White Chocolate Christmas Cake
Being on Flinders Island as I am and having no access to my somewhat bulging (and currently totally disorganised) pantry, is absolutely no excuse not to be sharing the culinary Christmas love with you all. My intention was to recreate a Christmas cake that was a childhood favourite of mine, to give it some THI love and reproduce it to the best of my baking abilities. However, given nature in all it's glory called I'm instead bringing to you some healthyfied Christmas goodness from my friend across the Tasman, Buffy-Ellen from Be Good Organics. In any case, I'm not sure I could have produced anything quite so glorious.
Without further ado, a little note from the very talented Buffy-Ellen, along with her recipe (which I believe to be fit for every THI reader and his or her mother, father, sister, brother and cousin 4 times removed):
"White Chocolate Christmas Cake. Sounds a little naughty right? Don't let this sweet-tinged title fool you - this cake is one round (or square if that's how you roll) specimen of plant-based, whole foods, health-loving goodness. The fabulous thing about this cake is that it is incredibly simple to make, no baking required - all you need is a food processor, cake tin and fridge. But what I really love most about this cake is the white chocolate icing. Oh my.... seriously incredible. So creamy you'd never know there was no dairy. And such a fun modern twist on a classic. I think after you try it you'll be slathering this white chocolate icing on everything! This delicious, little-bit-different cake is full of nutrient-packed ingredients and it may just become your new yuletide favourite, so I hope you’ll give it a go and enjoy!"
Dry
1 cup almonds*
1/2 cup brazil nuts*
1 cup coconut flour
1 tablespoon vanilla powder
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger**
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves**
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg**
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
*Use soaked, dried activated nuts if you have them
**You can alternatively use 1 1/2 tsp of mixed spice instead of the ginger, clove and nutmeg.
Wet
1/2 cup dried figs
1/2 cup dried apricots
1/2 cup medjool dates
1 cup dried fruit (I used 1/3 cup each of raisins, sultanas and currants)
1 orange (juice, flesh and zest)
Zest of 1/2 a lemon
3 tablespoons virgin coconut oil (softened)
1-2 tablespoons light coconut nectar (depending on your sweet preference)
White Chocolate Icing
1 cup raw cashews (soaked 2-3 hours, drained and rinsed)
1/3 cup water
1/3 cup cacao butter (melted)
3 tablespoons virgin coconut oil (melted)
2 tablespoons light coconut nectar
1 tbsp vanilla extract
pinch sea salt
Fresh cherries, blueberries and edible flowers or mint leaves to garnish
Blend the almonds and brazil nuts in your food processor to form a rough flour. Add the rest of the dry ingredients, pulse to combine, then set aside.
Roughly chop the figs, apricots and dates in your food processor (they will be quite sticky), then add the remaining wet ingredients and pulse to just combine.
Add the dry ingredient mix back into the food processor and pulse to combine. You want to keep the chunks and the sultanas/raisins/currants whole so be careful not to over blend.
Pour the mixture into a tin with the base lined with baking paper and put in the fridge while you make the icing.
White Chocolate Icing: Blend together all icing ingredients until silky smooth - there should be no lumps whatsoever. You may need to scrape down your food processor a few times in between to get a super smooth result. Pour icing onto the cake and put back into the fridge overnight to set.
In the morning, decorate cake with fresh cherries, blueberries, and edible flowers or mint leaves and then, without further ado, present this beauty to the loves in your life.
A huge thanks to Buffy for sharing this glorious recipe and these stunning photos. As a fellow plant based lover, I've shared a number of Buffy's recipes on my site including this Nutty Ice Cream Cake, a Creamy Vegan Lemon Cheesecake and this ever popular Coconut Cashew Chia Cream. Make'em and you'll understand why Buffy has become such a regular contributor to this site! And please, don't forget to report back and tell us how utterly scrumptious this was!
