Vegan Christmas Cake Loaf
Christmas cake it’s something we all have in the house over Christmas, but who actually really likes it? Why is there always loads left over? Maybe… because it’s not actually anybody’s favourite dessert. Well I’ve had enough of traditional Christmas cake, its time consuming and not really worth the effort for the big day so instead I’ve created a NO FUSS Christmas cake loaf that will have no left overs! Tried and tested by non-Christmas cake lovers this got the 5 stars and will bump your Christmas day desserts up a notch. It’s also the perfect pre-Christmas baking to get you in the mood or perfect festive surprise for the office!
Serves 1 loaf
Cooks in 60+ Minutes
Ingredients
• 120g oats ground into a chunky flour
• 80g ground almond
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 2 medium sized apples washed
• 100g mixed peel
• Zest of 1 large orange
• 1 tsp almond essence
• 3 tbsp. olive oil
• 4 tbsp. maple syrup
• 1 tbsp. ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp mixed spice
• 1 tsp. ground ginger
• Icing sugar
• 200g powdered icing sugar
• 2 tbsp. water
• 5-6 glazed cherries
Method
• Preheat the oven to 185°C
• In a large bowl add the ground oat, ground almond, baking powder and spices, stir to combine.
• Grate one of the apples and set to one side. With the other apple, peel and core, then chop roughly and blend into a puree using a blender or Nutri-bullet (make a thick style apple puree).
• Add the grated apple, olive, almond essence, maple and apple puree and combine into a thick dough.
• Stir in the mixed peel and orange zest.
• Spoon this mix into a lined bread tin, smooth out the top.
• Bake for 1 hour until the top is golden coloured and hard to tap.
• Let cool fully, I let my loaf cool for 3-4 hours fully before icing (so the icing sets properly!) the loaf taste nicer once set and cooled down too so don’t worry you’re not missing out.
• For the icing, Sift the icing sugar into a bowl mixing bowl, Add a tbsp. of water at a time stirring until you get the correct consistency. You want the icing to be thick, heavy and creamy to give that really bright white look. If your icing becomes to runny and translucent just add more icing sugar until you get the consistence back to what you want.
• Spoon on the icing to the (completely cooled) loaf and pop on the glazed cherries.
• Slice and keep stored in a cool dry area, in an airtight container for up to 4 days.