Healthy Fruitcake with Chocolate and Meringue (Gluten-Free, No Sugar)

A healthy holiday fruitcake with a twist: a layer of rich chocolate shortcrust, a vibrant and flavorful nut, fruit, and chocolate filling, enveloped in a light and airy meringue.

This fruitcake with chocolate and meringue is gluten-free, lectin-free, and low in sugar compared to other classic fruitcakes and made with only wholesome, healthy ingredients. It tastes and smells like holidays. It is the perfect Christmas cake.

Is fruitcake healthy?

There is a reason a classic fruit cake has a bad reputation: it is far from healthy. Fruitcakes are made with a lot of sweetened dry fruits, candied fruit, sugar, and all-purpose flour, and a serving can have impressive amounts of sugar. Plus, the ones you buy from stores have all kinds of additives added to prolong their shelf life.

How much sugar is in a classic fruitcake?

One serving of a classic, homemade fruitcake has about 79 grams of carbohydrates and 4 grams of fiber; that’s about 75 grams of sugar, or 15 teaspoons of sugar, in just one serving.

A generous serving of this fruitcake with chocolate and meringue has 16 grams of carbohydrates and 2.2 grams of fiber, that’s about 14 grams of sugar or 2.8 teaspoons.

While not entirely innocent, it is a holiday treat and a much better option than any other fruitcake.

How to make a low-sugar fruit mix for a fruitcake

Dry fruits can be great if they are consumed in minimal amounts. But a fruitcake has a ton of high-sugar dry fruits on top of the added sugar in the cake batter. Plus, conventional dry or candied fruits are laden with added sugar and syrups, which makes matters even worse.

A conventional fruitcake is a sugar bomb.

To solve this problem, I created a mix that is low in sugar and high in nutrients and healthy fats. I kept the high-sugar dried fruits such as dates, figs, and apricots to a minimum, just enough to give some natural sweetness to the cake and to create that sticky texture.

I added lots of low-sugar dried, unsweetened fruits such as berries and freeze-dried raspberries. Fortunately, these are becoming increasingly available as we become more aware of the enormous amount of sugar added to all foods. I linked below a few options I found on Amazon.

For a little crunch, healthy fats, and extra nutrients, I used a mix of nuts: pistachios, blanched almonds, pecans, and walnuts (any combination of these can be used).

And for extra JOY, I added dark chocolate (90% cacao).

This is the fruitcake mix in a nutshell (check the Ingredients paragraph and recipe card for exact quantities, but feel free to use whatever you have available):

• Nuts: pistachios, walnuts, blanched almonds, pecans
• Just a few sticky, naturally high-sugar dry fruits: dates, figs, apricots
• Lots of dry, unsweetened, low-sugar fruits: aronia berries, cranberries, mulberries, etc
• Freeze-dried fruits: raspberries
• Dark chocolate (85-90% cacao)
• Flavors: orange zest, pure almond extract (alternatively, you can use rum)
• Spices: our Holiday Warming Spice Mix (cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, star anise, licorice powder, allspice, Sumatra long pepper, tonka beans) and ginger

To be clear, there is no such thing as a 100% sugar free fruit cake. Fruits, and especially dry fruits have natural sugars.

But, by making a smart nut and fruit mix, as explained above, we can create a fruitcake that is naturally sweet, a great occasional treat that tastes delicious without wreaking havoc on your blood sugar.

Three layers of goodness

This chocolate and meringue healthy fruit cake is made of three layers:

1. The chocolate shortcrust – a rich, moist bottom layer that holds everything together.
2. The mix of nuts, fruits, and chocolate – falls through the meringue and sits on top of the shortcrust.
3. The meringue – is airy and light, dry but not hard, and envelops everything without adding extra bulk.

The dominant flavors of this fruitcake are the warming spices and the almond extract which gives it that marzipan flavor. If you don’t like the marzipan flavor, you can soak some of the dry fruits in rum. But not the freeze-dried ones, as they will become mushy.

Complete list of ingredients:

For the chocolate shortcrust:

• 50 grams almond flour
• 50 grams cassava flour
• 50 grams chestnut flour
• pinch of salt
• 20 grams cacao
• 2 tablespoons inulin powder
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
• zest of one organic orange
• 40 ml cold milk (almond, hemp, tigernut milk, or A2 milk)
• 2 egg yolks (save the egg whites)
• 145 grams cold, unsalted French butter

NOTE on the flour mix: If you can’t have one of the flours I used, you can use any mix of two (total 150 grams).

For the filling:

• 300 grams nut and fruit mix made of 30g pistachios, 30g walnuts, 30g blanched almonds, 30g apricots, 80g Medjool dates, 30g dry aronia berries, 20g freeze-dried raspberries, 50g dark chocolate
• 50 grams tapioca flour/starch
• 2 teaspoons warming spices (use my holiday warming spice mix or a mix of warming spices: cinnamon, allspice, licorice, cloves, star anise, cardamom, tonka beans)
• zest of 2 organic oranges
• 1/2 teaspoon ginger powder
• 1/4 teaspoon pure almond extract (careful not to add more as it will become too strong!)
• pinch of salt
• 3 whole eggs + 2 egg white saved from the chocolate layer
• 2 tablespoons monk fruit or another sweetener

How to make a healthier fruitcake, step by step

Make the chocolate layer

• Mix all the ingredients in a bowl (saving the two egg whites), in the listed order, then grate the cold butter straight from the refrigerator and add it to the bowl. Mix with the hands just enough to make a dough, but don’t overmix.
• Form a ball, flatten it into an 8×8 inch square on a plastic wrap, wrap it around in plastic, and place it in the refrigerator for one hour.

Prepare the filling, assemble the cake and bake

• Make the dry nuts and fruit mix. Roughly chop the nuts (walnuts, pecans, pistachios, blanched almonds) and the bigger dry fruits, the dark chocolate, and add them to a mixing bowl. Add the smaller fruits, whole (unsweetened aronia berries, cherries, cranberries, dry frozen raspberries), add the spices and flavors, salt, and tapioca, and mix well so all the pieces are coated in the tapioca flour. If bigger pieces get stuck into clusters, separate them.
• After one hour has passed, take the dough out of the fridge. Line an 8×8 inch square baking sheet/pan with parchment paper, flip the dough onto the baking sheet and spread it out with your fingers to cover the entire pan (if it doesn’t fit already), and push it up the edges for about 1/2 inch or less. Cover the dough with plastic and put it back in the fridge for another 30 minutes while you prepare the filling.

• Preheat the oven to 350F / 180C.
• Separate the yolks from the whites, add the yolks to a big mixing bowl, mix them with the sweetener, and beat them until creamy. Whisk the five egg whites in a bowl until stiff.
• Slowly incorporate the egg whites into the egg yolks, gently folding them with a spatula. Then add the nut and fruit mix, folding them in until they are evenly distributed (don’t overmix).
• Take the baking pan out of the fridge, add the filling on top of the dough, level with a spatula, and bake for 10 minutes at 350F/180C. Then turn the heat down to 320F/160C and bake for 35 more minutes (maybe a few minutes less if your oven runs hot).

• When it is done, take the baking sheet out and let the cake rest, at room temperature, in the baking sheet, for about 6 hours or overnight until the meringue dries.

• Pop it in the fridge for an hour or two before you slice it.
• Slice and serve.

How to store and serve this healthy fruitcake

Surprisingly, this fruitcake can be frozen, and it keeps its texture when thawed. So feel free to prepare it in advance. Otherwise, it can be stored in the fridge for about three days.

This healthy fruitcake with chocolate and meringue is the perfect holiday treat. Serve it with tea, coffee, or a matcha latte with homemade tigernut milk.

More healthy holiday sweet treats:

• Lectin-Free Cookies for Christmas. One Dough, Three Ways to Use It
• Lectin-Free Christmas Cookies with Orange and Raspberries: Two Ways
• Gluten-Free Butter Spritz Cookies (Sugar-Free)
• Pinwheel Sweet Bread. Lectin-Free, Sugar-Free
• Healthy Sweet Potato Muffins (No Added Sugar, Gluten-Free)

My inspiration

I was motivated to create a healthier version of a fruitcake when one of my most prolific readers, Lorenza, asked me if I had a healthy fruit cake recipe. At first, I thought it was impossible, but it turned out that anything can have a healthier version.

The technique I used to create this cake was inspired by a couple of Romanian food bloggers called Savori Urbane.

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