Gluten-Free Fruitcake Recipe [GF Christmas Cake]

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This Gluten-Free Fruitcake recipe is fabulous! Soaking dried fruit in the alcohol of your choice makes ALL the difference!

Note: This recipe was first posted on my original blog, Celebration Generation, on December 15, 2011. It was transferred over to this blog - existing comments and all - on Feb 25, 2021, and updated on 10/25/22.

Back in 2011, I blogged my AMAZING recipe for Gluten-Free Fruitcake Cookies. The following day, I posted this sister recipe to it: Gluten-Free Fruitcake!

Fruitcake has a bad reputation, and - IMHO - it’s well deserved.

I can’t stand glaceed fruit, and I have no idea how they’ve managed to stick around as a THING for such a very long time.

In no way does any of it look, taste, or feel like fruit. None of it really tastes like candy, either, and I’ve always hated the texture.

Cake with rum (or whatever!) and fruit? Awesome.

Traditional fruitcakes with weird, noxious Frankenfruit? Pass.

It’s weird how you can feel like you’re “missing out” on something, even when that “something” isn’t anything you want.

The whole fruitcake thing - I won’t go near the stuff, and yet somehow it feels like the holiday season is lacking without it.

Isn’t social conditioning fun? LOL.

So, I decided to come up with a gluten-free christmas cake that actually tastes good.

Spoilers: I succeeded in that mission!

The BEST Gluten-Free Fruit Cake

Forget everything you've heard about fruitcake, and about gluten-free baking.

This is a gorgeous, delicious gluten free fruit cake recipe that will be loved by all - fans of regular fruitcake, fruitcake haters, people with gluten allergies, and even those who aren't restricted to a gluten-free diet.

It's a cake that has a wonderful texture - you'd never know it was gluten-free.

Trust me - I'm the BIGGEST snob about gluten-free baked goods!

This gluten free cake, though? I'd eat this for *breakfast*, never mind as a snack, or dessert.

I’ve made variations of this throughout the years - any time of the year - to satisfy any urge for baked goods.

This is WAY too good to be designated JUST a holiday thing!

De-Nastying Gluten Free Fruitcake

The key?

Get rid of the glaceed fruit, obviously!

Fruitcake isn’t fruitcake without fruit, obviously... So the glaceed fruit and citrus peels would need to be replaced.

Fresh fruit wouldn’t work for the texture/look of a fruitcake though.

The trick?

Slightly reconstituted dried fruit!

Let me tell you, soaking chopped-up dried fruit in Southern Comfort produces a cake that is *many orders of magnitude* better than traditional fruitcake.

This gluten free Christmas cake recipe makes a light fruit cake / white fruit cake.

It’s not the molasses-heavy style of dark fruit cake that you’d normally see baked up in loaf pans and topped with marzipan. (Which is also a traditional wedding cake thing!).

This gluten free fruitcake has a nice texture, but can be a little crumbly in a different sense than most gluten-free baking tends to be:

It’s a bit of cake - moist cake!- binding together a lot of STUFF.

If you’d like more cake to fruit - and a cake that slices a bit nicer - then I’d recommend decreasing the amount of fruit / nuts a bit.

Whatever time of year you enjoy this - with tropical dried fruit and rum in the simmer, or as a Christmas eve treat - I hope you get a chance to enjoy the *ahem* fruits of my labor! 🙂

(On that note, this only takes about 25 minutes of work... so NOT very labor intensive!

Ingredients

If you do any amount of baking using the recipes on this site, you’ll find that this one uses relatively simple ingredients that you’ll either have on hand, or have an easy time finding in grocery stores.

A few notes for you:

Dried Fruit, Zest, and Nuts

We generally use a fruit mixture made up of:

Golden Raisins
Sweetened Dried Cranberries
Dried Cherries
Dried Apricots
Dried Pineapple, with a roughly equal amount of each.

That said, use whichever combination - and proportions - of fruits you like.

If you want to save time, feel free to use your favourite Dried Fruit Mix.

Honestly, even just dried cranberries and dried apricots alone makes a fantastic fruitcake, with this recipe! It’s all being boozed up with Southern Comfort, which works SO well with the fruit flavors.

In addition to the dried fruit, I use a bit of citrus zest (lemon zest and orange zest). 1 large orange and 1 lemon’s worth of zest.

Finally, the nuts.

I use Chopped Pecans, but feel free to use Sliced Almonds or Chopped Walnuts if you prefer.

You can even leave nuts out entirely, if that’s your preference!

Gluten Free Flour Blend

As you may have noticed, I am a big fan of using homemade flour blends, specific to each recipe I make.

This gives me a lot more control over flavour and performance, than using premade gluten-free flour blends.

Also? Each “all purpose flour” out there uses a different blend of ingredients - and ratios - so they’ll behave differently from each other.

By measuring out the gluten-free flours individually, you’ll get the best result AND the best consistency!

Anyway, for this recipe, I use:

Light Buckwheat Flour
Sorghum Flour
Coconut Flour

... and a bit of Xanthan Gum.

Southern Comfort

I use Southern Comfort in this recipe, as I love the way it tastes with the dried fruits. It is generally considered to be gluten free.

Not a fan of Southern Comfort? No problem!

Just swap it out for whatever spirit you do like for fruitcake - rum, whisky, and brandy are popular options.

Alcohol Free Gluten Free Fruitcake

While I LOVE Southern Comfort in this, I know that not everyone wants to have alcohol in their cake.

Also - contrary to popular belief - it does NOT cook off while baking, btw.

To make this alcohol-free, swap fruit juice for the Southern Comfort - and let it soak in the fridge, rather than at room temperature.

Apple juice, white cranberry juice, white grape juice and orange juice are all good options.

The Eggs

The large eggs in this cake are separated - the yolks incorporated into a base mixture, and the whites whipped up to give lift to the cake.

As I’ve mentioned in my Pavlova Recipes, eggs being whipped for structure have to be handled with care!

Two big tips:

Eggs are easiest to crack when cold, and easiest to whip at room temperature. Plan around these facts :)!

Be VERY careful to not get any egg yolk into the whites at all - not even a speck of it - or the eggs will not whip up.

For that matter, be very careful to use a very clean bowl and mixer - any kind of oil/fat / etc is your enemy here.

The Milk

When I first created this recipe, I was using 2% milk for it.

Over the years, we’ve stopped using diary milk for most things, and now I make it with either unsweetened almond milk, or unsweetened coconut milk.

Those are the milk alternatives we tend to have on hand, and both work well.

If you’re also avoiding dairy milk when possible, you can use whatever plant based milk you like - oat milk, flax milk, and cashew milk are all tasty options for this recipe!

Everything Else

Rounding out this recipe, you will need:

Unsalted butter
Granulated sugar (You can use dark brown sugar if you prefer)
Pure vanilla extract
Baking Powder
Salt

... I just don’t really have anything to add about any of these ingredients!

How to Make Gluten Free Fruitcake

The full recipe is in the recipe card at the end of this post, this is the pictorial walk through with some additional tips and info.

Before Getting Started

A day or two before baking the fruitcake, chop dried fruits into pieces:

Mix in Southern Comfort, and cover.

Make the Fruitcake Batter

When you’re ready to make the gluten free fruit cake:

Preheat oven to 325F.

Spray an 8″ round cake pan (A silicone bundt pan or spring form pan works, also), and then line it with parchment paper.

I like to cut a round just slightly bigger than the bottom diameter of the pan, centering it, and smoothing the edges slightly up the side of the pan, folding and easing as necessary.

Then, I cut a “collar” of parchment, about 5″ x 28″. Fold that in half along the length, and then place that – folded side down – around the inside edge of the cake pan.

Strain dried fruit mixture, leaving it in your sieve to drain while you prepare the rest of the cake batter.

Be sure to reserve the Southern Comfort / fruit syrup that strains out!

In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

Add egg YOLKS (reserving the whites separately), vanilla, and zests, to the large bowl of butter and sugar.

Continue beating until egg yolks are fully incorporated and mixture is once again smooth and fluffy.

In a separate bowl, combine flours, baking powder, xanthan gum, and salt.

Add dry ingredients to the butter & sugar mixture, beat gently until well combined into a thick batter..

Pour in the milk, continuing to beat until well combined. Add in the strained fruits, mixing once more until well combined. Set aside.

In a – very clean – mixing bowl or stand mixer, whip the egg whites on high speed, until stiff peaks form.

Gently fold whipped egg whites into the main batter, until all of the “white” disappears. Gently mix in the pecans, just until well distributed.

Spread and Bake

Pour cake batter into prepared cake pan, smooth around the pan to push the parchment paper “collar” against the sides of the pan.

Gently bang the pan onto a flat surface a few times to knock out any air bubbles.

Bake in the preheated oven for about an hour and a half – hour and 45 minutes, until a knife poked into the center of the cake comes out clean.

While cake is still hot, pour reserved Southern Comfort runoff evenly over the top of the cake. This acts like a simple syrup, bringing extra flavour and moisture.

Let the cake cool to room temperature before removing from pan.

Note: Placing the cake pan on a wire rack when you take it out of the oven can help speed the cooling process along.

Leftovers

Once fully cooled, the cake can be wrapped in plastic wrap and/or transferred to an airtight container.

It’ll last several days at room temperature, or for over a week in the fridge.

More Gluten-Free Holiday Recipes!

Looking for something festive - for the whole family? Here are some great options!

Cranberry Chicken
Cranberry Jello Salad
Gluten Free Candy Cane Cookies
Gluten-Free Fruitcake Cookies
Gluten Free Gingerbread Cookies
Gluten-Free Gingerbread Scones
Gluten-Free Maple Pumpkin Pie
Gluten Free Pumpkin Spice Mini Doughnuts
Gluten-Free Paska [Easter Bread]
Gluten Free Sauerkraut Buns [Pyrizhky]
Gluten-Free Stuffing Recipe
Pumpkin Cheese Ball - Classier Version
Pumpkin Cheese Ball - Trashier Version
Roasted Carrots & Parsnips
Slow Cooker Pork Tenderloin with Fruit Sauce
Sweet Potato Souffle
Turkey Meatballs with Cranberry Glaze

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5 from 3 votes

Gluten-Free Fruitcake

Soaking dried fruit in the alcohol of your choice - I like Southern Comfort - makes ALL the difference. This Gluten-Free fruitcake recipe is fabulous!

Prep Time20 minutes mins

Cook Time1 hour hr 45 minutes mins

Soaking Time2 days d

Total Time2 days d 2 hours hrs 5 minutes mins

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: Gluten-free, Holiday

Servings: 10 people

Calories: 326kcal

Author: admin

Equipment

8 inch cake pan

Ingredients

2 ¾ cup mixed dried fruits
⅔ cup Southern Comfort **
½ cup butter
¾ cup sugar
3 large eggs separated
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Finely grated zest of 1 lemon
Finely grated zest of 1 orange
½ cup Light Buckwheat Flour
¼ cup Sorghum Flour
¼ cup Coconut Flour
1 ½ teaspoon Baking Powder
½ teaspoon salt
¾ teaspoon Xanthan Gum
½ cup milk
1 cup chopped pecans

Instructions

A day or two before baking the fruitcake, chop dried fruits into pieces, mix in Southern Comfort, and cover.
When ready to make the fruitcake, Preheat oven to 325F. Spray an 8″ round cake pan (spring form pan works, also), and then line it with parchment paper.
I like to cut a round just slightly bigger than the bottom diameter of the pan, centering it, and smoothing the edges slightly up the side of the pan, folding and easing as necessary.
Then, I cut a “collar” of parchment, about 5″ x 28″. Fold that in half along the length, and then place that – folded side down – around the inside edge of the cake pan.
Strain dried fruit mixture, leaving it in your sieve to drain while you prepare the rest of the cake batter. Be sure to reserve the Southern Comfort / fruit syrup that strains out!
Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
Add egg YOLKS (reserving the whites separately), vanilla, and zests, continue beating until eggs are fully incorporated and mixture is once again smooth and fluffy.
In a separate bowl, combine flours, baking powder, xanthan gum, and salt. Add dry ingredients to the butter & sugar mixture, beat gently until well combined.
Add milk, continuing to beat until well combined. Add in the strained fruits, mixing once more until well combined. Set aside.
In a – very clean – mixing bowl or stand mixer, whip the egg whites on high speed, until stiff peaks form.
Gently fold whipped egg whites into the main batter, until all of the “white” disappears. Gently mix in the pecans, just until well distributed.
Pour cake batter into prepared cake pan, smooth around the pan to push the parchment paper “collar” against the sides of the pan.
Gently bang the pan onto a flat surface a few times to knock out any air bubbles.
Bake for about an hour and a half – hour and 45 minutes, until a knife poked into the center of the cake comes out clean.
While cake is still hot, pour reserved Southern Comfort runoff evenly over the top of the cake.
Allow to cool fully before removing from pan.