I have finally got round to posting a Christmas recipe on my blog - life is busy home educating my 2 wonderful young boys. I got round to making our family’s raw Christmas cake yesterday and wanted to share the recipe with you all. I don’t know if life is like this when you make a raw cake, but it certainly is for us........I think to myself - that looks huge - it should last for ages.

Then we all have a slice (or two) and suddenly it has shrunk to 3/4 its size! My kids adored it and this one is extra special with raw marzipan and icing - all free from added sugar or agave as all of my recipes are of course. It does contain dried fruit - but it can’t really be a Christmas cake without it. One of the best things about making Raw Cakes is that you can’t overcook them - an extra hour in the dehydrator really does not make much difference - you don’t have to worry about whether or not they will rise - and you don’t need to spend all that time beating eggs and trying not to make the mixture curdle. Of course the other best thing is eating them! My partner said the dried apricots in the marzipan make it taste like marzipan with apricot jam, like on a traditional Christmas Cake.

The peeling of the almonds for the marzipan is of course very time consuming but you will get better tasting marzipan this way, but and life is definitely too short to do this more than once a year in my opinion. In our house it inspired interesting discussion about capitalism. socialism, technology and profit as my peeling of almonds was interrupted by BT calling me (again) to try and change my broadband provider. I said I thought this person’s labour would be better employed manufacturing something as no profit seems to be made to invest in our failing economy by simply transferring one service to another and these competing privatised services seem ridiculous to me. My partner likes to tease me about owning a small business and being part of the petit bourgeoisie but was even more amused by my peeling of almonds! He suggested that capitalism would not allow such a manner of food production to thrive and would be replaced by technological machinery capable of the job. However, the fact remains that unless you peel them soon before eating they will be rancid. On the basis that we managed to eat a quarter of the cake between 4 of us the day we made it it will probably only last 4 days in our house so that is much less time exposed to the elements than the commercial marzipan.

This should be kept in the fridge as it is quite moist and I keep mine covered too. If you need any ingredients I will be sending out the last Post Office orders from the Have Raw Cake And Eat It online shop on Monday 21st to arrive before Christmas and there might be some courier ones going on Monday and Tuesday and too - weather dependent - my courier did not come on Friday because of the snow but the forecast looks a little better for Monday - sleet instead!

Ingredients

Cake:

400g raw almonds, soaked about 8 hours

600g raw dates, washed

70g dried apricots

500g mixed dried fruit

2 teaspoons cinnamon

zest and juice of 1 orange and 1 lemon

100g purple corn flour

20g mesquite meal

80g lucuma

Marzipan:

300g almonds, soaked 8 hours and peeled

200g dried apricots

Icing:

50g cacao butter

20g coconut butter

35g lucuma

Decoration (optional)

dessicated coconut

goji or incan berries

1. 1.Soak dried fruit in orange/apple juice, zest and cinnamon for about 3 hours in the fridge.
   

2. 2.Process almonds, dates, dried apricots, cinnamon, purple corn flour, mesquite and lucuma in a food processor with the S-blade until it forms a large ‘ball’. You will probably need to do this in 2 batches with half quantities, or maybe even 3 batches with a smaller food processor. I did 2 batches with my Magimix 4200 in the 3l jug and it was fine.
   

3. 3.Put the processed mixture into a huge bowl with the soaked dried fruit and soaking liquid. Mix it all together until it is well combined.
   

4. 4.Turn the mixture out onto a dehydrator tray and shape into a cake shape. Dehydrate for 2 hours at 53 degrees and then for about 12 hours at 38 degrees.
   

5. 5.Soak your almonds for the marzipan in advance.
   

6. 6.Peel the almonds for the marzipan. This is of course optional and rather time consuming!
   

7. 7.Remove from the dehydrator and cool while making the marzipan and icing.
   

8. 8.Put your carefully peeled almonds into the food processor with the S-blade with the dried apricots and process until it forms a large ‘ball’.
   

9. 9.Cover the top and sides of your cooled Christmas cake with the marzipan.
   

10. 10.Melt the cacao and coconut butter in a bain marie and mix in the lucuma. Allow it to cool slightly so it sticks to the cake and does not run everywhere when you pour it on. Then cover your marzipan with this icing.
    

11. 11.Decorate with dessicated coconut and goji berries if you have any left before they were hard to get. Alternatively you could do without or use incan berries.
    

12. 12.Refrigerate and as soon as the icing is set you can start eating it!