The holiday season is here so what better way to celebrate than with a Christmas Cake with an Orange Custard Topping. This Plant Based Vegan Christmas Cake is literally chocked full of flavor and is gluten free, refined sugar-free and oil-free! Perfect for sharing with your loved ones or just enjoying a slice with a nice hot comforting drink.
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Ingredients
Cake
3 1/2 cups (577g) dried fruit (cranberries, diced apricots, currants, raisins or other dried fruit that you enjoy)
2 cups (472g) black tea
2 1/2 cups rolled oats (200g), ground into flour (don't grind too fine)
1 1/2 teaspoon (7.5g) baking powder
3/4 teaspoon (3.75g) baking soda
2 teaspoons (10g) cinnamon
2 teaspoons (10g) ginger
2 tablespoons (35g) blackstrap molasses
2 cups (480g) unsweetened soy milk (or plant milk of your choice)
1/2 cup (75g) pecans
1/2 cups (75g) walnuts
1 teaspoon (2g) orange zest
Orange Custard
1/3 cup (46g) cashews
3 tablespoons (48g) frozen orange juice concentrate
1/4 cup (56g) diced pitted dates
3/4 cup (177g) water
1/2Â teaspoon (2.1g) vanilla
Instructions
- Soak the dried fruit in the black tea overnight.
- Preheat oven to 300°F.
- Add the oat flour, baking soda and powder, cinnamon and ginger to a mixing bowl and stir well.
- Stir the molasses into the soy milk.
- Add the milk mixture along with soaked dried fruit (do not drain tea from dried fruit), nuts and orange zest to the flour mixture and stir well.
- Pour into a silicone or well greased bundt pan.
- Bake for 2 - 2 1/2 hours.
- Cool for at least 20 minutes before removing it from the bundt pan.
- Blend the orange custard ingredients in a blender until smooth.
- Pour into a saucepan on medium heat and stir until thickness desired (I like mine a pourable consistency)
- Pour custard over each slice once removed from cake.Â
- Store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to a week.
14 comments
Do u drain the black tea off the fruit?
no
Hi Jill, i can’t drink coffee or black or green teas. Is there some other liquid, like an herbal tea or Dandy Blend is that something I coudl try in place? thanks
I have heard other people using herbal tea.
You could also soak the fruit in orange juice.
Hello Jill, I’m Louisa D’Souza from Mumbai, India. I’m not sure if we get blackstrap molasses here…could u pls let me know if I can omit it or could I substitute it with date syrup or brown rice syrup? Many thanks,
You can omit it. It is really just for the flavor.
Hi Jill, thank you for creating this recipe. I tried it today. I’m a novice cook, but have really been trying to be a better one since turning WFPB. However, I still find myself making rookie mistakes, so I thought I would share the mistakes I made when making this cake. I used dehydrated mangos, Goji berries, raisins, dehydrated apples, and a few dates. All fruit was chopped into smaller pieces. Mango was not a good idea as it became pudding-like. Also, I used two silicone bread pans because that’s all I have. I thought it would have a similar thickness at its widest size as the bundt pan. But it seemed to take more than 2 and a half hours. I pulled it from the oven because i didn’t want to risk burning it. It seemed quite wet inside. In the end, I blame the mangos for making this problem. It doesn’t have the desired consistency, but it is super delicious and I can’t thank you enough!
Jill you are amazing!!! This is incredible. I just made it and am in heaven!! Thank you and a very Happy Christmas to you and yours!
Jill,
I made this wonderful cake yesterday to, you know, try it out before serving it to guests over the holidays.
It is amazing! This is the first fruitcake I’ve ever made, because I don’t like the “candied” fruitcakes I’ve tried over my lifetime. But this cake, with the orange custard, is fantastic. I did add a bit of nutmeg to the mix, and substituted black walnuts for the English walnuts.
Thank you for working out such an outstanding recipe for us.
Jill can you freeze the cake. Just made mine and it came out of the silicone pan as soon as I turned it over. Now to keep my husband from testing it. Thanks for the recipe.
I haven’t tried freezing it but I think it would do ok.
I am making this today. The recipe says 2 1/2 cups rolled oats, but the grams listed are 20?? I assume that is a typo? What is the correct weight measurement?
Thank you for catching that Michelle. Just a typo. It is 200g.