Vegan Fruitcake Recipe

A lot of things are better with booze: Wii Sports, rum raisin cupcakes, hockey, watermelon, booze...  It pains me to say this, but fruitcake is better without the booze.  I created two vegan fruitcake recipes, one with rum and one without.  The one without the rum won the hearts of my family.  

This recipe was adapted from Alton Brown's recipe, which can be found here.

Ingredients

2 tablespoons milled flaxseed + 3 tablespoons water

1 cup golden raisins

1 cup currants

1/2 cup dried cranberries

1/2 cup dried blueberries

1/2 cup dried cherries

1/2 cup dried apricots, chopped

Zest of one lemon, chopped coarsely

Zest of one orange, chopped coarsely

1/4 cup candied ginger, chopped

2 cups unfiltered apple juice

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup coconut oil

1/2 cup water

2 tablespoons pumpkin pie spice

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 to 1/2 cup pecan pieces (optional)

Preparation
Combine dried fruits, candied ginger, both zests, flax seed, and 3 tablespoons of water. Add 1 cup of apple juice and allow fruit to soak overnight in a covered bowl.  Alternatively, you can microwave the mixture for 5 minutes to re-hydrate the fruit.

Place fruit and liquid in a non-reactive pot with the sugar, coconut oil, water, 1 cup of apple juice and spices. Bring mixture to a boil stirring often, then reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Remove from heat.  Cool the mixture for at least 15-30 minutes.

Heat oven to 325 degrees.

Combine dry ingredients and sift them into the fruit mixture. Quickly bring the batter together with a large wooden spoon.  The batter will be very, very thick.  You will get a good workout while working the batter.  Fold in the nuts.

Divide batter in half and spoon it into 2 8-inch non-stick loaf pans.  Bake for 40-50 minutes. Check for doneness by inserting toothpick into the middle of the cake. If it comes out mostly clean, it's done. If not, bake another 5 minutes, and check again.

Allow to cool completely before turning out from pan.

**Note: Feel free to mix and match the fruits as you see fit.  Trader Joe’s didn’t have currents for my first batch, so I used a combination of golden raisins and dried mango.  It turned out quite lovely.


 

Vegan Gingerbread Cupcake Recipe

 

Mmmmmm.... gingery....

 

Fat-free, low-sugar, moist and delicious, these cupcakes are a great holiday treat.

 

 

Ingredients

½ cup molasses

4 ripe bananas, mashed

¼ teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice mix

½ teaspoon cinnamon

4 teaspoons ground ginger

2 tablespoons fresh ginger, grated

¼ cup candied ginger, finely diced

¾ cup coconut or rice milk

zest of one orange

juice of one orange

2 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup raisins (optional)

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and line a muffin pan with 12 paper baking cups

Toss the bananas into a mixing bowl and mash them with a mixer.  Add the molasses, vanilla, and spices and mix well. Incorporate the coconut/rice milk, orange zest, and orange juice.

Add the baking powder and baking soda. Mix well. Add the flour, taking care not to overmix.

Stir in the raisins.

Portion out the batter into the pre-lined muffin pan. They don't rise very much, so you can fill the cups the whole way.

Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the center of a cupcake comes out clean.