Hello there beautiful people, I hope you’re all doing well! Everyone excited for Christmas? I love this time of year – yes it’s hectic and it’s too materialistic BUT I still get caught up in the magic of Christmas every year.

I recently ran some polls and asked for your feedback over on my instagram and fb stories asking what you would like to see. Among the many requests, a simple fruit cake came out on top with many people asking for a healthier version, so I thought I’d start testing and tweaking now while we’re still nearly a month away from Christmas.

Full disclosure, I don’t really like any of your typical Christmas sweets. I’ve never cared for Christmas cake, don’t really like mince pies, coconut balls break me out in hives and I only like my mum’s log and nobody else’s. Even I find this odd about myself. I’m not one who’s difficult with food typically – in fact it’s typically the opposite problem with me! But there are elements of the aforementioned deserts that I do enjoy and giving them a healthy twist is a challenge I’m definitely up for, even if I don’t get to enjoy the end result.

This recipe requires no equipment, takes 15 minutes to put together and just 30 minutes to bake. Added bonus, it will leave your home smelling like Christmas and you won’t feel horrible after indulging! The ingredients are healthy and really simple.

I went into this thinking that I’m not going to enjoy the end result but after a lot of testing a tweaking, the recipe I’m about to share with you will give you a really nice, light yet rich, spiced but not too strong, delicious and healthy fruit cake. I never thought I’d say this but I absolutely LOVE this fruit cake.

INGREDIENTS:

200g mixed dried fruit – I used Good Earth Luxury mix which contains both orange and lemon peel – it works really well in this recipe – highly recommend

Juice from 3 oranges

1 egg – room temperature

1/2 cup Greet yogurt

1 tablespoon coconut oil

2 teaspoons vanilla

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon cinnamon

2 cups self raising flour

1/2 cup maple syrup

METHOD:

The one thing you have to do beforehand, is soak your dried fruit in fresh orange juice, making sure that all the fruit is completely covered, for a minimum of six hours.

Before you start putting the ingredients together to bake this cake, pre heat your oven to 180 Celsius and line a small round baking dish with parchment paper.

Now, combine your flour, baking powder, baking soda (not one and the same thing – you need both for this recipe), cinnamon and salt in a bowl.

In another large bowl, whisk egg and melted coconut oil. Add maple syrup, vanilla, Greek yogurt and dried fruit plus fruit juice. Mix everything well.

To this large bowl with your wet ingredients, slowly add your dry ingredients mixing well with each addition. I normally add the dry ingredients to the wet one third at a time.

Transfer your mixture to your prepared pan and bake for approximately 30 minutes. Use a toothpick or skewer to make sure it’s cooked through.

That’s it from me for today – what other Christmas foods would you like to see from me? Leave it in the comments below!

If you like this, don’t forget to ‘like’ it – it helps let me know what you guys want to see more of!

If you have any questions or requests for future blog posts, please leave them in the comment section below. Don’t forget to click on the ‘follow’ button below to stay updated on all the content I share here. Also, I do share a TON of recipes over on my fac ebook and instagram pages – @holisticnutritionninja

As always, if you do try them out, please let me know 🙂

Thank you for taking the time to be here and read this ❤

Until my next post, be well xXx