Gluten-Free Christmas Cake with Dried Fruit and Nuts

 This recipe of gluten-free Christmas cake is delicious! I prepare it for my whole family and they do not even notice it’s gluten-free. You can make it a week ahead of Christmas and keep it in an airtight container.

Ingredients

- 1 jar cherries in syrup (120 grams net weight cut in half) (retain 4 tbsp. of the syrup)

- 150 g dried apricots (around 12 apricots chopped)

- 1 tub glazed dried fruit mix (120 grams)

- 1 tub glazed orange peel (120 grams)

- 1 cup raisins

- 1 cup almonds (roughly chopped)

- ¾ cup pistachios or hazelnuts (roughly chopped) (I used pistachios for the green color)

- 6 tbsp. Grand Marnier or Cointreau (1/4 cup orange juice for alcohol-free version)

- 120 g soft butter

- 8 tbsp. sugar

- 4 eggs

- 2 cups gluten-free cake flour mix

- 1 tsp baking powder

- ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda

- ¼ teaspoon salt

- 1 tsp cinnamon

- ½ tsp ginger powder

- ¼ tsp grated nutmeg

- 2 tbsp. orange marmalade (to glaze the cake after baking)

Method

1.  Mix all fruit and nuts in a big bowl and add Cointreau (or Grand Marnier or orange juice)
2. Keep refrigerated overnight.

The next day:

1. Pre-heat oven to 180°C.
2. Put the butter and sugar in a bowl and beat with an electric mixer for 3-4 minutes until creamy and pale.
3. Add the eggs one at a time while beating. (The mixture might curdle but don’t worry about it)
4. Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl (flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, salt, and all the spices)
5. Fold in the dry ingredients gradually into the butter/egg mix with a wooden spoon or spatula.
6. Finally, add all the fruit/nut mix together and fold them in. Mix well. The mixture will become very thick.
7. Put the mixture in the cake pan(25 cm diameter) and bake for 35-40 minutes.
8. Check with a skewer if the cake is dry.
9. Once dry, take out from the oven and let it cool for 10-15 minutes.
10. Transfer the cake into the serving plate.
11. Heat gently some marmalade with 2 tablespoons of water in a pan. Then glaze the cake with it.