Christmas cake and dietary requirements

[HouseIsOnFire]

Hi all, each year I religiously* follow Delia's Christmas cake recipe and make several for presents.

*I swap out the treacle for more brandy and it makes the world of difference!

This year two of the usual recipients will have some dietary requirements.

One has developed a lactose intolerant - looking at it I could just swap out the butter for vegan block, but has anyone tried this? Does it work ok? It's an expensive recipe to wreck with vegan butter 😅

The other is expecting so whilst the brandy in cake will be cooked off fine and I'll skip the royal icing (egg whites), what do you feed the cake with? Internet says orange juice but I'd like some reassurance!

If anyone else is baking for tricksy people, please feel free to add your conundrums- hopefully we can help each other!

Stork block is dairy free - when DD was being investigated for CMPA & I was still breastfeeding, FIL called the Stork helpline to check.
Tbh Sains do a baking block is the same as Stork & is cheaper. Check for Milk/lactose on the ingredients.
I've found Flora Plant Based Butter is best for dairy-free buttercream.
I use orange juice in my mincemeat recipe instead of alcohol & it makes amazing mincemeat, but not tried feeding a cake with it.

Do Stork and / or vegan block contain trans fats : hydrogenated fat?

Pretty much any cheap margarine will be dairy free, it's a bug bear of mine that you get (expensive) brands making a song and dance about making a 'vegan' version of something that is always 'vegan', e.g. dark chocolate. Check ingredient lists (common allergens like milk and eggs are always highlighted).

Yes, all solid fats do. Worse than butter actually but you don't eat Christmas cake for health reasons.

Sainsburys/Stork baking block is absolutely fine in delias chrisrmas cake. I do it every year as my sister is lactose intolerant. And she def can’t tolerate any amount of butter!

I also came to the thread to say about Xmas tea as PP, there are lots of interesting variants Sainsburys, M&S, Whittards

Yes, the tea works.
I make the cake quite late, and only fed sparingly, but it doesn't taste of tea (I dont drink tea or coffee, so am quite sensitive to it). BUT for the sake of the amount of brandy over a whole cake, I'd feed with brandy for a pregnant person. Think about 5 shots of brandy over a cake, serving maybe 25 servings, some of which will evaporate. It's a pretty small amount.

Would fondant work as an alternative to Royal icing?

I'm sure a dairy free baking block would be your best substitute.

I'd rather not risk it (bit of a miracle baby so she's being extra cautious) but very taken with Christmas tea idea!

No but I avoid hydrogenated fats and find the idea of margarine revolting. If I couldn’t have butter in cakes , I would rather have an alternative that didn’t need it in the first place. I don’t like tea and would prefer that no one went to the trouble and expense of a cake made with vegan block and laced with Earl Grey. I wouldn’t say so, but I would think ‘yuk’.

From the sound of it, the OP will know if the recipient feels as you do, @SuperCamp. I'm sure there will be no waste here. When I was pregnant I'd have been delighted to receive a fruitcake, especially one that I might still be working my way through after the baby's arrival. Lovely to sit down to a cup of tea and a slice of fruitcake when you're bone tired and need a pick me up.

With you on that - I avoid "fake" foods but lactose intolerant friend eats all the UPF substitutes so am sure will be fine:)

Fingers crossed! It might stop the weekly requests for brownies for a little bit!!!

Some of the info above is out of date, apparently the way vegetable oils are hardened no longer create transfats but to be sure you can look for polyunsaturated vegetable oil. polyunsaturated being the word to look out for.

I have a recipe for the tea Christmas cake if anyone would like me to post it here. It goes down very well every year.

You could pasteurised liquid egg whites that come in a carton for the royal icing. Most supermarkets sell it.

Raw eggs are fine during pregnancy www.tommys.org/pregnancy-information/blogs-and-stories/im-pregnant/pregnancy-news-and-blogs/raw-eggs-are-safe-eat-pregnancy

I’ve learnt a lot from reading these tips, thank you.

I think the easiest way to feed the cake is to boil the booze before using it, all the taste but none of the alcohol.

Yes please!

Would this preserve still???

Sorry, not a clue! I’ve always thought feeding the cake was more about adding flavour and keeping it moist than preserving.

I make Delia's cake too, but make it gluten free (xanthum gum is the cake secret for gf), and rarely get round to feeding it and it's always fine. If that's an easier option - you really don't have to.

No Alcohol Xmas Cake

1 kg mixed dried fruit
150ml brewed tea
zest and juice of 2 oranges and 2 lemons
250g unsalted butter
250g soft brown sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
4 eggs
200g plain flour
2tsp mixed spice
100g chopped mixed nuts

Put your dried fruit in a large bowl and cover with tea, citrus zest and juice. Mix well and cover and leave overnight.

Heat oven to 140C (fan). Butter and double line a deep cake tin - 20cm round or 18cm square with enough baking parchment to come about 2.5cm above the tin. Wrap the outside with a few sheets of paper tied on with string.

Beat the butter, sugar and vanilla until cream, then beat in the eggs one by one. Tip in flour, mixed spice, soaked fruits and any remaining liquid, plus nuts. Stir together.

Scrape into the cake tin and make a dent in the middle so that when it rises you will have a flat centre.

Bake for 1.5 hours. Reduce oven to 120C and loosely cover cake with foil and bake for another hour until a skewer comes out clean.

Cool in tin then lift out and wrap in greaseproof paper. Keep in an airtight tin. Open cake every fortnight and poke with a skewer and dribble over a little cold black tea.

I'd try cold pressed coconut oil instead of butter. Similar consistency and might add a nice flavour.

And feed with cold earl grey tea, or orange juice.

My preferred substitute is coconut oil, but that's not fruitcake friendly!

sorry just read this. Why isn't it fruitcake friendly?

@HouseIsOnFire , I hope you don't mind me asking but which Delia CC recipe are you using? I'm determined to make one this year!