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Home » Dairy Free Recipes » Mini Christmas Cakes; gluten free with nut free marzipan

Mini Christmas Cakes; gluten free with nut free marzipan

Christmas Recipes, Recipes

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Oh my goodness it was so much fun to make these Mini Christmas Cakes as part of our free from gangs #FreeFromChristmas collaboration. There’s two amazing stories linked to this bake…if you can bear to wait read on to find out more if not click above to jump straight to the recipe.

Why I developed my totally free from Mini Christmas Cakes

Right! First story, my sister is a TA in a local primary school and she’s been pestering, sorry, asking the family to save up mini baked beans tins for ages now. She had the idea she was going to make Mini Christmas Cakes with her Reception Class children. The only problem was to ensure that the cake mix was safe for all her children to bake with. That’s where I came in. I gave Nicola advice on how to make a vegan cake, she had no issue with the gluten free bit due to catering for Bethany for 8 years now.

Mini Christmas Cakes - Snowman

When Nicola actually showed me the recipe we were adapting she said ‘not sure if you’ve come across this blogger’…it was only Grace from Eats Amazing who’s a honorary member of our free from gang! I had to giggle and when Nicola baked the cakes successfully I contacted Grace that same day and asked for permission to use her recipe and blog about the adapted version. Grace was pleased as punch and said yes! Here’s the link to the original recipe created by Grace here;

Tin Can Mini Christmas Cakes

Now! I do like to make life a wee bit more difficult for myself and it would seem that I needed to take this challenge one step further, so naturally I decided to make a nut free marzipan to decorate each Mini Christmas Cake. Not wishing to blow my own trumpet but by-jingo I cracked it!

  • Mini Christmas Cakes - nut free marzipan

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My Mini Christmas Cakes got 5 mini minutes of fame!

You ready for the second story? This one is totally random, but I heard Chris Moyles mentioning on his Breakfast Show on Radio X that he was considering going gluten free due to digestion issues. I’d literally made the final perfect batch of cakes the morning before! So I thought to myself; ‘wonder if Chris would like one of my cakes’…so I sent him one. I added a letter in the parcel explaining who I am, why I bake free from and that I have a blog. I wasn’t sure if I’d get a mention but it seemed the nice thing to do!

Edible Gift Ideas - Snowman; gluten free & vegan

Monday morning imagine my surprise when I came downstairs, after trying to crowbar Lewis out of bed (unsuccessfully), feeling the weight of the world on my shoulders, to then hear Dominique Burns reading my letter out on live radio and describing my Mini Christmas Cakes cute face to the listeners. Chris was a tad weary of eating it after Dom had placed his grubby mits all over it but they all seemed genuinely grateful at my gesture – thank you Breakfast Team, you’ll never understand how much you gave me strength to deal with the day I was going to have ahead of me (that’s another story for another time!)

The perfect Christmas Gift Idea

since I first developed this recipe I’ve made these little cuties for Christmas gifts for friends and family and even made a heap of them for a Christmas Fayre at Bethany and Lewis’ old primary school. They went down a treat, I mean who could not love their little faces.

Good news; they keep well too as you’d expect as rich fruit cake would so you don;t have to be in the kitchen baking and decorating these in the final hours before Christmas Day.

Christmas Cake Decoration Ideas

Anyway, if you humoured me and read this far rather than pressing the jump to recipe button, finally here’s the recipe for my Mini Christmas Cakes. I hope you enjoy making these and please do let me know how you got on either in the comments below or via Twitter or Facebook

Mini Christmas Cakes - Snowman DF, NF, EF, GF

Mini Christmas Cakes

Glutarama
Free from gluten, dairy, eggs and decorated with a nut free marzipan, these Mini Christmas Cakes cane be enjoyed by everyone this Christmas
4.86 from 14 votes
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Prep Time 30 mins
Cook Time 1 hr
Total Time 1 hr 30 mins
Course Treat
Cuisine Vegan
Servings 6 mini cakes
Calories 1371 kcal

Ingredients
 
 

  • 175 g gluten free plain flour
  • ½ tsp ground mix spice
  • ½ tsp ground nutmeg
  • 1 tsp psyllium husk powder (optional) this helps to bind and prevents the cake from crumbling
  • 125 g butter or butter alternative (I use Flora plant butter)
  • 150 g soft dark brown sugar
  • 1 tbsp black treacle
  • 2 tbsp ground chia seeds
  • 100 ml water
  • 500 g raisins
  • 75 g glace cherries
  • 75 g candied mixed peel
  • 2 tbsp brandy

Nut free marzipan

  • 100 g marshmallows
  • 150 g icing/confectioners sugar
  • 20 g dried banana chips
  • 10 whole dried apricots
  • 2 tbsp water
  • 100 ml sunflower oil
  • few drops yellow food colouring optional

To decorate

  • 500 g block of fondant icing use white and you can colour what you don’t use for hats and scarves etc
  • 4 tbsp apricot jam

Instructions
 

  • Preheat the oven to 180˚C/350˚F/ gas mark 4.
  • Grease and double line 6 mini baked bean tins with grease proof paper.
  • Sift the flour, psyllium and spices into a bowl and stir to combine.
  • In a separate bowl whisk the butter and sugar until light in colour.
  • Add the treacle and whisk again.
  • Whisk in the chia seeds
  • Fold in the sifted dried ingredients, dried fruit and cherries.
  • Stir to completely combine then spoon into the prepared tins. Smooth the tops down on each cake with the back of a wet spoon.
  • Place in oven and bake for 15 minutes.
  • After 15 minutes turn down the oven to 140˚C/275˚F/gas mark 1 and bake for 1 hour.
  • Check with a skewer to see if they are ready. The skewer should come out clean.
  • Once cool remove the grease proof paper and turn out to cook on a rack.
  • To decorate level off the tops of the cakes and cover with marzipan and icing.

To make the nut free marzipan

  • In a blender (I actually used my smoothie maker) blitz the apricots and banana chips together until you have fine crumbs, set aside.
  • Add the marshmallows, water and 1 tsp of the oil to a bowl and heat in the microwave. Times vary so keep an eye on your marshmallows they’ll start to expand to twice the size when they’re ready.
  • Remove bowl and add the icing sugar and crumbed apricots and banana and beat together quickly. Add the oil a teaspoon at a time to keep the mixture pliable. 
  • Once the mixture is cool enough to touch tip out onto the kitchen surface DO NOT FLOUR THE SURFACE.
  • Working quickly, begin to knead the marshmallow fondant. I use the remaining oil to coat my hands and the worktop to aid the kneading process, if you like you can add a little yellow food colouring if you wish.
  • Your nut free marzipan will be ready once you have a supple dough, it will appear a little greasy once rolled into a ball, don’t worry about this.
  • Pop into the fridge and keep chilled until you’re ready to decorate

To decorate

  • Be imaginative, you don;t have to attempt my design, a simple marzipan layer followed by fondant and topped with a pre-made sugar craft decoration will look just as beautiful. Remember to paint your cake with apricot jam before adding the marzipan and repeat when you add the fondant to glue each layer into place.

Notes

If making my nut free marzipan for a large cake I would recommend the following;
10″ (24cm) 
Total coverage – triple marzipan ingredients
Cover the top – double ingredients
8″ (20cm)
Total coverage – double marzipan ingredients
Cover the top – stick with current recipes ingredients

Nutrition

Nutrition Facts
Mini Christmas Cakes
Amount per Serving
Calories
1371
% Daily Value*
Fat
 
47
g
72
%
Saturated Fat
 
8
g
40
%
Sodium
 
351
mg
15
%
Potassium
 
869
mg
25
%
Carbohydrates
 
239
g
80
%
Fiber
 
10
g
40
%
Sugar
 
137
g
152
%
Protein
 
6
g
12
%
Vitamin A
 
885
IU
18
%
Vitamin C
 
5.9
mg
7
%
Calcium
 
111
mg
11
%
Iron
 
4.4
mg
24
%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.
Keyword Christmas, Christmas Cake, Dairy Free, Egg Free, Gluten Free, Nut Free, Rich Fruit Cake, Vegan
Have you tried this recipe?Let me know how it was & I will be super grateful. Take a picture & tag me @glutarama on your social media posts – I love seeing your photos more than you will ever know x

Hold onto your woolly hats; here’s a mountain of recipe presents!

  • Christmas Biscuits from Nathalie at The Intolerant Gourmand (GF, DF, Ve)
  • Healthy Vegan Mince Pies from Eva at The Healthy Tart (GF, DF, Ve, Refined Sugar Free)
  • Protein Hot Chocolate with Orange from Eva at The Healthy Tart (GF, DF, Ve)
  • Cranberry & Clementine Wreath Bread from Vicki at The Free From Fairy (GF, NF, SyF can be DF, Low FODMAP)
  • Pork, Sage & Onion Stuffing Balls from Eb at Easy Peasy Foodie (GF, DF, EF, NF)
  • Boozy Bailey’s Real Hot Chocolate from Kate at Gluten Free Alchemist (GF, NF can be DF and Refined Sugar Free)
  • Traditional Christmas Cake from Laura at Dairy Free Kids
  • Christmas Cake Muffins from Eb at Easy Peasy Foodie (GF, NF)
  • Free From Christmas Biscuits Midge at Peachicks Bakery (DF, EF, SyF, GF, NF)
  • Black Forest Christmas Cake Midge at Peachicks Bakery (DF, EF, SyF, GF, NF)
  • 20 Gluten Free Festive Desserts and Toppings for Christmas Puddings (GF, DF, Ve)

 

Mini Christmas Cakes made with a small food tin, these are gluten free, dairy free, vegan and nut free - that's right, NUT FREE marzipan #christmas #christmascake #glutenfree #dairyfree #vegan #eggfree #nutfree

And one last thing! I’ve linked my Mini Christmas Cakes with these websites, go check them out

Cook Blog Share

disclaimer: I’ve started using affiliate codes on my website again (needs must). If you click on any of the links in the post and make a purchase my family will benefit from a small % of that purchase at no extra cost to you.

07/12/2019 · 27 Comments

Previous Post: « Gluten Free Clootie Dumpling – a traditional pudding
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Comments

  1. Mel says

    31/01/2018 at 7:16 pm

    I absolutely love your mini Christmas cakes! They are so so pretty and it was such an honour to be the recipient of one of those cute snowmen! My 4 were overexcited when I took it home :) It was also really yummy apparently (I don’t eat Christmas cake so I’ll trust their judgement!). xxx #FreeFromFridays

    Reply
  2. Midge @ Peachicks' Bakery says

    17/12/2017 at 9:22 am

    I adore these little cakes so much you clever lady! & I could eat one too! :)

    Reply
    • Glutarama says

      19/12/2017 at 7:07 pm

      I know RIGHT! Something we can eat too haha, doesn’t happen all that often!!!

      Reply
  3. jenny walters says

    13/12/2017 at 8:12 pm

    These are sooo cute and clever!Absolutely love them x

    Reply
    • Glutarama says

      16/12/2017 at 10:55 am

      Thank you :-)

      Reply
  4. Angela / Only Crumbs Remain says

    10/12/2017 at 1:19 pm

    Wow Rebecca, that must have been such an exciting moment to hear your letter being read out on breakfast radio. I’m so not surprised they loved your bake – it’s absolutely brilliant! And a nut free marzipan too – genius! Thankyou too for continuing to link up with #BakingCrumbs :-)
    Angela x
    PS, loving the falling snowflake effect on your blog too :-D

    Reply
    • Glutarama says

      11/12/2017 at 1:14 pm

      Thank you Angela, have a wonderful Christmas sweetie xxx

      Reply
  5. Jo Allison / Jo's Kitchen Larder says

    07/12/2017 at 10:20 pm

    They are sooo cute, you just want to cuddle them, definitely not eat them. But you do want to eat them too, you know what I mean!? Fantastic! And to be mentioned on the radio by Chris Moyles!!! Wow! x

    Reply
    • Glutarama says

      07/12/2017 at 11:29 pm

      Haha, thank you Jo, it does pose a dilemma doesn’t it…hubby told me I was mentioned later on by Jonny Vaughan on his drive time show….TWO 5 mins of fame hahaha

      Reply
  6. PAOLA says

    07/12/2017 at 7:24 pm

    They are just so cute! #brillblogposts

    Reply
    • Glutarama says

      07/12/2017 at 11:29 pm

      Thank you :-)

      Reply
  7. Laura says

    05/12/2017 at 10:37 pm

    You’re one talented lady! These are so so stunning!

    Reply
    • Glutarama says

      05/12/2017 at 11:26 pm

      Thank you Laura, surprised myself to be honest ;-)

      Reply
  8. Eva @ The Healthy Tart says

    05/12/2017 at 1:16 pm

    What a great story, I love marzipan and these look simply adorable, can’t wait to try them.

    Reply
    • Glutarama says

      05/12/2017 at 1:53 pm

      I do like a good story before cake ;-)

      Reply
  9. Monika Dabrowski says

    05/12/2017 at 11:25 am

    These look super cute, you are such a skilled baker – the cake recipe itself sounds gorgeous and the little happy faces with their hats and scarves are a bonus – icing on the cake, literally…:)

    Reply
    • Glutarama says

      05/12/2017 at 1:02 pm

      hehe thank you Monika I like that xx

      Reply
  10. jenny paulin says

    04/12/2017 at 8:52 am

    these are so adorable! I am rubbish at using fondant icing , I wish my skills were better so I could make cute cupcakes such as these, but alas my efforts look like a toddler has had a go lol! It is great that these are available to people with GF and DF diets too. Really festive and fab x

    Reply
    • Glutarama says

      05/12/2017 at 11:04 am

      Thank you Jenny, I am blessed with being a bit arty-farty! But to be fair, even if you cut a circle of marzipan and a circle of fondant and added a Dr Otker Christmas sugar decoration, it’d still look beautiful xxx

      Reply
  11. renee @ mummytries says

    03/12/2017 at 9:00 pm

    By-jingo you certainly did crack it! Well done Becca, these are absolutely incredible, although look FAR TOO GOOD to eat xx

    Reply
    • Glutarama says

      05/12/2017 at 11:06 am

      I’ve not been able to bring myself to eat a decorated one yet, I’ve only tasted tested the cake and marzipan before decorating….I’ve tested it alot haha

      Reply
  12. Eb Gargano | Easy Peasy Foodie says

    03/12/2017 at 5:32 pm

    Genius!! Just total genius…I mean gluten free and vegan Christmas cakes is good going….but nut free marzipan!! That’s proper genius. Love it! And those little snowman faces – TOO CUTE!!! Eb x

    Reply
    • Glutarama says

      05/12/2017 at 11:06 am

      Aw thank you Eb, I surprise myself sometimes…erm…all the time haha

      Reply
  13. Kate - gluten free alchemist says

    01/12/2017 at 9:59 pm

    Truly gobsmacked by these Rebecca. They are so amazingly cute and professional. You have truly surpassed yourself….. they are genius xx

    Reply
    • Glutarama says

      05/12/2017 at 11:07 am

      So many lovely comments, I’m really bursting with pride now! Thank you Kate, that’s a huge compliment coming from you xxx

      Reply
  14. Vicki says

    01/12/2017 at 10:46 am

    That is SOOOOOOO super cool…a mention from Chris. How cool is that! And these look absolutely amazing you clever lady. And nut free marzipan? You are seriously a genius! So many people must love you.

    Reply
    • Glutarama says

      05/12/2017 at 11:08 am

      Okay, my head just exploded with all the massively kind comments (and yes Vicki, that was my 5 mins of fame…my work here is done ;-) )

      Reply

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