This post contains affiliate links. Please see our disclosure policy.

Vegan Gluten free Christmas Cake Fruit Cake full of nuts, dried fruits, dates, seeds, candied ginger. Soft, Flavorful and great for gifting. Vegan Soyfree Recipe. 

Vegan Gluten free Christmas Cake Fruit Cake full of nuts, dried fruits, candied ginger. Soft, Flavorful and great for gifting. Vegan Soyfree Recipe. #veganricha #vegan #glutenfree | VeganRicha.com

I am not sure why fruit cakes have a bad rap. They used to be a treat we would wait for around Christmas. Soft, Sweet, full of fun stuff for us kids I guess. Maybe we just lucked out with a fabulous bakery. 🙂

I make versions of my Spelt spiced fruit cake if not baking a load of cookies every year. This version is adapted from spelt flour version. I use almond flour and rice flour to keep it gluten-free. The cake keeps well refrigerated for a few weeks if you use liquor or a week with orange juice. Serve as is or with a bourbon/rum glaze! Add nuts or seeds that you like, some dates, apricots, cherries. I also added some roasted sunflower seeds and chia seeds, so the cake is also great to snack on. 

Vegan Gluten free Christmas Cake Fruit Cake full of nuts, dried fruits, candied ginger. Soft, Flavorful and great for gifting. Vegan Soyfree Recipe. #veganricha #vegan #glutenfree | VeganRicha.com

More gluten-free baking from the blog

If you make this cake or any of the above gf bakes, let me know how they turned out! Send me pictures, Tag me on social media. 

Soak the nuts, seeds, dried and candied fruit in orange juice or juice + liquor.

Vegan Gluten free Christmas Cake Fruit Cake full of nuts, dried fruits, candied ginger. Soft, Flavorful and great for gifting. Vegan Soyfree Recipe. #veganricha #vegan #glutenfree | VeganRicha.com

Vegan Gluten free Christmas Cake Fruit Cake full of nuts, dried fruits, candied ginger. Soft, Flavorful and great for gifting. Vegan Soyfree Recipe. #veganricha #vegan #glutenfree | VeganRicha.com

Whisk all the dry ingredients, them combine with the wet. 

Vegan Gluten free Christmas Cake Fruit Cake full of nuts, dried fruits, candied ginger. Soft, Flavorful and great for gifting. Vegan Soyfree Recipe. #veganricha #vegan #glutenfree | VeganRicha.com

Vegan Gluten free Christmas Cake Fruit Cake full of nuts, dried fruits, candied ginger. Soft, Flavorful and great for gifting. Vegan Soyfree Recipe. #veganricha #vegan #glutenfree | VeganRicha.com

Vegan Gluten free Christmas Cake Fruit Cake full of nuts, dried fruits, candied ginger. Soft, Flavorful and great for gifting. Vegan Soyfree Recipe. #veganricha #vegan #glutenfree | VeganRicha.com

Vegan Gluten free Christmas Cake - Fruit Cake

4.84 from 18 votes
By: Vegan Richa
Prep: 15 minutes
Cook: 45 minutes
Total: 1 hour
Servings: 10
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: Gluten-free, Vegan
Vegan Gluten free Christmas Cake Fruit Cake full of nuts, dried fruits, dates, seeds, candied ginger. Soft, Flavorful and great for gifting. Vegan Soyfree Recipe. 
Save this recipe!
Get this sent to your inbox, plus get new recipes from us every week!
Please enable JavaScript in your browser to complete this form.


Ingredients 
 

  • 1 cup orange juice or a combination with liquor, (upto half cup of rum, brandy, whiskey or a mix)
  • 1.25 to 1.5 cups dried fruits and nuts, (I use pecans, cashews, walnuts, roasted sunflower seeds, candied ginger, currants, chopped dates, candied orange peel, cherries/apricots etc)
  • 1 tbsp chia seeds, (not optional as they help thicken the leftover orange juice. You an use 1.5 tbsp flax seed meal as a sub)
  • 1/4 to 1/3 cup light brown sugar
  • 2 tbsp oil, (I use organic safflower)
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1/2 cup white rice flour
  • 3/4 cup almond flour
  • 1/4 cup potato starch
  • 1.5 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp citric acid, , optional **
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice

Instructions 

  • Add juice, dried fruit, nuts, seeds, and chia seeds to a bowl and mix. Let sit refrigerated for a few hours to overnight.
  • Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (180 C). Line a loaf pan with parchment or grease it. 
  • Take the juice bowl out from the fridge. Add sugar, oil and vanilla to the bowl and mix in until sugar is combined. In another bowl, add the dry ingredients and whisk. (You can omit the citric acid from the dry. I like the air it adds to gluten-free baked goods. See my glutenfree cinnamon roll bread post for details about the use of citric acid) 
  • Combine the dry and wet and mix to make a batter. Drop in parchment lined pan.
  • Bake at 350 degrees F for 45 minutes. Check with a toothpick from the center of the cake. it should come out almost clean. Bake longer if needed. 
  • Cool for 10 minutes, then remove from the pan. Cool completely before slicing (cool lightly covered by a towel). Store on the counter covered for upto 2 days, refrigerate for upto 10, freeze for upto 2 months. If using liquor, you can store the cake on the counter and refrigerator for longer. 

Notes

Glaze options: You can glaze this cake with some fruit preserves heated up and mixed with rum or bourbon. Or heat 2 tbsp vegan butter, 4 tbsp sugar and 2 tbsp liquor until sugar dissolves to make a smooth glaze.
 
Make this with regular flour, use 1.25 to 1.5 cups of spelt flour or a mix of whole wheat and all purpose. or use my spiced fruit cake recipe
 
** See information on the need of Citric acid use above in the post.
To make without citric acid:  omit it and for the liquid use 1/4 cup club soda and use 3/4 cup orange juice. 
You can also use whipped aquafaba. Whip 3 tbsp aquafaba until soft peaks and fold into the batter just before baking, Use 3/4 cup + 2 tbsp orange juice instead of 1 cup in the batter. 
Nutrition is 1 of 10 slices

Nutrition

Calories: 231kcal, Carbohydrates: 23g, Protein: 3g, Fat: 14g, Saturated Fat: 1g, Sodium: 63mg, Potassium: 216mg, Fiber: 2g, Sugar: 10g, Vitamin A: 55IU, Vitamin C: 12.6mg, Calcium: 77mg, Iron: 0.9mg

Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.

Did you make this recipe? Rate and comment below!

Vegan Gluten free Christmas Cake Fruit Cake full of nuts, dried fruits, candied ginger. Soft, Flavorful and great for gifting. Vegan Soyfree Recipe. #veganricha #vegan #glutenfree | VeganRicha.com

About Richa

Hi, I'm Richa! I create flavorful plant based recipes that are inspired by my Indian upbringing, including many gluten-free, soy-free, and oil-free options.

You May Also Like

4.84 from 18 votes (2 ratings without comment)

Leave a comment

If you Love the Recipe, Please consider rating it using stars in comments! It helps readers and helps more people find the recipe online and I love hearing from you all!

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

84 Comments

  1. Jill says:

    How can I use this recipe to make cookies instead of bread?

  2. Janna Ross says:

    Can I substitute 3/4 cup gluten free flour (Bob’s Red Mill) for the potato and rice flours? Keeping the almond flour.

    1. Vegan Richa Support says:

      Yes that might work. I haven’t use bobs gf flour lately so let me know if they worked

  3. Esther says:

    5 stars
    This fruitcake is ah-mazing!!
    I added extra fruit like close to 2 cups very pressed down. Baked in 4 mini loaves for gifting. Love this!!!
    Thank you for the recipe!

    1. Vegan Richa Support says:

      Thank you!!

  4. Carmen says:

    5 stars
    I made this recipe for the first time, and it turned out perfect! I didn’t have potato starch, so I substituted tapioca flour, and I also used a different variety of fruit. Mainly dried figs, dried apricots, raisins, and pumpkin seeds! It couldn’t have turned out better… The time in the oven of 45 minutes was exactly right, and it came out perfectly baked. I also soaked my fruit in half orange juice half Cointreau and rum mix, which also worked well with the flavour profile.

    1. Vegan Richa Support says:

      Sound delicious!!

  5. Jane says:

    5 stars
    Out of this world. Thank you. My joints and tastebuds thank you for your outstanding gluten free recipes!

    1. Vegan Richa Support says:

      I’m so glad to hear!

  6. Gabriella says:

    Hello – Do you use blanched almonds ground in a blender for the almond flour? Thanks.

    1. Richa says:

      Both are the same if you use almond flour made of blanched almonds. That’s what I use

      1. Indrani says:

        Hi Richa! Is there any way I can sub almond flour for any other flour. I am intolerant to nuts.

        1. Vegan Richa Support says:

          You can use a preferred gluten-free baking mix, and omit the baking powder from the recipe if this is included in the blend.

  7. Theresa says:

    Hey Richa!

    A lot fruit cake recipes have you brush the top with rum or brandy every few days. Is this something you can do with this cake, or will it make it wet and crumbly?

    1. Vegan Richa Support says:

      try it – i think it will be fine

  8. Angela says:

    5 stars
    Hello Richa
    Thank you for this recipe. I’ve made it a few times now as friends have demanded it even though they’re not vegan.
    Recently, I doubled the ingredients, but kept the brown sugar the same, soaked the fruit in orange juice and used spelt flour. I poured the mixture into a 10” cake tin and baked for an hour.
    My non-vegan diabetic family loved it.
    Victory 🙂

  9. Ramona says:

    Going to be making this soon. Can I replace the potato starch with Tapioca starch? Looks amazing – as do all your recipes:)

    1. Richa says:

      Yes