Simple alternative fruit cake

NZ Woman's Weekly 3/12/2006

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Try this alternative Christmas fruitcake for a healthy and delicious treat. It contains no added sugar, eggs, oil, butter or other dairy products but it has lots of flavour, texture and goodness.

Ingredients

½ cup	Sultanas
½ cup	Raisins
½ cup	Currants
½ cup	Dates
1	Lemon
3 cups	Orange juice
2 tsp	Vanilla essence/extract
1 tsp	Baking soda
2 tsp	Mixed spice
½ cup	Ground almonds
2 cups	Self raising flour

Directions

The day before cooking, place dried fruit, finely grated lemon zest of a lemon and orange juice in a saucepan and bring just to the boil. Remove to a bowl, cover with plastic wrap and leave to soak overnight.
The next day, heat oven to 150 degC. Line a 20cm cake tin with nonstick baking paper and lightly spray with oil. Stir vanilla essence, baking soda, mixed spice, ground almonds and flour into the dried fruit mixture.
Spread cake mixture into prepared cake tin. Bake for 2 hours or until an inserted skewer comes out clean. Cool in tin for 30 minutes before removing cake to a wire rack to cool completely.

Tip: Stored in an airtight container in the fridge, this cake will keep well for up to two weeks.

Tip: Small servings of this cake, when enjoyed as part of a balanced diet, can be a diabetes-friendly treat.