Fruit Cake Loaf (Vegan)
Fruit cake loaf - this easy, everyday vegan fruit cake is a simple, homely, old-fashioned cake that is perfect for snacking on with a cup of tea. Eggless and dairy-free.
Servings 8 people
Ingredients
- 225 g (1 ¾ cups + 1 Tablespoon) plain (all-purpose) flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ¾ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
- 1 teaspoon mixed spice (or pumpkin spice)
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 115 g (½ cup) vegan block butter cold and diced
- 115 g (½ cup + 1 Tablespoon) light brown soft sugar
- 300 g (10 ½ oz) mixed dried fruit
- 160 ml (⅔ cup) unsweetened non-dairy milk (I use soy)
- demarera (turbinado) sugar for sprinkling
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 170°C/150°C fan/325°F/gas mark 3. Grease a 2 lb loaf tin and line it with baking parchment.
- Mix the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, mixed spice and cinnamon together in a large bowl.
- Add the cold, cubed butter and rub it in using your fingertips until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs and no lumps of fat remain.
- Stir in the sugar and dried fruit.
- Add the milk and mix to form a batter. It may look a bit split, that is fine.
- Scrape the batter into the tin and spread it level. Sprinkle with a handful of demarera sugar.
- Bake for 60-70 minutes until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs but no wet batter. Be very careful not to over-bake the cake or it can become dry.
- Leave to cool in the tin. Once cold store in an airtight container at room temperature.
Notes
- See post above for tips, details and step-by-step photos.
- As with all of my baking recipes I really do recommend using the metric measurements with a digital scale rather than the cup conversions. Cups are a wildly inaccurate measuring system and you will get far better, more consistent results using a scale, not to mention that it is also easier and less messy than cups!