Christmas Cake
A while back, Lisa (and several other readers) asked me to come up with a gluten-free Christmas cake. Being Jewish, and never having sampled Christmas cake, I had no idea what it was.
Lisa was kind enough to send me this definition:
A festive cake for celebrating Christmas here in Australia. Commonly full of dried fruits (a variety) soaked in alcohol. Flour, brown sugar, eggs cinnamon, nutmeg. It’s generally a heavy consistency and very moist.
I don't cook with alcohol and really make a point of avoiding it since it is high in sugar and basically empty calories. So I substituted an orange for the usual brandy in this dessert and then took some other liberties from there.
It seems from this definition that Christmas cake can be many things to many people, though the one key element is that it is super sweet and full of dried fruit. My friend Patricia (of Scottish descent) told me that it can also have nuts. After checking in with her, I came up with this recipe. Hope you enjoy it.
1 large orange
4 eggs
¾ cup agave nectar
½ teaspoon almond extract
2 cups blanched almond flour
½ teaspoon celtic sea salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup dried cranberries
½ cup dried apricots, chopped
½ cup pistachios, chopped
½ cup walnuts, chopped
- Wash the orange and boil it whole (peel and all) for 1 ½ hours, or until soft
- Place whole orange (peel and all) in a food processor and blend until smooth
- Process in eggs, agave, almond extract, almond flour, salt and baking soda until well blended
- Transfer mixture to a bowl and stir in cranberries, apricots, pistachios and walnuts
- Pour mixture into a greased, almond flour dusted 9 inch springform pan
- If cake begins to brown on top before center is done, cover with tin foil
- Bake at 350° for 45-55 minutes, or until a knife stuck in the center comes out clean
- Cool in the pan for 2 hours
- Serve
Serves 6-8
On totally separate note, I found this article by New York Times Op-Ed columnist Nicolas D. Kristof to be quite inspiring. In it he discusses changing the name "Secretary of Agriculture" (head of the U.S. Department of Agriculture) to "Secretary of Food." His persuasive point is that while less than 2% of the U.S. population farms, 100% of that same population eats food. The article is very liberal and reformist along the lines of Michael Pollan's Omnivore's Dilemma
The New York Times' Op-Ed page is a hotbed of brilliant writing lately churning with fascinating ideas regarding food, as well as environmentalism and economics. Between Maureen Dowd (she is ironic and hilariously funny), Kristof and Friedman they're a triple threat with some of the best and brightest columnists in the industry.
Posted on December 16, 2008 in desserts by Elana
you might also like: Orange Cake
or Homemade Starbucks Orange Cake
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14 comments
If it makes you feel any better, I've celebrated Christmas my whole life, and still haven't ever heard of "Christmas Cake." It's amazing what some geographic and cultural differences will do :-)
I've also never heard of Christmas cake, but this looks delicious.
Such a lovely cake!!
I'm confused with the orange directions. It says peeled and sliced, then to boil them whole like in the orange cake.
Cake sounds yummy! I just discovered coconut milk ice cream at whole foods. Bet that would be yummy alongside this cake.
We celebrate Christmas, but I hadn't heard of this either :-)
Looks and sounds amazing! I love how you use orange!
Cheers, Kelly
I used to make a fruit cake with a spice cake mix, nuts, and candied fruits. This sounds much healthier. Thanks. God bless you. Margaret
sounds like a healthy and tasty version of the 'ole fashioned fruit cake
Oh I love Christmas cake! It's a very old recipe that was a huge tradition for my grandparents and great-grandparents. Today we know it as "Fruit Cake", but today's fruit cakes are not even close.
This sounds very good! Fruit cakes often have rum or whiskey instead of brandy and contain dried apricots, prunes, figs, pecans or filberts, cranberries, candied orange rind, whatever you like. It is also traditionally made with blackstrap molasses or sorghum and not white sugar.
The most beloved story about Christmas cake is A Christmas Story by Truman Capote, about he and his great cousin when he was a little boy. We read it every year. http://www.geocities.com/cyber_explorer99/capotechristmas.html
Thanks for the gf recipe!
Haha, the New York times IS certainly liberal! Thanks for reminding me to bust out my old copy of The Omnivore's Dilemma. It's full of valuable information!
The cake looks great, Elana. I hope you have had a blessed Hanukkah!
Dawn -It is certainly amazing; hope you enjoy this recipe :-)
Hayley -Thank you. Yes, it looks and tastes delicious.
VeggieGirl -Thanks!
Hannah -That was my fault. I changed the directions so that they make sense now. I haven't had the coconut ice cream yet, it does sound yummy served with the Christmas Cake.
Kelly -Thanks for the compliment on the photo and for stopping by.
Margaret -Yes, this is definitely a healthier version of the fruit cake. Thanks!
Nicole -Yes, I agree!
Athena -Thanks for your lovely comments and for the link.
Lauren -I am a big fan of Michael Pollan's work. I hope you have a blessed Hanukkah as well.
This cake was terrific - far better than any "Fruit Cake" I ever tasted! It was even better the second day! So moist and rich - thank you!
Kristin,
You are very welcome!
Elana
Hi Elana,
The cake is in the oven right now. I am excited to see how it turns out. I made some modifications since I am on GAPS so I used honey and I separated the eggs instead of using baking soda. (then whipped the egg whites till stiff and added them into the mixture.)
Also, I noticed that after the first two steps with the orange, you don't talk about what to do with it. It seems reasonable you would add it to the almond flour mixture (this is what I did), but you may want to edit it to include it in the next step.
Thanks so much,
Sarah
never heard of christmas cake... hmmm. but what you describe sounds like what my grandmother used to make - fruit cake.
though she used to make it with "jellied fruit" not "dried fruit" and about a bottle of liquor. (bascially gluten, tons of red an green dyes. HFCS and rum) it was just plain awful (sorry Nana). this one sounds MUCH better ;)
leave it to the jewish lady to come up with a better "christmas cake" than my southern granny lol!