I love baking, so when I saw that Sunday 17th May was #WorldBakingDay I couldn’t resist finding something to make that would fit with my current gluten free, chocolate free, dairy free diet! Thankfully I have a recipe that’s been tried and tested – The Everythingless Fruit Cake! This is a recipe my Mum introduced me to when she first went gluten free and its basically like a gluten free version of malt loaf.
It is another incredibly simple recipe to make, now I’ll admit I’ve been baking for as long as I could reach the surface, however the removal of butter and sugar means that this recipe is just a case of mixing everything together and then baking. We were away visiting family on Friday and Saturday and I had a class for the marketing diploma I’m working on today so it needed to be something I could make quickly before sitting down for my weekly fix of Outlander (we’re on episode 15 from series one)
I’ve just sat down with my first slice to write this and I’d forgotten just how good it is before I bit into it, the dates go like toffee and the orange flavour – just wow! So here’s the recipe, I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!
Everythingless Fruit Cake
Soaking time – 1.5 hours
Mixing time – 10 mins
Cooking time – 1 hour 15 mins
Ingredients
8ozs/200g dates
½ pt/250ml warm water
1 lb/450g mixed dried fruit (I mixed sultanas, cranberries and a handful of glace cherries)
6ozs flour eg. Rice flour (I used doves organic)
2 tsp baking powder
4 tbsp orange juice/ juice of 2 decent size oranges
Grated rind of one orange
Method
– Soak the dates in the warm water and once you have grated the rind from the orange, juice the two oranges and place the dried fruit in a bowl with juice and the rind.
– Preheat the oven to 160 degrees C or gas mark 4.
– Once the dates have soaked up a lot of the water blitz with a stick blender or in a food processor
– Then add the flour, baking powder and the dried fruit and mix together until completely combined
– Pour into a greased (and if necessary lined) loaf tin and place in the preheated oven for 1 hour 15mins. The mixture will still be slightly gooey because of the dates but the cake should hold together.
I have to confess that my favourite way to eat this cake is warmed with butter (I’ve not given that up as it doesn’t seem to bother me and I don’t like the alternatives) but its great warm or cold and another relatively guilt free sweet treat!
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