Eggless Christmas Fruit Cake

This Eggless Christmas Fruit Cake is moist, soft, light and delicious. It is vegetarian, alcohol-free and easy enough for beginners to bake. There are many kinds of fruit cakes made around the world for Christmas but this recipe is one of the quickest and easiest that anyone can bake with great success.

Most fruit cake recipes call for soaking the dried fruits in alcohol for several weeks to months. This instant recipe helps you bypass this step and does not require pre-soaking in advance. So I call it my BEST last minute Fruit Cake!

Indian Fruit Cake

Whether you want to gift this beautiful cake to your loved ones or want to serve it with your family and friends, I am sure everyone will love this. This can be served warm or cold as a dessert with mulled apple juice or a cup of milk or tea.

This can also be baked in advance and refrigerated for a week. You may reheat it in the oven or in a steamer for hot. I haven’t got a chance yet to store it longer because it finishes so fast. I guess it won’t keep good at room temperature longer than a day.

If this is your first attempt at an eggless cake, make sure you read all the steps and understand before trying out. I have the step by step instructions and also a video that’s going to help you understand the process better. Here is a little about the special ingredients you need for this Eggless Christmas Fruit Cake.

• Dry fruits – I have used raisins, apricots, glace cherries and cranberries. Other dried fruits you can try is with dried dates, figs and other kind of berries. If you want to avoid artificial colors, omit the glace cherries or replace them with some dried cranberries as they add similar color to the fruit cake.
• Chopped nuts – We use 100 grams of unsalted raw cashew nuts, almonds and walnuts. You can use these in any proportions. Make sure your walnuts are fresh and not rancid.
• Citrus peels – These are usually labelled as candied peels are made with the peels of citrus fruits. You get a mix of orange, lemon and sometimes grapefruit. If you can’t find them you may use orange and lemon zest.
• Spices – I use cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves. Sometimes I also add ¼ tsp all-spice for a stronger flavour. This recipe makes a subtly spiced cake so all-spice works well to our taste and preference.
• Fruit juice – This recipe works with unsweetened orange juice or apple juice. It adds flavour and required acidity to the batter. I use freshly squeezed orange juice without pulp (strained). Store bought unsweetened juice should be alright.

Other Basic Ingredients

• Flour – This cake can be made using all-purpose flour/ maida or whole wheat/ atta. Using wheat flour makes the cake slightly dense but still tastes very good. However if using wheat flour, sieve it well with the other dry ingredients at least thrice. This makes the cake lighter.
• Fats – I have used unsalted melted butter this time but it also works well with oil. I had used several times extra virgin coconut oil and just loved it. Towards the end of this post, I have shared few pics of the same recipe made using wheat flour and oil which I had made few years ago.
• Sugar – Use brown sugar for the perfect flavour. Though you can use regular sugar I felt brown sugar enhances the flavour and keeps the cake more moist.
• Leavening agent – Baking soda or Soda-bi-carbonate is required in this recipe. Do not confuse with baking powder. Both are different.
• Vinegar – You also need vinegar with 5% acidity or lemon juice. I use apple cider vinegar. Though I have made this fruit cake without vinegar a lot of times, I felt there is a difference in the rise if your juice is not sour enough. You may also have a little aftertaste if you omit this, so don’t.

More cake recipes you may like
No Egg Vanilla cake
Eggless chocolate cake
Eggless tutti frutti cake
Black forest cake (No eggs)
Eggless sponge cake
Eggless carrot cake

Photo Guide

How to make Eggless Christmas Fruit Cake (Stepwise Photos)

Preparation

1. Using a good spice blend to make the fruit cake is very important as it enhances the flavor. I have used homemade spice powder using cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves. You can also use dry ginger powder if you prefer the aroma. Add the 3 ingredients to a spice jar and powder it finely. I have also added 1 tbsp of sugar to help the spices blend easily. Keep this aside.

2. Grease a 8 or 9 inch cake tray and dust it with flour. Instead of flour, you can also use a parchment paper to line the cake pan. You can also use a loaf pan. If using aluminum pan it is good to line the pan.

3. These are the dry fruits and nuts I have used. I usually skip the glace cherries from this recipe and use mixed berries. If you prefer to avoid the artificial colors then just replace the glace cherries with dried cherries or berries.

You can also add more citrus peels if you prefer. But 20 grams was good enough for our taste buds. Preparing the fruits and nuts does take some time so it is good to prepare in advance.

4. Add chopped raisins, citrus peels, cranberries and apricots to a large mixing bowl.

5. Bring water to a boil and pour them over the dry fruits. Actually this is a boiled cake recipe where all the dried fruits are briefly boiled in water to soften the fruits. In the recent years I started to feel boiling them does affect the flavor of the fruits & cake so I prefer to just pour hot water to them.

6. Leave them to soak until the mixture turns cool or warm.

7. The fruits get soaked in the hot water and turn soft.

Make the Fruit Cake Batter

8. Add brown sugar to the mixture. The recipe works well with 150 to 200 grams of brown sugar depending on the kind of dried fruits used. If using dates 150 grams would be sufficient. I have used 1 cup packed i.e 200 grams. So use to suit your taste.

9. Add salt.

10. Pour orange or apple juice. I used freshly squeezed unsweetened orange juice without pulp.

11. Add 1 tbsp lemon juice or vinegar. I have used organic apple cider vinegar. Avoid cheap vinegar as it can make the cake bitter.

12. Add vanilla extract. You can also skip this since the flavors from the spice mix is good enough.

13. Pour melted butter or oil.

14. Mix them all to dissolve the sugar. Set this aside.

15. Preheat the oven to 340 F – 170 C for at least 15 mins.

16. Fluff up the flour in the jar and spoon it to the measuring cups. Level the cups with a spatula. Add it to a sieve placed over a mixing bowl. Then add soda.

17. Add the spice powder. Sieve them all together.

18. If using wheat flour, then repeat the process thrice. This makes the cake light and less denser.

19. The batter needs to go into the oven right after mixing the wet and dry ingredients. So make sure the oven is hot enough before you begin to mix the both. Stir the fruit mix well. Pour it to the flour.

20. Mix the batter gently just until combined. Do not over mix. Add in the chopped cashews, almonds and cherries.

21. Gently fold them in.

22. Pour it to the cake pan. Knock it gently to the kitchen top only twice. Do not over do as the nuts settle at the bottom.

Bake Eggless Fruit Cake

23. Bake the cake for 35 to 40 mins if you have used a 8 inch pan. If using a 8½ by 4½ loaf pan, you will have to bake for 50 to 55 mins. Please do adjust the timing based on the size of your pan. When the cake is done, a tester inserted comes out clean.

24. Cool the cake for 15 mins. Invert the cake on a wire cake.

25. Cool the cake completely.

Slice Eggless Christmas fruit cake once cooled completely.

Eggless Fruit cake made with wheat flour

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