A healthy Christmas fruit cake recipe that’s gluten free, dairy free and grain free. Made with almond flour, coconut flour, dried fruit, mixed spices and a little orange zest for a lovely authentic festive feel. There’s no added sweetener in this cake; the dried fruit and coconut flour ensure it is naturally sweetened. Even better, it’s pretty easy to make!
If you have suddenly decided that you’d like to make a Christmas cake this year but you want to get it all in the oven with a minimum of fuss, then this is the Christmas cake for you. There’s a little bit of soaking of the fruit involved, but no more than 15 minutes; then you just get to stir everything up, pop it in to the oven and glaze or ice it (if you want to). Too easy! Better still, this cake is free from gluten and any added sweeteners (I find the coconut flour and dried fruit gives you more than enough sweetness), and can be kept dairy free too.
Special thanks this year to Sukrin UK for sending me the most beautiful little hamper of nuts, fruit and spices to help bring this cake together. I was tossing up whether to make a cake this year, but couldn’t resist when I received such a festive delivery! This cake uses Sukrin’s organic coconut flour, which imparts a nice light sweetness to the cake and makes it a bit lighter than just using ground almonds.
Healthy Christmas Fruit Cake (Grain Free)
A healthy Christmas fruit cake recipe that's gluten free, dairy free and grain free using almond flour and coconut flour. Easy to make!
Ingredients
- 500 grams mixed dried fruits
- 75 grams walnuts (3/4 cup)
- 1 orange
- 125 grams almond flour/meal (1 1/4 cups)
- 67 grams coconut flour (1/2 cup)
- 1/2 tsp bicarb soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 3 tsp mixed spice *
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 5 eggs
- 50 grams butter or coconut oil, melted (1/4 cup)
- 1 tbsp vanilla extract
- 60 mL amaretto or other liqueur of choice (optional)
- 2 tbsp honey or other liquid sweetener
- 2 tbsp amaretto or other liqueur of choice
Instructions
Start by soaking the fruit. Fill your kettle and pop it on to boil while you organise all the dried fruit into a large bowl. If you're using larger fruit like dates and apricots, roughly chop them up first (my quick tip: snip them with kitchen scissors - it will save you so much time!). Pour the hot water over the fruit and allow to sit for 10 to 15 minutes to soften and then drain and allow to cool to room temperature (get on with your cake prep while this is happening).
Preheat your oven to 150 C. Line a 20 cm cake tin (preferably spingform) with baking paper along the base and sides.
Combine the almond flour, coconut flour, bicarb, salt, mixed spice and cinnamon in a large mixing bowl. Zest the orange and roughly chop the walnuts, and add the zest and walnuts to the bowl too. Keep the orange.
In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, melted butter (or coconut oil), vanilla and amaretto. Squeeze in the juice of the orange (doesn't matter if some pulp goes in).
Create a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and gradually stir in the wet mixture, stirring as you go (coconut flour is very absorbent so it's better to add it gradually). You should end up with a very thick batter, almost like a wet crumbly dough.
Make sure your soaked fruit is well drained, and then add this to the cake batter. Fold it in with a spoon until combined evenly.
Scoop the cake batter in to your lined baking tin and press down with your fingers or the back of a spoon until there are no gaps and the top is smooth.
Bake the cake for between 60 - 70 minutes, or until the top is well browned and the centre feels firm to touch.
If you're going to glaze the cake, do so immediately while the cake is hot, brushing on your glaze of choice with a pastry brush. You can also poke a few holes in the cake and then drizzle it over, if you want to use a lot and really soak the cake. To use the glaze I have suggested above, simply heat up the honey so it's really runny, mix with the amaretto and then brush over the top of the cake.
Allow the cake to cool in the tin for 30 minutes and then place on a wire rack to cool to room temperature. (Store in the fridge for about 1 week or freeze for a longer life.)
Recipe Notes
CUSTARD: To make an intolerance-friendly “custard” as pictured, I did the following:
- combine 1 cup of rice milk with 2 tsp of vanilla extract, 1-2 tbsp maple syrup (or other sweetener), and a pinch of nutmeg in a small saucepan.
- in a small mug combine 1 tbsp of cornflour + a tiny, tiny pinch of turmeric (for colour) with a little water just so the flour is dissolved.
- bring the milk mixture almost to boil and then pour in the cornflour paste, whisking continuously with a fork and cooking over a low heat until the mixture thickens to your liking. You can adjust the amount of sweetener to suit your taste. It is possible to make this with another milk too; I just like rice milk as it’s quite naturally sweet so you don’t need to add much. Coconut milk also works well as it's quite sweet, too.
*If you can't find mixed spice I recommend substituting the 3 tsp of mixed spice as follows: 1 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp allspice, 1/2 tsp nutmeg and 1/2 tsp ginger.
Hello, I’m having a small Christmas and want to make Christmas cake but won’t get through anywhere near a whole cakes worth, so was wondering if you think this recipe would work as muffins and as a half batch? Thank you, Megan
Hi Megan, I’m so so sorry about the delay in replying to your message. I was in hospital for an extended period due to a health issue and I’m only just catching up now. I hope that you were able to experiment with this recipe – muffins or a half batch would both work, I think, so long as you change the baking time 🙂
Hi,
Thank you so much, my first fruit cake ever. Tastes so awesome.
Thanks again for making the recipe so easy to follow.
Big Cheers from Australia
Hi Roger, thank you so much for this lovely message! I’m sorry for the delay in replying to you, I’ve been in hospital for quite an extended period of time due to a health issue. 🙂
Hi monique.. I am writing as I seem to be in the minority as far as a baking success.
This is not to criticise, but I am wondering where I went wrong.
After making 5 x 12cm flourless christmas cakes from an old Taste recipe which was ok,,I had about 400gms of very boozy hand cut dried fruit left over. Looked for another recipe and came across yours,
I purchased extra fresh dates and soft pitted prunes..chopped them up and added to the other fruit.
I ended up with approx 625gms of fruit,,so basically a quarter more than the recommended 500gms. Upped the flours by one quarter and added one egg.
So no need to boil water and the fruit mixture was very moist.
All went well until the final mix of wet and dry had a very sandy feel..and after one hour that is how the top of the cakes still felt to the touch. I looked at your pic and my result and was extremely disappointed.
By turning the cakes over, and glazing the bottoms with a mix of strained marmalade and date syrup, they look ok,
but I do wonder about the gritty nature of the original surface of the cake. I bake a lot of flourless cakes for friends and school fundraising using only almond meal. Coconut flour will never again be seen in my kitchen as I cant help but think it maybe the culprit. Apologies for being so long winded
Hi Grant, thank you for your honest feedback about the cake. I apologise for the delayed reply, I have been in hospital for an extended period of time and I’m only just catching up on my blog now. From the way you describe the mixture, it sounds like the “gritty” texture might have been from the coconut flour; it does have more of a grainy feel than almond meal and I’m wondering if you maybe just don’t like it? I don’t mean that in a rude way at all, just maybe it’s honestly not for you! I feel the same way about certain ingredients! However another factor is that in my experience the consistency and quality of coconut flour varies incredibly from brand to brand, so I would perhaps encourage you (if you ever want to try coconut flour again) to purchase a different brand that produces a more finely milled, softer flour. The reason I added it to this recipe was for sweetness and also to make the result slightly more “cakey” as almond meal is so dense. Perhaps upping the quantities also affected the result and it might have been better to only increase almond meal. Coconut flour is SO absorbent, just the tiniest amount makes a huge difference. Best wishes, Monique
Hi Monique, would it be possible to use GF flour to substitute the coconut flour (which I’m not a fan of)? Plain or self-raising? I realise that coconut flour requires additional liquid so I am wondering if the same amount of orange juice would be required if using the GF flour. Also, is it possible to use another nut? Thanks so much! Look forward to trying your recipe!
Hi Christine, thank you for your message. I’m so sorry that I have taken so long to reply, due to a personal health issue I was hospitalised over the Christmas period for a month and I am only just catching up now. I assume that you have either already tried out this recipe or you made something else for Christmas. Either way I hope whatever cake you had was delicious 🙂 To answer your questions, you could just use plain GF flour as the substitute, and correct I would reduce the amount of orange juice. I’m not sure about using another nut, do you mean instead of the almond meal? I have never tried the cake with another nut meal, I tend to use almond meal for nut-based cakes as it’s so readily available!
Any info please on the specific nutritional info on this cake please, Specifically fat, saturates and sugar?
Hi Kenyon, thank you for your message. I’m so sorry that I have taken so long to reply, due to a personal health issue I was hospitalised over the Christmas period for a month and I am only just catching up now. I do not have a nutritional calculator on my website at present, it’s something I’m researching but I’m not sure how I feel about putting so many numbers on my foods as it’s not really how I eat intuitively myself. If you would like to calculate it, it’s possible to use a website like happyforks.com which I understand offers a recipe nutritional calculator. 🙂
Hi did anyone try this with the storing and soaking method yet?! Just making mine would love to know
I can’t find coconut Sugar where i live, can i use regular Sugar? Would it be the same amount?? Thank you!
Hi Danielle, yep you can just use regular sugar – I would suggest perhaps using half regular sugar, half brown sugar if you can 🙂
Great recipe and first Christmas cake ever. Thanks!
Christian, thank you so much for stopping by to give feedback! I’m super happy to hear you enjoyed the cake 🙂
Hi Monique cakes in the oven can’t wait smells so good. My brain is just ticking over what to do now with leftover juice from fruit soak – any special ideas perhaps I’ll use it for pork marinade🤞
Oh so lovely to hear this Susan! Thank you for taking the time to let me know 🙂 I think you could definitely use it for a pork marinade, or alternatively you could boil it down into a syrup and make an extra sticky glaze for the cake maybe! I hope the cake turns out super well for you.
I want to use nut pulp that is left over from making nut milk. Do you think it will make a difference from dried nut flour. More moisture obviously but I’m thinking that it won’t make too much difference?
Hi Jenny! Oh that would be awesome if you can use up nut pulp in this. I think you should be able to make it work… I would suggest either drying the nut pulp out in the oven first (maybe bake it on a low heat), or maybe adding an extra spoonful or two of coconut flour / or reducing the liquid ingredients to balance the moisture in the cake. Let me know how it goes 🙂
I want to get this made for our family get together on Christmas Day. It calls for 3 tsp mixed spice. I’ve never seen anything called “mixed spice”. Can you tell me what spices to use and quantities?
Hi Gwen, of course, happy to help! Mixed spice is sometimes called “pudding spice” and there are different variations of it depending on what brand you buy. A simple substitution would be to use: 1 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp allspice, 1/2 tsp nutmeg and 1/2 tsp ground ginger. (I know there is already cinnamon in the recipe but still add more). Hope this helps, let me know how you go 🙂
Hi my name is Robyn. I want to make a Christmas cake using pineapple pieces and walnuts no sugar. Your recipe looks great to use. I have Monica’s Mix Paleo flour can I use these ingredient?
Hi Robyn! Sounds like you have a super delicious Christmas cake planned this year 🙂 Thank you for the kind words – I really like this Christmas Cake recipe!
I have never used Monica’s Mix Paleo flour myself. Would you substitute it for all of the flour in this recipe? i.e. are you planning on replacing the almond meal and the coconut flour? I would suggest you could definitely substitute it for the coconut flour, but I’d try to use at least some almond meal in there as well because this has a different texture and helps to keep the cake moist with a nice crumb. I had a look at the ingredients in Monica’s paleo mix and think it might turn out too dry if you just use that. Hope this helps! Do let me know how you go!
Has anyone wrapped and stored the cake for 2-10 weeks as you would a traditional Christmas fruit cake? Or is the freezer the only option?
Hi Iona! Thank you for your comment. I have been very tempted to try this cake soaked in liquor and stored as you would a traditional fruit cake – comparing the ingredients to a traditional fruit cake, there’s nothing to suggest that it wouldn’t work. However I must be honest, I haven’t done it yet! Provided an appropriate amount of alcohol is fed to the cake as you would do normally it should keep well. If you try it please let me know how you go 🙂
Such a lovely fruitcake, and so easy to make too!
Thank you so much, Sylvie! I just spent ages checking out your website – it’s fabulous, I’m flattered you stopped by to comment! Just subscribed for your newsletter! 🙂
mmmmm Amaretto! I’m sold! I also love that this is grain free!
Thank you Libby! Amaretto is the best, right!? I only recently discovered it and can’t believe I’ve been missing out on something so delicious for so long 🙂
Ohhh but that glaze! That would definitely not be optional for me! So nice! This looks great!
🙂 The glaze totally makes it I agree! It wouldn’t be a Christmas cake without a sweet boozy finish!
Definitely pinning this. I’m a closet fruit-cake fan, and this is looking pretty good! 😉
Haha I am a secret fruit cake fan too (fruit toast too shhh :P). Thank you for your kind words!
This sounds delicious. I love all of the dried fruit. Yum!
Thank you Emily! Glad to see you finally got here with the comment 😛 Monique x