Featured Recipes - Christmas
Light Xmas Cake
This is a moist cake which you can marzipan and ice or just dust with icing sugar to serve.
Ingredients
- 140g dairy-free spread (we use Biona), plus extra for greasing -
- 100g raisins[1]
- 60g sultanas[1]
- 40g currants[1]
- 60g naturally coloured glace cherries (check no wheat in syrup), or dried cranberries
- Grated rind of 1 orange
- Freshly squeezed juice of ½ orange
- 1½ tbspn brandy (or apple juice)
- 140g soft dark brown sugar
- 2 eggs, beaten
- ½ tspn ground cinnamon
- 1 tspn mixed spice
- Pinch ground cloves
- 100g ground almonds
- 65g course cornmeal/ fine polenta (the polenta you buy in the supermarket is too coarse..try your local health food shop)
- 1 tspn gf baking powder
- To Decorate:
- Icing sugar (most are gf – check)
- OR:
- Smooth apricot glaze of jam
- Marzipan (naturally coloured)
- Ready rolled icing
Preparation
- Preheat oven to 180C/ 350F/ Gas 4.
- Grease a 20cm springform cake tin and line the base with baking parchment.
- Combine dried fruit and brandy in a bowl, add the grated orange rind and juice and mix well.
- Cream the dairy-free spread and sugar until pale, gradually adding the beaten eggs.
- In separate bowl combine the spices, ground almonds, polenta and baking powder.
- Fold the dried fruit mixture and spice mix alternately into the creamed spread until combined.
- Spoon into the tin and smooth the top.
- Protect the cake from over-browining by wrapping folded strip of baking parchment around the edge of the tin, and securing with string.
- Bake on middle shelf for 30 mins. Reduce oven temp to 160C/ 325F/ Gas 3 and continue to cook for further 30 mins. If top of cake starts to overbrown place circle of damp greaseproof paper over the top.
- Leave to cool.
- Note: This cake can be frozen until needed (if freezing then don’t decorate until defrosted).
- To cover with marzipan and icing:
- Use the cake tin to act as a template. Draw around the base of the cake tin on a piece of baking parchment and cut out just inside the circle. Then cut a strip of parchment the same depth as the tin and measure round the tin to cut to fit the circumference. Rollout the marzipan and use the templates to cut out a disc and an edging strip of marzipan.
- Gradually dissolve apricot glaze (or cheap jam) in a small pan (add a little cold water if gets too thick/sticky) and brush the surface of the cake with the glaze.
- Then cover in marzipan, and ideally leave to dry out for a day (not essential).
- Finally use templates to cut out ready roll icing to cover the cake.
- Why not get the children to help decorate the cake! Use leftover ready rolled icing like blu-tac to stick on your xmas figures!
Notes:
Key:
Light Xmas Cake
This is a moist cake which you can marzipan and ice or just dust with icing sugar to serve.
Ingredients
- 140g dairy-free spread (we use Biona), plus extra for greasing -
- 100g raisins[1]
- 60g sultanas[1]
- 40g currants[1]
- 60g naturally coloured glace cherries (check no wheat in syrup), or dried cranberries
- Grated rind of 1 orange
- Freshly squeezed juice of ½ orange
- 1½ tbspn brandy (or apple juice)
- 140g soft dark brown sugar
- 2 eggs, beaten
- ½ tspn ground cinnamon
- 1 tspn mixed spice
- Pinch ground cloves
- 100g ground almonds
- 65g course cornmeal/ fine polenta (the polenta you buy in the supermarket is too coarse..try your local health food shop)
- 1 tspn gf baking powder
- To Decorate:
- Icing sugar (most are gf – check)
- OR:
- Smooth apricot glaze of jam
- Marzipan (naturally coloured)
- Ready rolled icing
Preparation
- Preheat oven to 180C/ 350F/ Gas 4.
- Grease a 20cm springform cake tin and line the base with baking parchment.
- Combine dried fruit and brandy in a bowl, add the grated orange rind and juice and mix well.
- Cream the dairy-free spread and sugar until pale, gradually adding the beaten eggs.
- In separate bowl combine the spices, ground almonds, polenta and baking powder.
- Fold the dried fruit mixture and spice mix alternately into the creamed spread until combined.
- Spoon into the tin and smooth the top.
- Protect the cake from over-browining by wrapping folded strip of baking parchment around the edge of the tin, and securing with string.
- Bake on middle shelf for 30 mins. Reduce oven temp to 160C/ 325F/ Gas 3 and continue to cook for further 30 mins. If top of cake starts to overbrown place circle of damp greaseproof paper over the top.
- Leave to cool.
- Note: This cake can be frozen until needed (if freezing then don’t decorate until defrosted).
- To cover with marzipan and icing:
- Use the cake tin to act as a template. Draw around the base of the cake tin on a piece of baking parchment and cut out just inside the circle. Then cut a strip of parchment the same depth as the tin and measure round the tin to cut to fit the circumference. Rollout the marzipan and use the templates to cut out a disc and an edging strip of marzipan.
- Gradually dissolve apricot glaze (or cheap jam) in a small pan (add a little cold water if gets too thick/sticky) and brush the surface of the cake with the glaze.
- Then cover in marzipan, and ideally leave to dry out for a day (not essential).
- Finally use templates to cut out ready roll icing to cover the cake.
- Why not get the children to help decorate the cake! Use leftover ready rolled icing like blu-tac to stick on your xmas figures!
Notes:
Key:
Greyed-out icons indicate that a recipe has an option to exclude a particular allergen.
