Nutty Low-Sugar Christmas Cake For Stir Up Sunday

By Brunch In Pairs/Laura Pyatt
Christmas cake covered in royal icing, decorated with nuts, cocoa nibs and blueberries, Christmas patterned rolling pin and pack of Yacon Viva cocoa nibs behindbehind
Credit: Yacon Viva

It’s almost Stir Up Sunday, and this Christmas cake is made to impress. Packed full of nuts and made with YaconViva’s Yacon Syrup for a lower sugar twist (at least until you add the icing!), it’s perfect for dark December evenings.

YaconViva Yacon Syrup is a natural alternative to sugar and is incredibly versatile, making it the ideal swap for all your Christmas bakes.

  1. Pre-heat the oven to 170ºC (150ºC fan) and grease a deep cake tin.
  2. In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, YaconViva Yacon Syrup, milk and butter. Put to one side.
  3. Combine the flour, salt, sugar, and cinnamon in a separate bowl. Slowly fold in to the wet ingredients until thoroughly combined. Mix in the dried fruit, nuts and orange zest.
  4. When all combined and a sticky consistency, transfer to the greased cake tin.
  5. Bake in the oven for one hour, using a knife to check it’s cooked. If the knife comes out clean then remove from the oven and leave to cool.
  6. Leave the cake to cool thoroughly for at least a couple of hours and remove from the tin.
  7. When cooled, spread the apricot jam over the cake ready to bind the icing.
  8. Dust the countertop with icing sugar to ensure no sticking and knead the marzipan to make it mouldable. Then, using a rolling pin, roll the marzipan into a thin even layer (approx 2cm thick) and large enough to completely cover the cake.
  9. Layer the marzipan on the cake, then pop more apricot jam on top ready to cement the icing layer on top.
  10. To make the icing: whisk the egg whites until frothy, adding the icing sugar slowly. Add the lemon juice and beat until the mixture is stiff and stands up.
  11. As with the marzipan layer, roll on a dusted counter down to a thin, even layer (approx 2cm thick). Pop on top of the jam-covered marzipan layer.
  12. Trim any overflowing icing and marzipan layers to size. Decorate with YaconViva’s Cacao Nibs and your favourite festive treats!

YaconViva Yacon Syrup (£9.99 RRP for a 220g bottle) and Yacon sweetened Cacao Nibs (£9.99 RRP for 300g) are available from Amazon UK, health stores and yaconviva.co.uk

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