Free from gluten, dairy, eggs and decorated with a nut free marzipan, these Mini Christmas Cakes cane be enjoyed by everyone this Christmas
- 175 g gluten free plain flour
- ½ tsp ground mix spice
- ½ tsp ground nutmeg
- 1 tsp psyllium husk powder this helps to bind and prevents the cake from crumbling
- 125 g dairy free spread
- 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 peel
- 2 tbsp brandy
- 100 g marshmallows
- 150 g icing sugar
- 20 g dried banana chips
- 10 whole dried apricots
- 2 tbsp water
- 100 ml sunflower oil
- few drops yellow food colouring optional
- 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
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Preheat the oven to 180˚C/350˚F/ gas mark 4.
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Grease and double line 6 mini baked bean tins with grease proof paper.
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Sift the flour, psyllium and spices into a bowl and stir to combine.
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In a separate bowl whisk the butter and sugar until light in colour.
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Add the treacle and whisk again.
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Whisk in the chia seeds
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Fold in the sifted dried ingredients, dried fruit and cherries.
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Stir to completely combine then spoon into the prepared tins. Smooth the tops down on each cake with the back of a wet spoon.
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Place in oven and bake for 15 minutes.
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After 15 minutes turn down the oven to 140˚C/275˚F/gas mark 1 and bake for 1 hour.
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Check with a skewer to see if they are ready. The skewer should come out clean.
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Once cool remove the grease proof paper and turn out to cook on a rack.
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To decorate level off the tops of the cakes and cover with marzipan and icing.
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In a blender (I actually used my smoothie maker) blitz the apricots and banana chips together until you have fine crumbs, set aside.
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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.
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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.
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Once the mixture is cool enough to touch tip out onto the kitchen surface DO NOT FLOUR THE SURFACE.
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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.
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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.
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Pop into the fridge and keep chilled until you're ready to decorate
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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.
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