Healthy Christmas Fruit Cake Recipe

                                                               

This holiday season, treat your loved ones with this utterly delicious healthy Fruit cake. Made using whole wheat flour, this Christmas cake is an egg-less, butter-less, refined sugar-free bake loaded with dry fruits and nuts. What's more, this fruit loaf is alcohol free and does not require long soaking unlike the traditional Christmas fruit cakes which are soaked in Rum for week, months or even years ! With a quick and easy to follow recipe, this Christmas fruit cake can be baked directly in Aluminium foil both in Pressure cooker and in Oven and makes for a flavorful edible gift as well !

What is a Fruit Cake ?

A fruit cake is a rich dense moist cake packed with dry fruits and nuts and flavored with warm spices and is a classic holiday treat. Fruit cakes are typically served in celebration of weddings and Christmas. Owing to their rich nature, fruit cakes are consumed on their own as opposed to with condiments such as cream or butter.

What goes into the Healthy Christmas Fruit Cake ? The Ingredients:

• Whole Wheat Flour : The base for this fruit cake is off course flour. I have used whole wheat flour. You may use refined flour and whole wheat flour in 1:1 ratio as well.
• Dry fruits and Nuts: Since this is  fruit cake, we are going to use plenty of dry fruits. I have used cranberries, black currant, golden raisins, candied citrus peels, figs, dates, apricots, tutti frutti and nuts like almonds, cashew and walnuts.

                    

Short Video for Heakthy Christmas Fruit Cake

Related event: Christmas Bakes @Shhhhhhh Cooking Secretly Challenge.

This healthy Christmas fruit cake is featured in the Facebook gourmet group, shhhhhh cooking secretly challenge where the theme for the month of November was Christmas Bakes. As per the theme, we had to bake any cookie, cake , muffin that could be made for Christmas festival and would also make a perfect edible gifting option.

In this group all participating members are divided into pairs and both partners exchange a set of secret ingredients, using which both have to cook a dish depending upon  the theme for the particular month. Once the dish is ready only the pic of the dish is shared on the group and the other group members take turn in guessing the secret ingredients just by looking at the pic of the dish. The secret ingredients and the dish name are revealed at the end of the month when the recipe is published by the respective blogger.

My partner for November month was Renu who gave me milk and fruit juice as my 2 secret ingredients using which i baked this utterly delicious Christmas fruit cake. In return, i gave her yogurt and semolina and she baked an Easy eggless Rava Cake using her set of secret ingredients.

                    

Dietary Notes:  This Christmas Fruit cake is

• Healthy festive bake
• Made using whole wheat flour
• Refined sugar free
• Refined flour free
• Eggless
• Butterless
• Flavorful
• Edible gift
• Kid friendly

               

Preparation Time: 1 hour

Cooking Time: 45 minutes

Serves: 2 cake loafs

Ingredients: Measurements used 1 cup = 240 ml

•  1 1/2 cup whole wheat flour /Atta
• 1 cup yogurt/Dahi
• 3/4 cup jaggery powder / Gud
• 1/2 cup oil ( i have used Sunflower oil)
• 1 teaspoon Orange zest
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon Cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon clove powder
• 1/8 teaspoon dry ginger powder
• Pinch of salt

For Soaking:

3/4 cup Orange juice ( i have used fresh orange juice)

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 cup dry fruits (Figs,Cranberries, Black resins,Citrus fruit peels, Golden raisin,Candied cherries, Dates)

1/2 cup nuts ( Almonds, Walnuts, Cashew Nut)

1/2 cup Tutti Frutti

Method:

1. In a sauce pan heat orange juice with 1/4 cup water. Add chopped dry fruits and tutti frutti to it. Boil it for 2-3 minutes and put off the flame. Add lemon juice to it . Allow the dry fruits to soak in the juice for 1-2 hours.
2. Sift the Whole wheat flour, Cinnamon powder, clove powder, dry ginger powder, Baking powder, baking soda and salt thrice. Add orange zest to it. Out dry ingredients are ready.
3. Preheat the oven at 180 degree Celsius for 15 minutes. Preheat the pressure cooker with salt at the base, covered with a lid, without the gasket and whistle.
4. In a large mixing bowl take oil. Add Jaggery powder to it and whisk for 2-3 minutes. Add yogurt to it and whisk again until the jaggery powder dissolves completely and you  get a lump free homogeneous mixture. Stir in vanilla essence to it.
5. To this add our dry ingredients and fold using a spatula. Do not over beat.
6. Add chopped nuts and give a good stir.
7. Add half of the soaked dry fruits to the batter and fold with a spatula.
8. Fill 2 greased 7 inch aluminium foil up to 3/4 its capacity with the batter.
9. Top the batter with reserved soaked dry fruits and level it with the spatula.
10. Tap the Aluminium foils delicately and transfer it to preheated oven or pressure cooker. I baked one in pressure cooker and the other one in microwave with convection mode at 160 degrees Celsius for 30-35 minutes.
11. Check for the done-ness using a toothpick. If the inserted toothpick comes out clean, the cake is done.
12. Allow the loaf to cool down completely on a wire rack, before packing it with a cling film, in case you are making it as an edible gift. Later you can simply decorate the loaf with satin ribbon.
13. Demould and slice the loaf on completely cooling down.
14. Drizzle powder sugar or serve it on its own.
15. Enjoy the flavorful and healthy Christmas fruit cake with your loved ones !

                   

                  

Would love to hear from you !

I hope you would love trying out this healthy and delicious Christmas Fruit Cake. If you do so, feel free to share your feedback with us in the form of likes and comments in the section below this post.

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See you soon with yet another healthy and delicious creation from my Kitchen. Until then Stay safe and eat right !

 

Happy Cooking !

Happy Eating !

 

Regards

Poonam Bachhav 

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