Vegan Fruit Cake [Fruit Loaf]

5 from 33 votes

Traditional fruitcake meets banana bread in this vegan fruit cake recipe. It’s rich, moist, sweet, super quick and easy to make, and perfect for the holidays!

Prep Time10

Cook Time50

Cool10

Total Time1 10

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Diet: Vegan

Servings: slices

Calories: 325kcal

Author: Toni Okamoto

Equipment

Ingredients

½ cup of vegan butter
½ cup of granulated sugar, at room temperature
1 cup of unsweetened applesauce
3 mashed ripe bananas, peeled
1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon of baking powder
½ teaspoon of baking soda
½ teaspoon of cinnamon
¼ teaspoon of ground nutmeg
½ teaspoon of salt
1 cup of dried cranberries
1 cup of golden raisins
1 cup of dried apricots

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (170 degrees C), and line a loaf pan with parchment paper.
In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, whisk the vegan butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the applesauce and bananas. Mix for 1 minute.
In a medium bowl, add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. Add the dry fruit and mix well.
Add the flour and fruit mixture to the bowl with the wet ingredients. Mix until fully incorporated.
Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan and bake for 50 minutes. Check doneness by inserting a fork into the center of the loaf, if it comes out clean, it’s finished. If it comes out with wet batter, continue to bake in 5 minute increments.
Once fully baked, remove from the oven and place the loaf pan on a cooling rack. Allow it to cool for 10 minutes. Remove the loaf from the pan and allow it to continue to cool on the cooling rack.

Notes

Measure flour correctly: Fluff it up in its bag, spoon it into the measuring cup, and level it with a knife rather than scooping it from the flour bag. This helps to avoid a dense and/or dry banana fruit cake.

Chop larger dried fruits: If the pieces are too big, they’ll all sink to the bottom of the cake when baking.

Don’t over-mix the batter: The fruit loaf may be dense/dry if you overwork the gluten in the flour. Mix it until only just mixed – a few small lumps are fine.

Use fresh leavening agents: If you’re unsure, test them. Combine ¼ tsp baking soda + 2 tsp vinegar and, in a separate bowl, ½ tsp baking powder + 3-4 tbsp water. Both should start to bubble immediately.

Nutrition