baking · cooking · Dessert

Vegan White Fruitcake

I love fruitcake, just not the traditional fruitcake that is. Even when I could have artificial colorings I never had the taste for those scary red and green cherries and freakish yellow pineapple. And citron? Ewwwwww. Lets keep our fruitcake natural. In taste and in color. But I also think that is why so many people don’t like fruitcake. They have just never had a ‘good’ one. Those glaced fruits are so overpowering in taste/smell. Buy the best you can – the freshest dried fruits and nuts and enjoy them. If they are stale or hard your product will not shine in taste.

This is a “white fruitcake” which means it uses sugar and not molasses. Pretty simple, eh? I also don’t use spices in it.

So why do I make them in muffin tins? Pretty simple – the cakes bake more evenly and are perfectly portion controlled…and as a bonus? No mess, no cutting. And you can tuck them into the freezer for extended storage.While normally I’d be tempted to er..glaze them…with extra liquor I didn’t this year. I wanted Walker and me to be able to enjoy them. And while soaking them daily in booze makes for a long lasting cake, it also dries them out. So in the freezer if you want to enjoy them in March!

One last thing before the recipe – this year I decided why not try making it vegan? Half the fun in baking for me is seeing if I can make it work. This past week I had received a lovely holiday card from Earth Balance with 2 coupons in it for free products so I splurged on Earth Balance Buttery Stick for my holiday baking. Yum and thank you very much!

Vegan White Fruitcake

Ingredients:

  • 5 Tbsp flaxseed meal + 15 Tbsp cool water
  • 2 sticks butter Earth Balance Buttery Stick
  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • ½ tsp baking powder
  • 1 ¾ cup all-purpose flour, divided
  • 4 cups raw pecans
  • 1 lb assorted dried fruit (see notes below)
  • 2 Tbsp pure vanilla extract
  • 2 Tbsp rum

Directions:
Heat the oven to 300°. Spray 2 standard muffin pans with non-stick spray.

Add the water to the flaxseed meal in a small bowl, whip until frothed up. Let sit for 10 to 15 minutes to thicken up.
In a mini food chopper pulse the pecans until finely chopped. Put them in a large bowl. Dice up the fruit and add in, toss to coat with 1/4 cup of the flour. Set aside.
Using a stand mixer, cream the buttery stick and sugar together till fluffy. Slowly add in the flaxseed slurry till combined with the mixer running on low. Beat in the vanilla and rum, then the remaining 1 1/2 cups flour and baking powder till mixed in. Scrape down the bowl and add in the nuts and fruit, beat on medium-low until mixed in (takes just a minute or so)
Pack into the muffin tins to the top (they don’t rise). Bake the standard size for 35 to 50 minutes. Use a toothpick to test, it should come out clean. They don’t brown as much as some baked goods so don’t overbake. The tops should be dry-looking (if the appear wet continue baking) and golden on the sides. Let sit in the tins for 15 minutes to cool, pop out and let finish cooling on racks.

Store tightly sealed once cool.
Makes 24.

Notes:

On the dried fruit: Use what you like. I used a blend of 6 ounces Dried Apricots (about 25 small whole, 1 cup after being diced), 5 ounces Dried Cherries (about 1 cup), 5 ounces raisins (about 1 cup) to equal my 16 ounces of fruit. For the pecans I purchased mine at Costco.

~Sarah

FTC Disclaimer: We received complimentary products for consideration in use in our recipe development.

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