Vegan fruit cake with chocolate | gluten free recipe
I know, I know, it’s January and Christmas is over but this vegan fruit cake with a delicious chocolate glaze can be eaten at any time of the year. If you live in a country where it’s super cold in January, well congrats! You now have the perfect excuse to make this yummy dessert. This fruitcake tastes best when you enjoy it in front of a fireplace with a big cup of hot chocolate. But as I wrote before, it also tastes great at any time of the year. So make it today, I am sure you will enjoy it as much as I do.
This vegan fruit cake is:
- Gluten free
- Plant-based
- Healthy
- Chocolatey
- Fruity
- Dairy-free
- Egg-free
- Refined sugar-free
- Rich
- Full of flavor
It’s packed with dried fruits and nuts
This vegan fruit cake not only tastes delicious, but it’s also easy to make. It’s packed with lots of dried fruits and nuts. I used dried apricots, figs, dates and raisins. If you use more dried fruits in the recipe, the cake will turn out even more rich, moist and gooey. As for the nuts I used cashews, almonds, pecans, and pieces of coconut meat. You can, of course, use any other nuts like hazelnuts, walnuts or peanuts.
I poured a delicious chocolate glaze on top of this vegan fruit cake. And let me tell you, it makes it even tastier! You don’t have to add the chocolate on top but I can only recommend it. After all, chocolate makes everything better in my opinion.
Boozy vegan fruit cake with so much flavor!
Do you like using dried fruits with booze in cakes? I absolutely love it, the natural sugar of the dried fruits makes the cake super sweet, moist and rich and the booze adds so much flavor. I soaked the dried fruits in rum, as I like the flavor of rum! But don’t worry, you don’t need to add alcohol, you can just use a rum flavor. If you try out my fruitcake recipe, please report back and tell me if you liked it. PS: If you love cakes with spices check out my Vegan & Gluten Free Carrot Cake
Vegan Fruit Cake
Ingredients
Dried fruits, nuts and spices
Dry ingredients for the cake (see recipe notes)
- 1 cup (160 g) white rice flour
- 1/2 cup + 2 tbsp (75 g) tapioca flour
- 1/4 cup (33 g) garbanzo flour (chickpea flour)
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
Wet ingredients for the cake
- 2 small/medium (200 g) spotty bananas
- 1/2 cup (120 ml) coconut milk
- 1/3 cup (80 ml) maple syrup or any other liquid sweetener (use less if you add more dried fruits)
- 3 tsp lime juice
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 tbsp (28 g) coconut oil melted
- 3 flax eggs (3 ground flax seeds + 6 tbsp water)
- 3 drops each of orange- and lemon essential oil (optional)
Chocolate glaze
- 3 tbsp peanut flour (see notes)
- 3 tbsp cocoa powder
- 3-4 tbsp maple syrup (depending how sweet you want it)
- 2-3 tbsp water OR orange juice (see notes)
- 2 tbsp coconut oil melted
- 1 pinch of salt
Instructions
- Chop your dried fruits and nuts and soak them together with the raisins and spices in rum (or orange juice with rum flavor) overnight or for at least two hours
- Put the dry ingredients in a big bowl and stir until there are no clumps. You can use 2 cups of any gluten free flour blend instead of the flours I listed
- Add the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir with a spatula until the mixture is combined
- Now add the soaked dried fruits, raisins and nuts and mix again with a spatula
- Line a mold with parchment paper or grease it with a little bit of coconut oil. My mold measures 8 x 4 x 2.5 inches
- Bake in the oven at 390 degrees F (200 degrees C) for about 45 minutes or until a toothpick comes out almost clean (don't overcook it). Check after 40 minutes with a toothpick
- Mix all ingredients for the chocolate glaze with a whisk in a small bowl and pour it over the cake once it has cooled down. Store the cake in the fridge
Notes
- Flours: You can use 2 cups of any gluten free flour blend instead of the three flours I listed
- Chocolate glaze: I use this brand of peanut flour. You can skip it and use 6 tbsp of cocoa powder instead and less water/orange juice as the peanut flour makes the mixture thicker
- Essential oils: Make sure to use essential oils (food grade) and not aroma oils
- The recipe makes one loaf which I cut into 10 pieces. Nutrition facts are for one piece with the chocolate glaze
Nutrition information is an estimate and has been calculated automatically
Simple and Delicious Vegan Cookbook by ElaVeganCLICK HERE to order!If you are using Pinterest, feel free to pin the following photo:
This recipe looks amazing! Haven’t made it yet, but keep the “booze” flowing!!🤣 I think I’ll use my rum-soaked raisins (which I maintain year round 😉) and add Triple Sec to the glaze for that orange-y flavor! I’m definitely adding your recipe to my Christmas list for the kitchen! Thank you so much. Love your blog!!
Sounds lovely! I am so glad you like my recipes, Sheryl. 🙂
This looks perfect! Can I replace the bananas with applesauce or something else since I don’t have any in the house?
Yes, that should be fine! 🙂
This recipe looks amazing! Always looking for gluten-free baking ideas as we have family that have celiac disease. One question though – can I replace the flax eggs with real eggs? If so, how many would I need? Thanks!! Looking forward to making this.
Hey, I cannot tell you for sure since I am vegan and don’t use eggs. But 2 should probably be enough. 🙂
This looks amazing Ela! I love any recipe with booze in it! 🙂
Thank you very much Megan! So sweet of you to visit my blog <3
This cake is amazing, ela! I love that you use rum 🙂
Thank you Nisha. I don’t like drinking rum but it’s so amazing in cakes. So glad you like my cake <3
This is my kinda cake!! I love that you actually used real (and some of my favorite!) dried fruits instead of those funky candied ones. Baking with booze is not something I’ve ever tried, but I’m very curious to taste what sort of flavor it adds. And that layer of chocolate glaze on top is absolutely irresistible????
Thank you Natalie! Well I actually hate these “funky candied” dried fruits. I never ate Christmas Stollen or Fruit Cake as a child because I hated them so much lol. I love real natural dried fruits though. You have to add some booze to your next cake.
I can not wait to make this ! I love apricots .. And soaking in rum sounds amazing I also love the chocolate glaze .. I will let you know when I make this ,! Thank you for sharing <3
Thank you very much Kirsten! Yes I love apricots as well, they are so gooey and yummy. And yes you need to soak them in rum, they are even better then. <3