The Best Healthy Christmas Cake Recipe (Gluten Free) - Nourish Your Glow (2024)

FAQs

Are Christmas cakes healthy? ›

It is packed with energy: Christmas cake has a high ratio of fruits to flour and hence is packed with nutrients. On the flip side, this isn't a cake you want to snack on as it can also increase your waistline.

We might like to pretend, based on its name, that fruitcake is a reasonably healthy sweet option, however this is not the case. Fruitcake tends to have high butter, sugar and syrup content, making it high in both fat and calorie content. The same goes for Panettone- the Italian bread that has become a holiday favorite.

Add more fat or liquid: It might just be that you need a bit more moisture in your recipe, especially if you're converting a regular “gluten-ful” recipe to gluten-free. Try adding anywhere from ¼ to ½ cup of liquid or fat to the recipe and see if that helps.

A coin was hidden inside a small cake, whoever found it was crowned as mock king. Hiding small tokens in a cake is another tradition that has existed throughout the ages. The Christmas Sixpence, which is hidden inside a Christmas pudding or cake as a token of good fortune, being a recent example of this tradition.

Angel Food Cake

Angel food cake is healthy because It does not contain egg yolk and butter. Without egg yolk and butter these cakes are low on calories and fats. A single slice of Angel Food Cake contains just almost around 70 calories.

Unhealthiest: Red Velvet Cake

Red velvet cake comes in many different variations, but most of the time, artificial food coloring is used and the icing loads on the fat and sugar. It can have anywhere from 250 to 500 calories, so choose wisely.

You can include fruit cakes in your diabetes diet chart by reducing the usage of prunes, apricots, and dates as they are high in sugar content.

Traditional fruit cakes are high in maida (refined flour), trans-fats and refined sugar, which are not advisable for weight-watchers and diabetics as they increase the glycaemic index.

How much sugar is in a classic fruitcake? One serving of a classic, homemade fruitcake has about 79 grams of carbohydrates and 4 grams of fiber; that's about 75 grams of sugar, or 15 teaspoons of sugar, in just one serving.

Moisture – for some reason gluten-free cakes tend to get a little dry. Any gluten-free cake will dry out super-fast and get hard on the outside if it's not properly refrigerated and covered. I swear by always using buttermilk and adding a little more fat into the batter to compensate for the dryness.

What is the secret to gluten-free baking? ›

Gluten-free flours often contain fine starches, so they absorb more liquid than conventional flour. To address this, gluten-free recipes usually call for more liquid and produce looser batters. They may also call for a larger quantity of leavening, like baking powder, to help add volume and lighten the texture.

2 teaspoons of baking powder per cup of gluten-free flour is necessary to ensure proper leavening. Baking soda and buttermilk can be used to leaven instead of baking powder, but 1-1/8 teaspoon of cream of tartar should be added for each 1/2 teaspoon baking soda used.

Christmas cakes are also commonly made with pudding while a fruit cake uses butter, however there are Christmas cake recipes that do contain butter. The traditional Scottish Christmas cake, also known as the Whisky Dundee, is very popular. It is a light crumbly cake with currants, raisins, cherries and Scotch whisky.

Some say you should make your Christmas cake 6 weeks before eating, but the advice given on Nigella.com is that 12 weeks before is the optimum time to get baking. Your Christmas cake should be fed every 4 to 6 weeks but in the meantime, after baking, it should be stored away in a secure, air tight container.

About the Recipe: The original recipe was a West Jerusalem Palestinian Christian family favorite that was baked for decades. It inspired me to recreate this cake, highlighting the journey of the 3 Kings and adding flavors of golden oranges, sweet balsamic tang, and smoky almonds to the recipe.

Christmas Cake: A slice of cake with marzipan and icing will set you back 200 calories and 30g sugar (7tsp).

Crisps, cakes and pastries all contain saturated fat and will raise your cholesterol.

It is best to feed your cake, every fortnight from when it has been baked.