Raw Fruitcake with Creamy Coconut Vanilla Icing

This takes a little while to make, but it is delicious! And so much better for you than the traditional fruitcake!
I made the following recipe (adapted from Snowdrop's Blonde Fruitcake on the Raw Freedom Community)...and it made enough for 2 smallish fruitcakes with icing left over for at least another 2 more (hmm...wonder what I can do with that??)

So, if you want a high icing to cake ratio, or if you have plans for a batch of cupcakes or something that may need icing, make the full amount below. Otherwise I think you would be fine to make half a recipe for this much fruitcake. This icing is not extremely sweet, but it is creamy and a little buttery tasting, and very addictive.

The cake gets better as it sits in the fridge. Something I wish I had known in advance as I made it on Christmas morning to take to my parents' for brunch and then my partner's mom's house for dinner. The dinner version was definitely better - and better yet was the leftover piece I just ate as a snack. You could make this on New Year's Eve for your New Year's Day supper. I had blown a fuse in my house and my dehydrator wasn't working so I actually did the dehydrator part of the recipe the alternate way - by turning my oven on its lowest setting and keeping the door slightly ajar while it's turned on (I wedged a pot lid in the door to keep it open a crack). You can do this for any recipe that calls for dehydrating - just make sure to monitor your food as cooking times may vary.

Cake just before heading to brunch - the icing was half-set so I poured it on.

Cake two days later - dense and moist with a creamy, firm icing. Delicious!

Raw Fruitcake with Creamy Coconut Vanilla Icing

Cake

Soak for 1 hour in a small bowl:
3/4 cup packed, pitted Medjool dates
1/2 lemon, juiced
1/2 orange, juiced
2 tsp almond extract
pinch himalayan pink salt

Grind in food processor to a fine powder (being careful not to overgrind into butter!):
1 1/2 cups almonds
1/2 cup coconut shreds
1/2 cup cashews

Combine in any amounts up to 1 cup total of your favorite dried fruits (ex. raisins, figs and apricots are what I used). Cut into similar sized pieces, and marinate in 1/4 cup fruit juice or liquer of your choice (I used apple juice) in the dehydrator or on low with oven door propped open for 1 hour.

In another bowl, combine:
1 inch piece of ginger, finely grated
2 tbsp of agave syrup
Place in dehydrator or oven for 1 hour.

On a Teflex dehydrator tray or a baking sheet, combine:
2/3 cup or more chopped walnuts (could use other nuts like pecans too)
2 tbsp maple syrup
1/2 tsp cinnamon
pinch sea salt
Toss and dehydrate or put in oven for 1 hour.

Assembly:
After the hour of soaking, take the ginger bowl and drain the juices into the dates, reserving the ginger. Blend the date mixture into a smooth puree in the food processor. Pour this puree into the ground nut flour mixture and stir till incorporated.Drain the dried fruits and add to the batter along with the ginger and 3/4 of the walnuts. Stir until lightly combined, then shape into desired cake size (I made 2 round cakes about 7" in diameter). Chill in fridge till ready to ice.


Coconut Vanilla Icing
I found this recipe somewhere on the interweb when googling raw fruitcake icing for something that sounded good to me - I can't remember where the recipe came from, maybe one day I will try and figure it out so I can credit the person...I don't think canned coconut milk is really raw...but anyway, this is delicious.

1 cup cashews (or part cashews, part macadamias), soaked 1 hour
1 cup coconut milk
2 tbsp agave syrup
1 tbsp lemon juice
1tbsp vanilla
pinch salt
1/2 cup coconut oil (immerse container in hot water to melt the oil into a liquid form)
1 tbsp plus 1 tsp psyllium husks

Blend all but the last 2 ingredients in a blender till smooth - make sure to blend long enough for the nuts to really break down. Then add oil and psyllium and blend till incorporated. Chill in fridge at least 1 hour, till set enough to spread. You could also pour it on at  an earlier stage and return to fridge to set, for a different effect.

Serves a lot of people.