This Gluten-Free Vegan Fruit Cake is seriously moist, beautifully fragrant and not overly sweet! It's honestly undetectably vegan and gluten-free and has an almost melt-in-your-mouth texture reminiscent of stollen. Unlike a lot of other gluten-free cakes, this one definitely doesn't dry out quickly, as the fruit keeps it moist for a long time and the flavour actually improves over time. This means it's perfect for Christmas, gifting, or making in advance when entertaining guests.
Commonly used alcohol types are rum, brandy or sherry, but you can use any alcohol you like.
If you need this recipe to be gluten-free, make sure to check that the alcohol you use is gluten-free.
If you need it to be vegan, you can use the website barnivore.com to make sure that your alcohol is vegan.
Fruit Cake traditionally contains alcohol as the dried fruits are soaked in alcohol before being added to the cake batter. To make alcohol-free fruit cake, you can replace the alcohol by soaking the dried fruit in orange juice or apple juice instead.
Yes - you can do this by placing the dried fruit and alcohol (or juice) mixture in a microwave-safe bowl, cover with a microwave-safe plate and microwave for 1 - 1 ½ minutes. Then leave to soak for 30 minutes.
How to make this recipe
Scroll down to the bottom of the post for the full recipe.
- Place chopped dried fruits, walnuts and spices in a bowl and add sherry/brandy until covered.
Tip: Leave to soak in the fridge for at least 24 hours.
- Mix together all the ingredients in a glass mixing bowl, using a measuring jug to measure out the plant-based milk.
- Transfer the batter to a one-pound loaf tin.
Tip: Make sure to line the loaf tin with greased baking paper - this will make removing the bread from the tin so much easier!
- Sprinkle over flaked almonds to decorate, if desired.
- Bake in the oven for 45 minutes.
- Remove from the loaf tin and leave to cool on a cooling rack before slicing.
How long does this Fruit Cake keep for?
This Fruit Cake keeps covered in the fridge for a few days.
Substitutions you can make
- You can use any type of dried fruit: I used a mixture of dates, cranberries, dried figs, prunes and dried apricots, but you can also use raisins, sultanas, sour cherries, mango, papaya or pineapple.
- You can replace the alcohol with orange juice or apple juice.
- You can replace the chopped walnuts with pecan nuts.
- You can use any type of oil: coconut oil, olive oil or vegetable oil.
- You can use any type of plant-based milk: almond milk, rice milk, soy milk, cashew milk, oat milk etc.
- You can replace the ground almonds with ground walnuts.
- For a nut-free version: replace the ground walnuts with ground sunflower seeds and use a nut-free plant-based milk.
- You can use plain flour, wholemeal (whole wheat) flour or spelt flour instead of the gluten-free flour if you’re not gluten-free.
- This is definitely not as sweet as a traditional fruit cake. If you prefer a sweeter cake, add 4 tablespoons of sweetener of choice, such as maple syrup.
More fruity vegan desserts
- Cherry Bakewell Cake
- Blueberry Pie
- Apple Cake
- Fig Upside Down Cake
- Chocolate Orange Cake
- Raspberry Dark Chocolate Blondies
If you try out this recipe or anything else from my blog, I’d really love to hear any feedback! Please give it a rating, leave a comment, or tag a photo @rhiansrecipes #rhiansrecipes on Instagram! Thank you.
Watch how to make this recipe
Gluten-Free Vegan Fruit Cake
Ingredients
- 300 g (1 ½ cup) dried fruit , finely chopped (I used a mixture of dates, dried cranberries, dried figs, prunes and dried apricots, but you can use whatever dried fruit mix you like)
- 1 tablespoon unwaxed orange zest (or sub 1 teaspoon orange extract)
- 50 g (½ cup) walnuts , finely chopped (or sub pecan nuts)
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon mixed spice (or sub a mixture of nutmeg, cinnamon and cloves)
- Generous amount brandy or sherry (ensure vegan/gluten-free if necessary - or sub apple or orange juice)
- 60 g (¼ cup) coconut oil (or sub olive or vegetable oil)
- 200 ml (⅘ cup) unsweetened almond milk (or any other plant-based milk)
- 4 tablespoons maple syrup (or sub any other sweetener)
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Pinch salt
- 150 g (1 ¼ cup) ground almonds (almond meal) *
- 150 g (1 ¼ cup) gluten-free flour blend (or sub plain flour if not gluten-free)
- 2 heaped teaspoons baking powder (ensure gluten-free if necessary)
- ¼ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
To decorate (optional):
- Flaked almonds
Instructions
- Place the dried fruit, orange zest, walnuts, ginger, cinnamon and mixed spice in a bowl and add a generous amount of brandy or sherry, until everything is roughly covered.
- Keep covered in the fridge for around 24 hours, to allow the flavours to develop.
- Before making the cake, preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius (350 degrees Fahrenheit).
- Place the coconut oil in a large bowl and melt over a saucepan of boiling water or in the microwave (skip this step if using any other oil).
- Once melted, add the milk to the same bowl along with the maple syrup, lemon juice, vanilla, salt and ground almonds.
- Sift in the flour, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda.
- Add the dried fruit mixture (along with any residual brandy), adding a tiny splash more milk if it’s looking too dry.
- Transfer mixture into a loaf tin lined with greased baking paper (I used a one-pound loaf tin).
- Scatter over flaked almonds before baking, if desired.
- Bake in oven for 45 minutes until risen and an inserted skewer comes out clean.
- Keeps covered in the fridge for up to a few days.
Video
Notes
- This is definitely not as sweet as a traditional fruit cake. If you prefer a sweeter cake, add 4 tablespoons of sweetener of choice, such as maple syrup.
- You can also make this without soaking the dried fruit a day in advance - place the dried fruit and alcohol (or juice) mixture in a microwave-safe bowl, cover with a microwave-safe plate and microwave for 1 - 1 ½ minutes. Then leave to soak for 30 minutes.
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Audrey Woodward
Hi there! Excited to try this, is the calorie information for the whole cake, or just a portion?
Rhian Williams
Thank you so much! It's been done per cake if you're making mini loaf cakes, which are quite big. So it'll be slightly less per portion. Hope that helps!
Ken
Hello there
Could you provide any feedback about the option of using sweet corn flour?
Will that work as opposed to traditional flour
I am new to making glutin and dairy free fruit cake.
Rhian Williams
Hello! I'm sorry I've never used sweet corn flour so I have no idea if it will work. It could work in place of the gluten-free flour in the cake, but I'm sorry I can't give any advice because I've never used it. Other options for how to substitute the gluten-free flour would be using rice flour or buckwheat flour. I would love to hear how you get on if you try this sweet corn flour though. Thank you!
S. N. M
Can we add dairy milk instead of almond milk?
Rhian Williams
Yes, any type of milk works!
Mandy
Unfortunately my cake was disastrous. I baked it for over an hour but it was still uncooked and not edible. I used a 1lb loaf tin but the mixture was too much and overflowed while baking. Should it be a 2lb tin. I followed the receipe exactly as stated. I used orange juice instead of alcohol. The batter wasn't as dry as your pics so wondering if this is what caused the problem as well as the loaf tin being too small. Was so looking forward to this ☹️
Rhian Williams
Hi Mandy, thank you so much for your feedback. I'm so sorry to hear that. A 1lb loaf tin should be fine, I think what probably happened is that you used too much orange juice to soak the dried fruit. Was there a lot of residual orange juice left over when you added the dried fruit to the batter before baking? When I soaked my dried fruit I roughly covered it with liquid and there was hardly any leftover liquid when I put it in the cake. I'm so sorry again and thank you for letting me know.
Mandy
I did have some orange juice left and the batter was quite wet. Should it be dry. I also used a mixed dry fruit packet rather than cutting my own dried fruit. Not sure if that would have made any difference.
Rhian Williams
Using a mixed dry fruit packet won't have made a difference, but if the batter was very wet that's probably why it didn't bake properly. The mixture shouldn't be dry, a little wetter than a traditional sponge cake batter but it shouldn't be very wet either. I think using less orange juice next time, or not adding any residual orange juice would help. Thank you again for your feedback!