Stir it up!
On Sunday 22nd November 2015 households up and down the country will be taking part in Stir-up Sunday; the last Sunday before advent when traditionally Christmas pudding and cake will be stirred up ready for Christmas. I think this is such a lovely tradition, and one that has existed since Victorian times. Christmas cake and pudding actually benefit from being made in advance, thanks to the heaps of dried fruit in them. I can’t quite imagine wanting to eat a standard sponge chocolate 6 weeks after it has been made, can you?
This was the first time I tackled a gluten free Christmas cake, and tried it out on many folk last year; an afternoon tea for a local fitness group, a Christmas stall at a local market, and finally on my family at Christmas.
I couldn’t just invent a recipe out of thin air so turned to Delia Smith; the domestic goddess my Mum always looked to for guidance. I used her faithful Christmas cake that I think is the same one my Mum and subsequently my sister have been making for years. I adore the flavours of rich almonds, so it seemed fitting to include amaretto in the recipe instead of Delia’s suggestion of brandy.
Dried fruit soaking in Amaretto
Other adaptations included replacing flour with a blend of buckwheat flour, ground almonds and a touch of tapioca flour, subbing soft brown sugar for coconut sugar (or any unrefined brown sugar), black treacle for molasses and I kept Delia’s idea for blanched almonds as delightful simple decoration instead of a overly sugary marzipan and white icing finish.
This gave an incredibly rich and moist cake – a little really does go a long way.
Here are some other Christmas cake recipe ideas from the healthy, to the gluten free to the traditional – there’s something for everyone!
- Another amaretto cake, but gluten & dairy free from The Free From Fairy
- A grain & gluten free cake, using only ground almonds as the flour from The Healthy Chef
- A gluten free recipe using apples, medjool dates and only a little granulated sugar to sweeten from Jamie Oliver
- A very traditional cake with royal icing from Supper in the Suburbs
- And the goddess herself a classic recipe from Delia Smith!
What will you be stirring up this Sunday?
And for a final festive touch: add some fancy ribbon around your cake
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Gluten Free Christmas Cake with Amaretto Soaked Fruit
- 450g currants
- 175g sultanas
- 175g raisins
- 50g dried cranberries
- 50g dried apricot, diced
- 100mls amaretto
- 100g ground almonds
- 100g buckwheat flour
- 25g tapioca flour
- ½ tsp salt
- ¼ tsp nutmeg
- ½ tsp ground mixed spice
- 175g coconut palm sugar / rapadura or other unrefined sugar
- 4 large eggs
- 1 tbs molasses, warmed
- 225g unsalted butter
- 50g chopped almonds
- Zest of 1 lemon, 1 orange
- To top the cake: 50g whole blanched almonds
- You’ll need a greased and lined (base and sides) 20cm deep cake tin
- Place the dried fruit in a large bowl and pour over the amaretto. Cover with a tea towel and leave overnight to plump up.
- When ready to bake, pre-heat the oven to 140°C.
- Sift the flours, spices and salt together – be sure to break up any almond clumps – then add the sugar, eggs, warmed molasses, and butter. Beat with an electric whisk until smooth.
- Fold in the soaked dried fruit, chopped nuts and add the grated lemon and orange zest.
- Transfer the mixture into the lined tin and spread the top smooth with a spoon or spatula. Finally, decorate the top of the cake with the blanched almonds.
- Place a square of parchment with a 50p size hole in the idle over the cake and bake in the lowest part of the oven for 4 hours. The cake will be done when it feels springy to touch.
- Cool in the tin for 30 minutes then remove and place on a rack to cool fully.
This looks great! It’s so hard to find a Christmas cake that isn’t dry let alone gluten free.
Thanks Gemma. With a good dose of ground almonds, butter, and all that soaked fruit we’re in good hands – no dryness at all! 🙂
Fab looking cake Ceri! Gluten free cakes are hard at the best of times so this is very impressive. Definitely going to be considering moving away from traditional brandy and soaking my fruit in something a little more interesting…
Thanks Emma! There’s nowt wrong with brandy, but yes why not try something else for a change!! Happy baking!
I’ve just made a Christmas pudding and it had so little flour in that I think that would be really easy to make it gluten free.
Lovely simple decoration – I think that all that icing can just be too much can’t it?
I know I saw your recipe and I was wondering the same thing! I’m not the biggest Christmas pudding fan though – something about warm puddings that puts me off (I know weird)!
Thanks Helen!
Hello hello! I’m a loather of fruit cakes but the amaretto element is enough to tempt even me!
No no! Fruit cakes are the best!! But if amaretto can tempt you in I’m impressed! Thanks Kerry!
Do you think I could use coconut oil instead of butter?
Hi Rebecca, I haven’t tried it myself so can’t say for certain, they behave a little differently as butter had a different consistency than coconut oil (different far %) but it’s definitely worth a try as usually they are recommended as straight swaps in cakes.
Oooo. I gotta make a GF cake for a New Years Eve party, and this is it!
It’s a lot of work for a cake – but feeds so many maybe it’s worth it! If you need any other suggestions let me know!
Oh this cake looks so moist and SO GOOD! Can I have a piece?
Thanks Diana! You’d have to make it first but of course 😉
Hi Ceri, Ingredients all ordered! 🙂 Do you know how long it lasts once made?
Christmas cake keeps for ages. If you wrap it well in parchment then keep it in an air tight container it should be good for a couple of months. Have fun baking!
This is my first attempt at making a Christmas cake and I was wondering
Instead of the blanched almonds on the top of the cake can I ice it with almond and white icing ?
Hey hope the cake went well? Yes Ice it however you like!
First Xmas being G-Free! Just made the cake and it’s gone in the oven. Shuffled the fruit around a bit, not a big fan of currants so used cranberries. Hopefully it’ll come out really nice. Also left the almonds off the top as I’m icing it. Thanks for the great recipe!
Oh wow good luck! So glad you picked this recipe and I really hope you enjoy it. Cranberries are an excellent Christmassy choice – nice one! Thanks for stopping by!
Hi, I’ve just finished baking this cake. I used 45grams of honey instead of coconut sugar (after researching how to substitute it). The cake is very moist, it oozed liquid while baking onto a cookie sheet. I used a 20cm spring form pan after greasing it and did parchment paper with hole over top. I ended up baking it an extra 40 mins as I was worried about the liquid. I’m still waiting for it to cool down before removing it from the pan. I’m worried about it pulling apart, not being sturdy enough. I will report back in a few days…. The batter tasted amazing. 🙂 I really want this to work!
Hi Hayley, sorry to hear you had a problem with this cake. I hope it worked OK in the end? I think when you are changing from granulated sugar to a liquid sugar things can be really unpredictable (even with a guide on how to do it theoretically – it doesn’t always work in my experience). Anyway, fingers crossed for your cake!
I am so impressed with this recipe that I have been making for several years. I not only make it for Christmas but also during the year. It has great keeping properties. I make 2 recipes each time and divide the mixture into 3 x 15cm (6”) square tins. I also substitute treacle for the molasses and use dark brown sugar. When cooked and cooled I wrap in cheese cloth, spray with amaretto and then wrap in baking paper and then foil. I do spray them every few weeks. I live in Australia so store the cakes in a storage fridge which is opened infrequently so the cakes are kept at an even temperature.