the linseed goo you will just have a more dense cake.
Blend the dry ingredients up until they have reached a meal (or flour) consistency.
Add the nuts from the wet ingredients section to the brandy soaked dried fruit along with the dry ingredients (i.e. the ground nut flour). Mix them in a food processor by pulsing. You can also add in the coconut oil at this point. Pulse the cake mixture until the dried fruit and whole nuts combine and reach the texture that you ideally want in your Christmas cake. I like the fruit and nuts to be reasonably chunky, but not whole.
Fold in the whipped linseed goo (vegan whipped egg white) and put the mixture into a cake tin. Put into the dehydrator for 4 hours. If you don’t have a dehydrator, just put your oven onto its lowest setting (usually 50°C) and wedge the door slightly open with a steel dish cloth or something.
Once the cake has finished dehydrating you will notice that some of the oil will have risen to the top. Poke some holes in the cake to let it soak back in and then smooth the hole over with a spoon.
Sprinkle over the garnishes.
Refrigerate the cake for at least half an hour before serving.
Merry Christmas everyone. I hope you all have a happy and healthy New Year : )
