Dark Christmas Cake (nut-free)

This recipe is an adaptation of the Canadian Living Dark Christmas Cake from their 2004 Holiday Cookbook. Due to allergies in my husband's family, I had to remove the nuts from the original recipe, and substituted the dates instead. As well, I am not a fan of a lot of candied fruit, so substituted dried fruit for a lot of the candied stuff. It took three tries to come up with the recipe below (which is simply Dark Christmas Cake, 2006 recipe in my cookbook), but my family, in-laws, and coworkers certainly like this one. Hope you do too.

Fruity Nut Dressing

This is decidedly delicious and much easier than stuffing the turkey on Christmas morning.

Five-Spice Nuts

Brazil Nut Blondies

Mixed Nut Tart

Hazelnuts, walnuts and pecans grace the top of this decadent indulgence. Serve with bourbon-spiked whipped cream.

Fruit & Nut Couscous

Spiced Nut Slices

Spiced dough wrapped around a hazelnut-and-almond filling creates impressive cookies. Slicing the logs after baking makes them easy large-batch cookies.

Sweet & Spicy Mixed Nuts

Brazil Nut Crunch Bars

Bar cookies are always fast to make.

Golden Brazil Nut Fruitcake

This traditional fruitcake pleases even people with fruitcake prejudices. Make it at least one month ahead to allow the cake to steep in rich flavours before icing.