Easy Fruitcake Recipe with Carrots

Looking for an easy fruitcake recipe to bake during Christmas? Look no further, because I have got you the best and easiest fruitcake recipe you can ever bake which is loaded with a special surprise ingredient, carrots! Also chock-full of dried fruits, candied fruits, and nuts like a true fruit cake!

Prep Time30

Cook Time1

Cooling Time15

Total Time1 45

Method: Cooking

Course: Food

Servings: 16 Slices

Ingredients

1-½ cups nuts chopped, I used almonds, cashew, and walnuts
1 cup mixed candied peel chopped
1 cup dates chopped
1 cup raisins
3 cups carrot finely shredded
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
2 cups brown sugar
1 cup sunflower oil
½ cup unsweetened applesauce for ½ cup oil
2 count flax eggs for 2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2-¼ teaspoons baking powder
2-¼ teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
as needed orange zest optional

Instructions

Pre heat oven to 325F/160C degrees.
In a medium-sized bowl, combine the nuts, candied fruit, dates, raisins. Add ½ cup flour; toss to coat.
In a large bowl, combine sugar and oil. Add flax eggs and beat well. Add the unsweetened applesauce and beat well.
In another bowl, mix the remaining flour (2 and ½ cups), baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, salt, and orange zest, if using.
Gradually add to sugar mixture, beating until smooth. The batter will be stiff.
Fold in carrots and the floured fruit and nut mixture.
Transfer to a well-greased and floured Bundt pan.
Bake at 350° for 55-60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Cool in pan for 15 minutes before moving to a wire rack to cool completely.
Dust with icing sugar if preferred.

Notes

I used ½ cup each of almonds, walnuts, and cashews for the 1 and ½ cups nuts mentioned in the recipe. Feel free to use any nuts of your choice.
The original recipe had used 1 and ½ cups of oil. I have used 1 cup oil and ½ cup unsweetened applesauce.
I think we can even reduce the quantity of sugar by at least ¼th of a cup because the dry fruit mix and dates are plenty enough to sweeten the fruitcake.
If the cake batter is too thick add a few drops of water or milk so that it's in a nice spreadable consistency. I didn't have to do this.
The original recipe mentions baking this moist fruit cake for 75-80 minutes and I had set the oven timer to 80 minutes, but around 55 minutes itself I could get a well-baked aroma and so tested the doneness of the cake by inserting a wooden skewer into the cake and it came back without any crumbs sticking to it. So I removed the cake from the oven around the 57th minute. The size of the pan, oven temperature, etc might influence how quickly the cake bakes. So have a close look at the oven and also for the smell.
Golden raisins, dried pineapple, dried cranberry, currants, prunes can also be used.
If you want to bake this easy fruitcake in loaf pans you can use two 9x5 inch loaf pans. The baking time will vary. Also if you feel that the top is getting browner quicker use aluminum foil to cover the pan. Baking it in loaves makes it perfect for gifting.
Use plastic wrap to individually wrap the slices or loaf of fruitcake so that you can freeze it and use it later. Actually, fruitcake tastes better when it is given some time to age.

Taste & Texture

This easy fruitcake recipe had the perfect sweetness and texture. It had the perfect ratio of fruits and nuts.
Best of all it didn't have the eggy taste and smell, unlike the usual fruitcakes. I had used ⅔rds of whole wheat flour instead of all-purpose flour and it didn't affect the taste and texture of the fruitcake.

Nutrition