Usually when we think of fruit cake, we think of preservative filled white cake with red and green chemical food colored candied fruits. Who knows how old that cake really is?! It has probably been re-gifted too many times to count...ugh.
Well, I have terrific news for everyone- delicious and healthy fruitcake really does exist, and it is so easy to make! Don't be turned off by the name. I'm telling you, I ate some of this cake and it is really tasty.
I had the pleasure of getting to meet an amazing and very talented women during my travels abroad. I would say she is the Martha Stewart of the middle east. She has her own creative artsy crafty blog,
CreativeJewishMom.com
During my visit with CreativeJewishMom, I got a first hand tour of her beautiful, inspiring, crafty ideas and I also got a sample of her homemade fruitcake. It was moist, delicious, and not too sweet. She used whole wheat and did not use sugar! I was very happy. She served it with an apricot spice tea, sooo delicious.
Here is her article and recipe for Whole Wheat Fruit Cake. Also check out her awesome
website. Her ideas and inspiration are endless!
No sugar, that is sugar-free, with no added sweeteners, whole wheat fruit cake....a healthy alternative to well, you know, that regular sugar and oil laden cake that tastes good but isn't very good for you! You are joining me on the quest for healthier eating right? You'll feel so much better, believe me!
One small disclaimer: I thought this cake was great and could have easily eaten it all, and a very nice guest said it was the best cake she's eaten in Israel, though she is a macrobiotic cook, so she likes things that are healthy and natural. My children on the other hand did not quite appreciate this version of cake, and I even saw a piece in the garbage. The person who gave me this recipe however is a serious cake baker of the unhealthy kind also, and her children do like it!
Ingredients:
- 1/4 cup each of raisins, dried apricots, dates, prunes, or some combination of some of these, or some of these, those the dates are the sweetest, so I wouldn't skip those! (I made mine without the prunes)
- 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
- 1 envelope of baking power (about 2 1/2 teaspoons)
- 1 tsp cinnamon (I actually forgot this, so if you don't like cinnamon you can omit it!)
- 3 eggs
- 1/3 cup oil (or for Israelis: 1/2 cup chad paami)
- 1 cup of boiling water
Instructions:
Pour boiling water over chopped dried fruit (I forgot to chop mine and the pieces would have been better smaller) and let sit until fruit is really soft. Combine remaining ingredients, pour fruit together with the water that it sat in, into the batter and mix. Or drain fruit and add a new cup of water. Bake until it's ready, at the same temperature you usually bake your cakes. Ever seen a cook book that said something like that?
Note: As you can see from the quantity of flour, this makes a fairly small cake, but maybe try it before doubling the ingredients? I made it in a silicone bandit pan, and it only filled up half the depth of the pan, but the results were a cute ring shaped cake, perfect for putting on the table whole!
