I love Christmas cake. But if you find that some groups of fermentable carbohydrates (FODMAPs) cause you gut symptoms, then a chunk of Christmas cake may not be your friend.

This is variation of my favourite fruit and nut cake that is low in oligassacharides (fructans and GOS) and polyols (sorbitol and mannitol). These are two groups of fermentable carbohydrates that many people find problematic. The recipe does include cherries (one of my favourite fruits!) but one slice of cake (1/10th of the recipe) should be well tolerated by most people. You can substitute cherries for another red fruit if you are not a cherry fan.

Ingredients

2 cups of nuts - 1 cup macadamia & 1 cup walnuts

150g mixed peel

1/2 cup red dried fruit - 1/4 cup freeze dried cherries & 1/4 cup dried blueberries

75g crystallised ginger

75g green or red glacé cherries

1/4 cup Grand Marnier (orange liquor) or whiskey

1 tbsp chia seeds 

4 sticks of rhubarb roasted 

1/2 cup strawberries roasted

50g butter

1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1 egg

1/4 cup hazelnuts ground

1/2 cup gluten free flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp ground cinnamon 

1/4 tsp ground cloves

zest of one orange

1 tsp vanilla essence

Method

1. Preheat oven to 200º fan bake. Cut rhubarb into thumb length pieces and remove green tops of strawberries. Place rhubarb and strawberries on a lined baking tray and bake in oven for 15-20 minutes. Bake until rhubarb is soft to touch. This can be done ahead of time and kept in fridge until needed.

2. Place nuts, dried fruit, ginger, cherries and liquor in a bowl to soak.

3. Mash 1/2 cup of roasted rhubarb, removing any outer stringy bits, and 1/2 cup strawberries. Mash only the fruit and leave behind any juice. Add chia seeds to mashed fruit, mix well and set aside for 15 minutes for chia seeds to swell. 

4. Preheat oven to 150º fan bake. Grease a large loaf tin and sprinkle sides and bottom of tin with a little flour. Tip out excess flour.

5. Cream butter and sugar until light and creamy. Add egg and mix well. Add ground hazelnuts and mix well.

6. Sieve flour, baking powder and spices into creamed mixture. Fold to combine. 

7. Mix soaked nuts and fruit with roasted fruit. Ensure the rhubarb and strawberry mixture is well distributed. This will help ensure the cake is evenly moist. Add fruit to the flour mixture along with orange zest and vanilla essence. Mix well.

8. Spoon the cake mixture into loaf tin. Bake for 75 - 90 minutes. Cake is cooked once the top is cracked, and it has slightly pulled away from the edges. If the top of the cake becomes very brown cover with tin foil.

9. Remove from oven and leave to cool in tin for at least 30 minutes. Use a knife to loosen around the edges before tipping cake out of the tin. Slice cake into finger width pieces using a serrated bread knife. Cake stores well in an airtight container in the fridge.