Vegan Christmas cake - a rich, moist and boozy vegan fruit cake that is perfect for the festive season. Eat right away or make in advance and feed regularly with rum or brandy.
Fruit cake is a bit of a divisive one; I know that a lot of people aren't keen on it, but I absolutely love it and Christmas for me wouldn't be the same without a boozy, fruity cake to nibble on throughout the holidays.
I have blogged a couple of fruitcake recipes before, but neither of them are vegan so I was keen to come up with a vegan version that is just as good.
I tested seven (yes, seven!) different vegan fruit cakes until I came up with a recipe that I was happy with. The final version is fruitcake perfection (at least I think so anyway!). It is moist and dense, packed with boozy fruit, and full of flavour.
The dried fruit is soaked in rum (or your spirit of choice) to make it plump and flavourful. It needs to be soaked at least overnight so do make sure that you start this cake the day before you want to bake it. The fruit can be left to soak for up to a week - I gave mine three days.
The boozy fruit is stirred into a thick batter made flavourful with dark brown sugar, treacle, spices, almonds and orange and lemon zest.
I tested various different fats while developing this vegan Christmas cake, and found that the versions made with dairy free margarine were superior in both taste and texture to those made with coconut oil or sunflower oil, so that is what I have used for this recipe.
Softened coconut oil will work if you would rather use that, but I found that it yielded a cake with a more crumbly texture, and a slightly blander flavour, so if you do use it, make sure that you also add in a good pinch of salt.
Instead of eggs, this recipe uses red wine vinegar and bicarbonate of soda to provide lift. Vinegar and bicarb is my favourite egg replacer to use in cakes; I did do a couple of tests that used flax eggs instead, but I found the texture a little too crumbly.
This vegan Christmas cake is delicious freshly baked, but it can also be made up to six weeks in advance and stored, well wrapped, in an airtight container. Drizzle over a couple of tablespoons of rum or brandy every week or two, alternating top and bottom of the cake, until you are ready to ice it (if you choose to decorate it). But don't feed it for a week before icing it in order to give the surface a chance to dry out.
How To Decorate:
I was going to decorate the cake before photographing it, but I couldn't decide how I wanted to ice it so in the end I just left it plain.
Traditionally, Christmas cakes are covered in a layer of marzipan (brush the cake with warm apricot jam before covering so that the marzipan sticks.) then a layer of either royal icing or fondant. Most shop-bought marzipan and fondant is vegan, though do check the packet of course, and you can make vegan royal icing by swapping the egg white for aquafaba.
Once the vegan Christmas cake is iced, you can add decorations as you wish - I like to keep things simple and just pile some gingerbread star biscuits in various sizes on top. Check out my gingerbread topped Christmas cake recipe for inspiration.
To make a vegan version, simply swap the butter in the gingerbread for dairy free margarine or coconut oil, and follow the recipe for vegan royal icing from my Tombstone cupcakes to ice the biscuits with.
How To Make Vegan Christmas Cake:
(For ingredients and full instructions see the recipe card below)
*For the best results make sure that you follow the recipe closely. As always, I highly recommend using the gram measurements (with a digital scale), rather than the cup conversions. Cup measurements are simply not accurate enough for baking and I cannot guarantee the best results if you use them.*
You need to start preparing the fruit at least the day before you want to bake the cake.
Mix all of the dried fruits together in a large bowl that has a lid, add the rum, stir well, then cover and leave overnight (or for up to a week - give it an occasional stir).
Grease a deep 20cm/8inch round cake tin and line it with a double layer of baking parchment. Because the cake takes a while to bake the extra layer of parchment helps to stop it from burning.
In a large bowl, whisk together dairy free margarine (or softened coconut oil), dark and light brown sugars, treacle and orange and lemon zest until fluffy.
In a separate bowl, sift together plain flour, ground almonds, bicarbonate of soda, mixed spice (pumpkin spice), cinnamon and nutmeg.
Tip the dry ingredients into the margarine mix, along with some plant milk and red wine vinegar and stir until just combined; the batter should be very thick.
Stir in the soaked dried fruits, along with any leftover liquid, and some chopped almonds.
Scrape the batter into the prepared tin and use a spatula to spread it level. Because it is so thick it doesn't spread much in the oven so it is important that you get it as even as you can.
Bake for 2-3 hours until a skewer comes out clean, mine took 2 ½ hours. Leave the cake to cool in the tin on a wire rack then turn it out and brush all over with rum or brandy.
Wrap it up in baking parchment then tin foil and store in an airtight container, feeding every week or two with rum or brandy, for up to six weeks.
Variations:
You can vary the types of dried fruit that you add to suit your own tastes (I know quite a few mixed peel haters!), as long as you keep the same overall weight - a total of 660g. Chopped dried dates, figs and apricots all work well, and you could even add dried cherries, blueberries or pineapple.
To make this vegan Christmas cake alcohol free, soak the fruit in the same quantity of orange juice. Bear in mind that if you aren't feeding it with alcohol then the cake won't keep for as long, so bake it the same week that you want to serve it.
More Vegan Christmas Recipes:
- Easy ginger sheet cake
- Vegan steamed chocolate pudding
- Vegan mince pies
- Mulled wine brownies
- Woodland animal ginger cake
- Chocolate, orange and almond cake
- Starry mince pie tart
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Vegan Christmas Cake
Ingredients
- 125 g (4.5oz) raisins
- 125 g (4.5oz) sultanas
- 125 g (4.5oz) currants
- 100 g (3.5oz) dried cranberries
- 100 g (3.5oz) mixed candied peel
- 85 g (3oz) glace cherries halved
- 100 ml (⅓ cup + 1Tbsp + 1tsp) rum or brandy
- 175 g (⅔ cup + 1Tbsp) dairy free block margarine
- 125 g (⅔ cup) dark brown soft sugar
- 50 g (⅓ cup) light brown soft sugar
- 30 g (one rounded Tbsp) treacle (or molasses)
- finely grated zest of 1 large orange
- finely grated zest of 1 large lemon
- 350 g (3 cups minus 2 Tbsp) plain (all-purpose) flour
- 40 g (⅓ cup) ground almonds
- ¾ tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 1 tsp mixed spice (pumpkin spice)
- ½ tsp ground cinnamon
- ½ tsp ground nutmeg
- 120 ml (½ cup) unsweetened soy milk (or other unsweetened non-dairy milk)
- 2 Tbsp red wine vinegar or lemon juice
- 60 g (2oz) almonds chopped
- rum or brandy for feeding
Instructions
- Start preparing the fruit at least the day before you want to bake the cake.Mix all of the dried fruits together in a large bowl that has a lid, add the rum, stir well, then cover and leave overnight (or for up to a week - give it an occasional stir).
- The following day, preheat the oven to 140C/275F/gas mark 1. Grease a deep 20cm/8inch round cake tin and line it with a double layer of baking parchment.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the dairy free margarine (or softened coconut oil), dark and light brown sugars, treacle and orange and lemon zest until fluffy.
- In a separate bowl, sift together the plain flour, ground almonds, bicarbonate of soda, mixed spice, cinnamon and nutmeg.
- Tip the dry ingredients into the margarine mix, along with the soy milk and red wine vinegar. Stir until just combined; be careful not to over-mix. The batter should be very thick.
- Stir in the soaked dried fruits, along with any leftover liquid, and the chopped almonds.
- Scrape the batter into the prepared tin and use a spatula to spread it level. Because it is so thick it doesn't spread much in the oven so it is important that you get it as even as you can.
- Bake for 2-3 hours until a skewer comes out clean; mine took 2 ½ hours. Leave the cake to cool completely in the tin on a wire rack then turn it out and brush all over with rum or brandy.
- Wrap the cake up in baking parchment then tin foil (it MUST be completely cold first), and store in an airtight container, feeding every week or two with rum or brandy, for up to three months.
Video
Notes
- For the best results make sure that you follow the recipe closely. As always, I highly recommend using the gram measurements (with a digital scale), rather than the cup conversions. Cup measurements are simply not accurate enough for baking and I cannot guarantee the best results if you use them.
- The dried fruit needs to be soaked at least overnight so do make sure that you start this cake the day before you want to bake it. The fruit can be left to soak for up to a week – I gave mine three days.
- You can vary the types of dried fruit that you add to suit your own tastes (I know quite a few mixed peel haters!), as long as you keep the same overall weight – a total of 660g. Chopped dried dates, figs and apricots all work well, and you could even add dried cherries, blueberries or pineapple.
- I have successfully stored this cake for three months, feeding it with a little rum every week or two. It is a little more delicate than non-vegan fruitcake so be very gentle with it and store it in a tin so as not to squash it.
- I adapted this recipe by The Hungry Veggie to make this cake, with tweaks to suit my tastes: http://thehungryvegan.blogspot.com/2011/12/vegan-christmas-cake.html
Aimee
Hi Hannah,
Thank you for the recipe! The cake is in the oven as I write. I didn't really think ahead with the timings - how long approx do you think the cake will take to cool/how do I tell that it's completely cool? If it gets too late, do you think it would be ok to leave it in the tin overnight with some foil over the top and turn it out tomorrow?
Thank you!
hannahhossack
Hi Aimee, apologies, I only just saw your comment. The cake takes a good few hours to cool and it would be fine to leave it to cool in the tin overnight.
Aimee
Thanks Hannah. I left it in the tin overnight and it's looking and smelling good!
Mary Matthews
I’ve made this cake twice now - the first was intended for Christmas but it smelled so good it was eaten as soon as it was cool! Both times I’ve had to add extra liquid as it formed a dough rather than a batter and was almost impossible to mix.
Paula F Taylor
Hi,
I have been looking for an eggless Xmas cake (allergy to eggs rather than veganism) to give as part of a hamper Xmas gift I am making a family member. I’ve, obviously, come across this recipe and looks like the one I’m going to try as already have pretty much every ingredient (apart from red wine vinegar, but was going to ask about replacing with apple cider vinegar but whilst reading all the comments to see if my questions would be answered already I came across the answer to this, so assume that cider vinegar is fine). For various reasons I want to use a different sized tin - a loaf tin. Standard size I think, and possibly 2lb? I’ve got the liners, they seem to be of a standard for that size, and it’s the sort of size you’d make a finger cake in, or maybe a banana cake/bread. So mostly I’m wondering, I’ve no idea of volume in terms of your recipe and the 20cm round tin and the loaf tin, but would assume I wouldn’t need all that batter. So how far up the sides of the tin/liner should my batter go? Will it rise a lot, or should I load it fairly high? I’m probably just going to make the quantity stated here anyway, and if there’s some left over then I will use my min-guglhupf tins to make some cute little individual ones. Also, would the shape (rectangular) change the temp and time it would need, as obviously it will be much more narrow than the round tin. I know time as far as my actual volume of batter is harder for you to guess, as we obviously, neither of us, yet know how different that is likely to be yet (unless you do magically have this answer ). And can I get away with just one of the liners as it may not need to cook as long so hopefully not burn around the edges?
I will probably soak in orange juice as opposed to alcohol (have some dried fruit soaking in brandy currently, getting themselves in the spirit for a gluten free Xmas cake that I’ll be baking as well). I don’t need the cake to be actually vegan, but an egg allergy and a lactose intolerance means that while I’ll be using a vegetable baking margarine, I will probably be using lactose free milk as the liquid, mostly as I don’t really want to be opening up some plant milk as well due to lack of space in the fridge at the moment. I saw the question answered above re using dairy products, so that’s not really my question per se, but more the fat content of the milk? Is the fat content of most non-dairy milks such as soya, oat etc generally a similar level as one another and likely have anything to do with how well one works and not the other? I have semi skimmed or full/whole. Would one or the other be more suitable or is it really negligible?
TIA if you’ve read all this and can answer my Qs (esp the tin size/shape ones), and I apologise for the very many Qs! I’m hoping to start in the next few days. Wish me luck in my endeavour to simultaneously bake an egg and lactose free cake and a larger gluten free one...along with all the other related Xmas bakes which will also need to be some or all gf/egg free/lactose free!
Thanks,
Paula
hannahhossack
Hi Paula, I don't think that the fat content of the milk makes much of a difference, I wouldn't use skimmed but either semi-skimmed or whole will be fine (semi-skimmed is probably closer in fat content to plant milks however). I haven't tried baking this cake in any other tin so I don't know about baking times though I would estimate 1 1/2 - 2 hours. I would use the same oven temperature. I think you can get away with just using one tin liner. The cake doesn't rise very much so you can fill the tin fairly high, I would go for 3/4 full. Cider vinegar would be fine, or you can use lemon juice. Hopefully that's all of your questions answered! Hope it works out for you!
claire
So freaking good. Never had fruitcake before but everything about it is perfect to me and this recipe is perfection! I did a half recipe and it worked perfectly in a smaller tin. Thank you for the killer recipe.
Martin
Very happy with the way this cake has turned out. Thanks for the recipe. I have tagged you into the post on Instagram. It is the first time I have ever baked, marzipanned and iced a cake, so I'm really pleased.
Mieke
I baked a non-alcoholic version of this cake about a week ago, and spent the last few days coating it with marzipan and fondant. Tonight, I finally got to taste the finished product and loved it.
I doubled the recipe and it turned out great. The vegan butter I normally use was out of stock so I used regular butter. (I couldn't buy the alternative brand of vegan butter because it's three times the price!) Even though the butter introduced milk solids to the recipe, it still turned out beautifully. I'm a US immigrant from South Africa and thanks to the influence of Victorian Christmas practices, I grew up with Christmas cake back home. This was a nostalgic treat for me and will be for months to come, given that I'll be freezing some.
I wanted to send some to South African family of mine here in the US but given that mine doesn't have the alcohol to preserve it, it's probably not the best idea.
Thanks for a fantastic recipe.
Abi Elvins
Best Christmas cake recipe ever - vegan or non-vegan! Perfect amount of spice and booze, easy to follow instructions and helpful photos. Thank you so much! I'm off to make your mince pies now!
Jeremy
Just made this and followed the recipe exactly. I am in the United States and I used Myoko’s vegan butter. I didn’t use alcohol—just orange juice. It turned out amazing. I wasn’t expecting it to rise so much—thankfully I used a fairly tall parchment collar to line the sides. It doubled in height during baking and it didn’t sink during cooling. I made a glaze for the top (1 cup icing sugar and 1tbsp orange juice) that I applied after cooling. An absolutely delightful Christmas cake!! I can’t wait to try more of your recipes!
Sarah Dowling
This is the third or fourth vegan fruit cake recipe I’ve tried in as many years, and this is the one I’ll be baking every year from now on. Absolutely perfect in terms of both flavour and texture, for eating by the slice with a cup of tea and for crumbling up to use in other vegan Christmas treats, including vegan Christmas-themed icecream and vegan chic-coated mini Christmas ’puddings’. I’m not even vegan and I consider this the best fruit cake ever. My vegan friends LOVE me for it. Thank you and well done for creating such an excellent recipe!
Addie Corbiere
Just made your xmas cake recipe, it’s the best ever! Used spiced rum. Will make again......probably very soon!
Hilary
Came back post Christmas just to add my 5 stars and voice to the chorus singing your praises! This recipe was a hit and I’m so happy that I now have a go-to fruitcake recipe. I baked mine about 3.5 weeks before Christmas and fed it regularly (approx 2x/wk) with rum. I found it held its form fairly well when sliced - possibly the aging and the generous rum helped keep it from getting overly crumbly. Next time I’ll make two so I can have more post Christmas. I’m even contemplating making one now... fruitcake for Valentine’s Day can be a thing, right?
Nadja
Hi Hannah,
Sitting with my husband having a slice of your cake with a little oat cream for dessert and must say: this is the best recipe for a vegan fruit cake I've come across. Just followed the recipe although only used one kind of sugar and added crystalized ginger and pistachios (I had them already). A perfect fruit cake recipe which I shall follow to the end of the days... Divine!
Jordan
Hello,
Looking for a vegan recipe to Similar GF recipe i used to use this one is IT! I was wondering if you have ever made this with bobs red mill 1-1 gf flour?
is the ground almond / almond chunk neecesary? Would love to have the option of making it nut free.
THANKS!
Hannah
Hi Jordan, we don't have that brand of flour in the UK so I've never tried it I'm afraid. To be honest, I don't think that this cake will work gluten-free. As it is a fairly crumbly cake anyway due to the high volume of fruit, I think that without the gluten it would fall to pieces. You can omit the chopped almonds, the ground ones you will need to swap for an equal weight of plain flour instead.
Sue
Hi how you made this gluten-free and if so what did you use?
Hannah
Hi Sue, unfortunately this recipe will not work gluten-free. It will just crumble and fall apart.
Katherine
Hi
Can this be made into smaller cakes and if so what is cooking time,p,ease
Many thanks
Hannah
Hi Katherine, I haven't tried but I imagine it would work ok. As for the cooking time that would vary depending on exactly what size and depth the cakes were.