by Jo Whitton, recipe by Sarah Moran
Well it’s that time of year again, when the Christmas excitement (and the Christmas stress) begins to escalate, and we madly scramble for Christmas cooking ideas and gift ideas, try to tidy up the house because family is coming, and wonder why we didn’t get organised earlier this year like we were planning to??? (Or is that just me? Ha ha!)
Christmas always seems to creep up on me. Probably because I’m working and travelling hard, planning for next year, finishing off the homeschool reports for the year, developing new Christmas recipes, cooking for gifts and parties and Christmas day, and also trying to take some time out with family and friends.
However, we DID manage to get a beautiful Quirky Christmas recipe ebook together using the grain free dough/pastry recipe from our Life-Changing Food cookbook – yay us!!! Hopefully you got your copy via our newsletter, but if not you can subscribe to our newsletter and you’ll get the link in your confirmation email*. (If you don’t have our cookbook – or it’s wrapped up and sitting under your Christmas tree and you’re not allowed to open it yet – you can use your favourite pastry recipe with our filling ideas, so make sure you check it out!)
* Note: If you are subscribed to our newsletter but can’t find the email with the ebook link, you can contact us here.
Another bit of exciting news… the Quirky team has a new addition!! My wonderful friend Sarah Moran from Pursue What is Lovely has joined us in the kitchen. She helped us out with recipes in the free Christmas e-book, and she has also developed this great recipe for Paleo Christmas Fruit Cake for us. If you come to one of our Life-Changing Food seminars in the coming year, you’ll see Sarah running around madly preparing the tastings and demo dishes, and she’ll also be helping us with recipe development and testing. Welcome Sarah, we’re so happy to have you as part of the team, and we love this recipe!
So, on to the recipes!
For those of you who are a bit last minute like me and are still trying to work out your Christmas cooking, here’s a Quirky Christmas Recipe Round-Up for you, as well as our new Paleo Christmas Fruit Cake recipe. Fouad and I have also done a live ‘flip-through’ of our cookbook on the podcast today, talking through our best gluten-free Christmas recipes from the book, so have a listen here and be inspired! The chat is followed by an amazing interview with Dr Tom O’Bryan who is a leading speaker on the dangers of gluten and on gluten sensitivity. An incredible podcast to educate yourself as well as your family and friends!
Quirky Christmas Recipe Round-Up
HAPPY CHRISTMAS!
We hope you have a wonderful holiday with family and friends, plenty of delicious, wholesome food, and some time out to rest and recover from a busy year. Please post some photos of your Christmas cooking in our Quirky Cooking Chat Group or tag #quirkycooking or #lifechangingfood on Instagram, we’d love to see what you make! 😀
Love from Jo, Fouad and the team at Quirky Cooking xx
Paleo Christmas Fruit Cake
Spice up your Christmas with this delicious, grain free Christmas Cake!
25 Comments
Any chance anyone has tried this egg free?
No we haven’t, it would probably need a bit of baking powder if you replace the eggs, as it’s already quite a dense cake and the eggs help it to rise.
Oh Jo and Fouad!! Thank you thank you for all of these paleo and gluten free recipes for Christmas! I cannot Wait get into the kitchen and start cooking now. Mwah!
You’re so welcome!! YAY!! Have fun! x
Hi Jo. Thank you for your beautiful recipes. I was wondering how far ahead the cake can be made and how long it will keep for? Have a lovely Christmas. Jen
You could make it a few days ahead and store in the fridge, or freeze it and it will last for months if well-wrapped!
Would that be 1 teaspoon or 1 tablespoon of vanilla extract?
1 Tablespoon 🙂
I had a piece of this cake made by my daughter in law! it was so delicious , I’m off to get the ingredients to make it now!
Yippee!!! So glad you liked it, enjoy! xx
Hey Jo, I have made the same Womens Weekly cake for over 30 years up until 3 years ago when I gave up grains and have not made one since, but your Paleo Christmas Cake will be the start of a new tradition. Fabulous!
Yaaaayyy!!! So happy to hear that!! xx
How long will this cake keep for Jo? Thank you
Probably up to a week in the fridge, or freeze well-wrapped for a few months!
[…] Paleo Christmas Fruit Cake […]
Made this cake today, it’s so easy to make. It’s in the oven now, wish I could share a pic. Thanks Jo for all your grain free, dairy free recipes, Merry Christmas to you and your family.
Yay Tracey! What did you think of the cake? 🙂 Hope you and your family had a wonderful Christmas too. xx (PS – feel free to share pics on Facebook or instagram)
Hello beautiful Jo. Can you make the grain free dough a few days before using for the Choc hazelnut tree?
Hi Sarah, sorry for the delayed reply. Yes, you sure can make the dough in advance. Did you end up making it for Christmas? 🙂
Thank you for giving me back Christmas cake! My mum has a tradition of making boozy Christmas cakes so it doesn’t seem like Christmas without drunken raisins- so I snuck in brandy to soak the fruit instead of orange juice – delicious!!
Haha! Well done…sounds fantastic. 🙂
Thanks for this recipe Jo. I made this cake for my dad. My mum who recently passed away would make fruit cake often. He loved it and loves that it’s a healthy version. Have you ever tried soaking the fruit in brandy or rum? It would make it quite wet tho wouldn’t it…maybe just add some more almond meal do you think?
Hi Naomi, glad your dad loved the cake. 🙂 Yes, you can soak the fruit first (soak overnight to soak up the brandy/rum). It is very moist so you could add a little more almond meal but it’s not necessary. xx
I made this and it was absolutely wonderful. Thank you.
Yay!! Glad you loved it Kerri! 🙂