Blending Flavors: Eggless Christmas Cake

I am an ardent lover of egg and chicken dishes. However being married to a Gujarati guy (although he has no problem eating eggs), I have to entertain lot of vegetarian guests. I do respect their beliefs and so have to incorporate it in the food I make for them as well. My daughter's second birthday cake (shown in my cake art page) was also an eggless cake. Making an eggless cake is not an easy task and I have realized it after 4 eggless cakes that went into the trash can. Eggs are chief ingredients that help in rising the cake, and when you miss that there should be something in the recipe which will give you the perfect cake which won't crumble, and is moist to taste as well.

Now, it is the Christmas week, the perfect time to make Christmas fruit cake! We will be having a Christmas get together with some friends (who are vegetarians). Because of my love for baking and as nothing screams more Christmas than a Fruit Cake, I wanted to make one for the occasion. However making an eggless cake still gives me the chills (after all my failed attempts). I looked for lot of recipes and settled down for one. I made some modifications, for the portion size, and things easily available in my pantry. Kept my fingers crossed, but voila it baked perfect and tastes amazing. Surprisingly I don't miss the eggs in it. I would make this cake over rich christmas cakes anytime. Also no hassle of making caramel. It's a keeper!

I have added flax seed powder to the original recipe because I felt that the cake is very delicious but very difficult to cut as it crumbles.

Ingredients

1/2 cup light/ dark brown sugar, packed
1/4 cup dried raisins
1/4 cup dried cranberries
1 cup dried mixed fruit, peel preserved
1/2 tablespoon lemon juice
2 tbsp orange marmalade/ 1 tsp orange extract/ zest from one orange
2/3 cup boiling water
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, soft, in chunks
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla
2-1/2 tablespoons cooking oil
1/4 cup dark rum or 1/4 cup orange juice
1 tsp cinnamon powder
1 tsp nutmeg powder
1 tsp clove powder
2-1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tbsp very dark cocoa powder (if you want that dark color to your cake)
1-1/2 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup roughly chopped nuts (walnuts, almonds, cashews, pecans)
2 tbsp flax seed powder (soaked in 6 tbsp warm water till it is gooey)

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a saucepan, take ingredients from 1-7, including boiling water.
Simmer the mixture for five minutes on stove top.

Let it cool a little, then add butter to the mixture. Add the baking soda and the mixture will fizz.

Add vanilla, cooking oil and rum to the fizzed mixture. Pour this mixture in a large mixing bowl.
In another bowl, add ingredients from 13-18. Slowly using a hand mixer, or you can use the standing mixer if you have one, add this dry mixture to the wet mixture.Scrape the sides and mix it well. Add the flax seed mix to the batter and mix well.