Easy Eggless Christmas Fruit Cake

This Christmas, enjoy a healthier twist on the classic fruit cake with our easy, eggless recipe made with whole wheat flour, jaggery, and honey! No need to soak the fruits overnight – just mix and bake! The rich sweetness of jaggery combined with the warm spices creates a festive treat that everyone will love. Whether you prefer to add a splash of rum or enjoy it alcohol-free, this one-pan fruit cake is simple to make, yet bursting with flavour. Perfect for a cozy Christmas celebration with family and friends. An easy recipe, and made with wholesome ingredients, it’s the ideal holiday cake for your celebrations!

This Christmas Fruit Cake recipe is inspired by a recipe by my baking idol Nigella Lawson! It is the first Christmas cake/Plum cake recipe I ever made and the cake was so amazing that I have never tried any other fruit cake recipe till now. I make this cake every year! What’s most amazing about this recipe is that you do not need much prep. It doesn’t require any pre soaking of fruits or making a black jack caramel. The entire recipe comes together in just one pan! Chopping some dried fruits and nuts is the only tough part of this recipe. And the flavours are so intense and complex, with a cake so moist, rich and moreish that you will fall in love with this recipe too.

Here are the main ingredients:

Wholewheat Flour works as a binder in this recipe. It holds all the fruits and nuts together.

Prunes/Dried Plums give this cake it’s classic dark colour, flavour and name: Plum cake!

Mixed dried fruits in addition to plums is why this cake is called a fruit cake. I have taken equal parts of black raisins, golden raisins, cherries and apricots for this recipe. But you can use any combination of fruits of your choice.

Nuts bring a nice crunch to add a beautiful contrast to the texture of the cake with all the fruits. You can use any nuts of your choice.

Spices bring a beautiful aroma and depth of flavour to the cake.

Orange zest and juice bring in that festive smell and aroma. They create a wonderful flavour along with the spices.

Coffee and Cocoa used in just small amounts, helps create a complex and intense flavour.

Jaggery adds a beautiful caramel note to the flavour that works beautifully in this recipe.

Honey brings a beautiful flavour and a denser more decadent texture to the cake.

If you are looking for other recipes to try this holiday season, you can try:

Wholewheat Linzer cookies with Chocolate Jaggery Caramel

Now that we have gone through all the main ingredients for this fruit cake, here is the detailed recipe for you!

Eggless Wholewheat Christmas Fruit Cake

Serves: 10 Prep Time: 40 mins Cooking Time: 75 mins 75 mins

Rating: 4.5/5

( 2 voted )

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Ingredients

175 g - Prunes

200g - Mixed dried fruits

1 tbsp - Cocoa Powder

1/2 cup (90 g) - Ghee/Butter

1/2 cup (70 g) - Jaggery

1/4 cup (60 ml) - Honey

125 ml - Coffee (1 tsp instant coffee + 125 ml water)

Zest of 1 Orange

1/4 cup (60 ml) - Orange juice

1/2 tsp - Ground Cinnamon

1/2 tsp - Ground Ginger

1/4 tsp - Nutmeg

1/8 tsp - Ground Clove

1.25 cup (160 g) - Wholewheat flour

50g - Chopped Nuts

1/2 tsp - Baking Soda

1/2 tsp - Baking Powder

1/4 cup (60 ml) - Water or Alcohol like Rum or Sherry

Instructions

1. Take the chopped prunes/dried plums in a large heavy bottom pan and add the mixed dried fruits . Add the jaggery, honey, ground cinnamon, dried ginger powder, grated nutmeg & ground cloves. Add cocoa powder, the orange zest and juice, ghee or butter, coffee. (you can dissolve 1 tsp of instant coffee in 1/2 cup of water and use here)
2. Place the pan on low medium heat and stir it regularly until all the ghee is melted and all the ingredients are evenly mixed in. It should take around 5-7 minutes. Switch off the heat and let this cool slightly for around 10-20 minutes.
3. Now it’s time to add in our dry ingredients - wholewheat flour, baking powder & baking soda. Fold this gently. Add 1/4 cup more water and mix to combine. Instead of water, you can also add 1/4 cup of alcohol here.
4. Add the batter to a 7 inch or 8 inch greased and parchment lined loose bottom or spring form baking pan and level the top. Bake this cake in a preheated oven at 160 C for around 70-75 minutes until a skewer inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean. This cake has to be baked low and slow.
5. Let the cake cool slightly before taking it out on a wire rack to cool completely.
6. Store any leftover cake in an airtight container in the refrigerator for upto 2 weeks.

Notes

1. Prunes give this cake it's name: Plum cake. Please don't skip it.
2. Choose any dried fruits. Just keep the total weight of the mixed fruits 200g.  Use unsweetened fruits like raisins, currents, apricots etc if you want this cake to be completely free from any added sugars as many fruits like dried cranberries, other dried berries, kiwis, cherries etc have added sugars in them. But these fruits will work in this recipe too.
3. Use small fruits like raisins, currents and berries to avoid extra chopping.
4. Honey gives a nice flavour and texture to this cake. You can replace it with same quantity of jaggery but the texture of the cake will be slightly different.
5. Baking the cake low and slow is important as it ensures an even cooking and doesn't let the top of the cake burn.
6. You can increase the amount of baking powder to 1 tsp for a less dense texture.
7. You can use an alcohol in the cake batter too or feed the cake come alcohol when it has baked completely and cooled. Just slowly drizzle 1/4 cup of alcohol all over the cake with a spoon. Cake will soak all the alcohol.

Did You Make This Recipe?

Have you made this recipe? Tag me on Instagram at @VanillaTrails and use the hashtag #MadeWithVanillaTrails.