It's gluten-free and (sort of) sugar-free but this Christmas cake won't disappoint

My Christmas Cake

Makes 1 x 25cm Bundt or 18 mini-loaf Christmas cakes

INGREDIENTS

1 whole orange and 1 whole lemon

¾ cup dark rum or booze of your choice, or strong Earl Grey tea

1 tsp vanilla extract

200g dried figs, halved, plus an extra 100g, sliced, for topping

150g dried unsweetened blueberries

150g dried unsweetened cranberries or dried sour cherries

6 star anise

12 cloves

150g dark chocolate, chopped

150g butter or coconut oil

200g almond meal

2 tbsp cacao powder

1 tsp baking powder

½ cup golden stevia or sweetener of your choice

350g nuts (I used a combination of Brazil, hazelnuts and walnuts), roughly chopped

2 tbsp ground cinnamon

1 tbsp ground allspice

½ tsp sea salt

3 large eggs, beaten

METHOD

1 Preheat the oven to 180°C fan bake and line a 25cm Bundt tin or 18 mini-loaf tins with baking paper.

2 Start by boiling your whole citrus fruit in a saucepan of water over medium-low heat for 1½ hours until they are super soft. Then blitz whole in a high-speed blender to purée — you should end up with about 200g purée.

3 While you are boiling your citrus fruit, steep the dried fruit in the booze (or tea) to soak up the flavour. Mix the booze and vanilla together and pour on top of your figs, blueberries and cranberries. Set aside to plump up.

4 Grind the whole star anise and cloves in a spice grinder or mortar and pestle. Set aside.

5 Melt your chocolate and butter in a bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water, making sure the bottom of the bowl isn’t touching the water, stirring until smooth and combined.

6 Combine the remaining dry ingredients, chopped nuts, ground spices and salt, then fold in all the wet ingredients, including the eggs, your puréed fruit, boozy fruits and chocolate mixture. Your cake batter is now made.

7 Once mixed, pour the cake mixture into the prepared tin(s). Use a spatula to level out the top.

8 You can decorate the top of the cakes with extra dried fig slices, if desired.

9 If making individual loaves, they bake in the centre of the oven for about 40 minutes until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. A larger whole cake will take longer, more like 1 hour, but use a skewer to check that the cake is cooked through. Cool a little in the tin(s) before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

10 The cake will keep in the fridge well covered for several weeks.