Cranberry Christmas Cake- vegan

I decorated the cake with lemon royal icing and made snowflake cutouts, finished with edible glitter

I realise that this recipe may come too late for the current Christmas, but at least it's out in good time for next year :)
It was my turn this year to make the Christmas cake and I was fully planning to do something very traditional, but my local Waitrose had other ideas: I nipped in there a couple of days ago for some glace cherries to find that they only had huge (and very expensive) tubs that I just couldn't justify buying for one cake. I even asked a member of staff to help me look for the regular-sized tub, so desperate was I to get those cherries- to no avail. Then my despair turned to delight; I saw a packet of dried cranberries at a fraction of the cost of glace cherries, and an idea began to formulate in my creatively-challenged mind... thank you, Waitrose!


340g plain wholemeal flour
175g muscovado sugar
175g flaked almonds
175g rasins or sultanas
175g mixed peel
170g packet "craisins" (sweetened dried cranberries
1tsp bicarb
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp mixed spice
1 tsp ground ginger
8 tabs double-strength mixed fruit herbal tea (or I'm sure a Norfolk Punch-type of fruit, spice and herb drink* would be even better)
250ml soya milk
75ml rice bran oil

• Combine all the dry ingredients in a bowl
• Mix the oil and soya milk in another bowl
• Add the wet to the dry mixture, beating well
• Stir in the herbal tea/ Norfolk Punch
• Put into a greased and floured med. cake tin/ dampened silicone mould and bake for about 45 mins at 180C. I use a rectangular mould that's not too deep, and the inside and outside cook evenly. Check frequently to ensure top does not overbrown. (If it does look like it has browned before the inside is cooked, turn the oven down to 110C for the remaining time.) Use the skewer method to test if done.

*Non-alcoholic, of course!