A foray into vegan fruit cakes

In my quest to build a repertoire of vegan cakes one particular type was eluding me - fruit cakes. I’ve not made many fruit cakes recently. The cost of dried fruit is expensive here in France and they never seem to sell very well at our doggie charity events, except Christmas puddings of course. In the past, my mother’s ‘New Zealand Cake’ was always a hit. I never found out why she called it a New Zealand cake - she’d never visited the country. It’s a simple boiled fruit cake, so easy to make that I even trained OH to make it. But when he was getting through a cake a day, I had to wean him off the habit.

Vegan Christmas Cake?

Thinking about vegan fruit cakes, I wondered if the weight of fruit in a traditional fruit cake would prevent the cake from rising without the addition of eggs? A quick search on the internet revealed loads of recipes for vegan fruit cakes. The BBC Vegan Christmas Cake substituted chia seeds for eggs. It had fairly good feedback, but with a kilo of dried fruit for starters this one would have to wait for a very special occasion.

Maybe it would be possible to veganise another of my Mum’s recipes? After all, the date and walnut squares adapted brilliantly. The list of ingredients was fairly short and it can be made in just one saucepan, plus the cake tin. I decided to sub the butter with an equivalent quantity of vegetable oil, colza in this attempt, and to replace the one egg called for with a flax egg. Quite simple, melt the oil, sugar, and dried fruit in a saucepan with the water. Bring to a very gentle boil stirring all the time, then reduce the heat to a simmer. Keep simmering and stirring, eventually the whole mix will become a lovely sludgy, glossy mess. Now it’s time to stir in the flax and the flour, cinnamon and baking powder (levure chimique). Mix well, it will be quite thick and sticky. Then, pour into a greased or lined tin and pop into the oven at 160c for about an hour.

Betty’s Boiled Fruit Cake

100g Flour

75g brown sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

1 packet levure chimique

200g dried fruit

60ml vegetable oil

1 flax egg made 1 tbsp flax meal mixed with 3 tbsp water

Betty's Boiled Fruit Cake

The chief taste tester pronounced that the resulting fruit cake was indistinguishable from his memory of the old non-vegan fruit cake. I was a bit disappointed with the height achieved. It didn’t seem to rise much but the ingredients listed are for a one pound loaf tin, whereas I only have a larger two pound size tin, so I was happy with the end result. If you can keep your hands off the cake keeps well in an airtight tin and actually tastes better for a few days ‘maturing’. Unfortunately cakes never seem to last that long in our house!

Next challenge: Dutch Krentenbollen

The next challenge was to replicate OH’s favourite Dutch treats: krentenbollen.These are nothing like English currants buns, which might have a few anaemic raisins scattered through the dough. Slice through a Dutch krentenbollen and there seems to be more fruit than dough. They’re not too sweet either, as apparently our friends from Holland like to eat them with a slice of cheese as a quick snack (ugh). My research revealed a couple of essential criteria: the quantity of fruit should be roughly on a par with the flour, pre-soaking of the fruit was critical, as was the inclusion of a sweetner mix comprising sugar, lemon and orange zest.

I wasn’t able to find a vegan recipe so decided to have a go at veganising the most authentic-sounding traditional recipe. The only things to sub were butter and an egg, so in their place I used vegetable oil and aquafaba. This was the recipe that called for an equal proportion of fruit to flour. This is where I first came unstuck. When it came to incorporating the fruit into the dough, which was recommended after the first rising, it was impossible to get all of the 400g of fruit into the dough. I gave up when I was about three-quarters of the way there, moulded the dough into buns and after a second rise, baked them.

There was no doubt that the end result looked and tasted like krentenbollen. Not quite the soft, yellowy-doughed variety from Albert Heijn maybe, but a good homemade attempt. However, I wasn’t really satisfied with the raisin debacle so decided to have another go. This time I used a tried-and-trusted dough recipe that I use for delicious cinnamon buns, but added two cups of soaked (drained and dried) raisins and the essential sweetener. I could tell immediately that this was a better mix; the dough was much livelier and more than doubled in size. Once (barely) cooled, they immediately received the seal of approval from the chief taste tester - with a request for even more raisins next time!

Vegan Krentenbollen

Vegan Krentenbollen

Step One:

2-3 cups of dried fruit: pour over boiling water. Leave for ten minutes, then drain and spread out to dry on clean teatowel for several hours

Step Two:

¼ cup aquafaba

¾ cup hot water

1 tbsp sugar

1 tbsp maple syrup/agave

1 packet of levure boulangere (quick bread yeast)

Mix all these together in large bowl and allow yeast to ferment for a few minutes.

Step Three:

1 tbsp vegetable oil

1 tbsp sweetener (40g white sugar, mixed with zest of lemon and orange)

Add to yeast mix

Step Four:

Mix in two to three cups of flour. I started with one cup of bread flour and one cup of plain flour, just keep adding flour until right consistency achieved. It seems to vary depending on the mood of the yeast! Once dough is about right mix in the dried fruit and then knead well, at least five minutes.

Step Five:

Place in clean oiled bowl, cover with teatowel and leave to rise until at least doubled in size.

Step Six:

Knock back the dough and knead again lightly. Divide into buns (I made about 14) and place on baking sheet. Heat oven to 180c while the buns rest and rise a bit more.

Step Seven:

Bake for about 25 minutes. Cool on a rack and enjoy!