Vegan Dundee Cake
Vegan Dundee cake - this delicious vegan fruit cake is easy to make and a great lighter alternative to traditional Christmas cake. Made with marmalade and ground almonds it is moist, rich and flavourful. It also makes a great centrepiece with it's pretty almond topping!
Servings 10 people
Ingredients
- 180 g (¾ cup) vegan block butter (I use Naturli Vegan Block) slightly softened
- 180 g (1 cup) light brown soft/muscovado sugar
- 100 g (4 Tablespoons) fine shred Seville orange marmalade
- finely grated zest of 1 large orange
- 260 g (2 cups + 2 Tablespoons) plain (all-purpose) flour
- 100 g (3 ½ oz) ground almonds (almond flour)
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon mixed spice (optional)
- 135 ml (½ cup + 1 Tablespoon) unsweetened non-dairy milk (I use soy)
- a pinch of salt
- 500 g (17 oz) mixed dried fruit (sultanas, raisins, currants)
- about 100 g (3 ½ oz) whole blanched almonds
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 160°C/140°C fan/325°F/gas mark 3. Grease a 20 cm/8 in round, approx 9 cm/3 ½ in deep cake tin and line the base and sides with a double layer of baking parchment, making sure that it comes above the top of the tin by a couple of cm/1 inch.
- Whisk together the butter and sugar with an electric mixer until smooth and creamy then whisk in the marmalade and orange zest.
- Add the flour, ground almonds, baking powder, mixed spice, milk and a pinch of salt and mix to form a smooth, thick batter. Don't over-beat it, just mix until it is fully combined then stop.
- Add the dried fruit and fold through.
- Transfer the batter to the prepared tin and spread it level. Use the back of a wet spoon to smooth the top.
- Arrange the blanched almonds in circles on top of the cake. Press them only very lightly into the batter.
- Bake the cake for about 2 hours until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. If the top of the cake starts to get too dark before it is cooked then you can loosely cover it with a piece of tin foil. Do not open the oven door until the cake has been baking for at least 1 ½ hours however.
- Leave the cake to cool in the tin completely then turn out and store in an airtight container.
Notes
- See post above for tips, details, storage instructions 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!
- The cake is ready when it is firm to the touch and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs but no wet batter.
- It is normal for the cake to have a slight dip in the middle.
- Make sure that the cake has cooled completely before you slice it.