I have fond memories of my grandmother’s fruitcakes so this year I decided to make my own dairy free, gluten free, cane sugar free version. Several people mentioned to me recently that they come here for recipes fitting within their paleo diet so keeping that in mind I used almond meal instead of sweet sorghum flour in this recipe. If nothing else it increases the nutrient factor in this fruitcake.

I used fruits that were dried without added sugar, going so far as drying my own pineapple and cherries. Other varieties of dried fruit can be substituted. I used the ones I like. Many fruitcake recipes call for rum and one cup of the almond milk can be replaced with rum if you want an alcohol filled fruitcake. I also think replacing the almond flour & almond milk with hazelnut would be delicious.

2 cups almond milk
2 eggs, beaten
1 cup dried cherries
1 cup dried diced pineapple
1 cup golden raisins
1 cup zante currants
1/2 cup light cooking oil (I use grapeseed oil)
2 tsp vanilla extract
zest of one lemon
1/2 cup toasted hazelnuts, chopped
1 1/2 cups almond flour
1/2 cup date sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground cloves

Preheat oven to 325*F. Mix the dried fruit, lemon zest, almond milk, oil, eggs and vanilla in a large bowl. In a smaller bowl combine the dry ingredients except for the hazelnuts. Mix well and slowly add to the wet ingredients, stirring to fully combine. Add chopped nuts once everything is in one bowl. Pour into a well-greased bread pan. Bake for 60-70 minutes or until toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Coo1 completely before removing the cake from pan.