Is A Slice Of Christmas Cake High In Syns On Slimming World? - Our Unofficial Syn Guide

If it's that time of the year when all the festive foods come out, one great thing about the slimming world plan is that you don't have to deprive yourself of them and can happily indulge within moderation!

A slice of Christmas cake can have varying syns on the SW plan according to its ingredients, on average you can expect one slice to have around 12.5 syns, making this cake high in syns!

We've put together the ultimate Christmas cake syn guide below, discussing why Christmas cake is so high in syns, syn values of different types and a recipe for making your own SW-friendly Christmas cake at home!

Why Is Christmas Cake So High In Syns?

At 12.5 syns for a 70g slice, Christmas cake is very high in syns, taking the majority of your 15 syn daily allowance, this cake gets its high syn value from the sugar and fat due to ingredients such as sugar, dried fruits and butter.

For example, a slice of Tesco Christmas fruit cake has nearly 45g of sugar in it! We, therefore, recommend having this cake in moderation when your syns allow.

If you are curious as to why dried fruit is so high in syns, we have a great syn guide to some here.

Syn Values Of Christmas Cake

Christmas cake can varying syns depending on the ingredients used, for example, some have alcohol in while others use royal icing instead of marzipan, so as you can compare syns, we've listed a variety of options below.

• Morrisons Iced Christmas Cake Bar 400g - 8.5 syns.
•  M&S Food Top Iced Christmas Cake 835g - 12.5 syns.
•  Morrisons Christmas Cake 800g - 11 syns.
•  M&S Food Fully Iced Christmas Cake 865g - 13 syns.
•  M&S Food Royal Iced Christmas Cake 900g - 17.5 syns.
•  Waitrose & Partners Christmas Mini Iced Fruit Cake 150g - 13.5 syns.
•  Morrisons The Best 5 All Butter Christmas Cake Slices 224g - 8 syns.
•  Sainsbury's Free From 9 Christmas Cake Bites 180g - 4.5 syns.
•  Lidl Luxury All Over Iced Christmas Cake Infused with Brandy 1kg - 10 syns.
•  Aldi Holly Lane Top Iced Christmas Cake 907g - 13.5 syns.
•  Asda Free From 4 Christmas Cake Slices 210g - 10.5 syns.
•  Morrisons The Best Iced Christmas Cake 900g - 11 syns.
•  Co-op Shimmering Iced Christmas Cake 907g - 14.5 syns.

Our Best SW Christmas Cake Recipe

Since Christmas cake can be very high in syns, you are probably on the hunt for a low-syn alternative, so why not try making your syn-friendly version at home?

This recipe below makes a fruit cake traybake, swapping out ingredients such as sugar for sweetener to make the cake lighter!

Ingredients

• 450g of dried mixed fruits.
•  Four and a half teaspoons of sweetener.
•  One cup of strong black tea.
•  260g of pumpkin puree.
•  Two tablespoons of brandy.
•  Zest one orange.
•  Two eggs beaten.
•  200g of wholemeal flour and plain flour half/half.
•  Two teaspoons of mixed spice and a pinch of cinnamon.
•  One teaspoon of baking soda.
•  Cloves and ginger.

Method

1. Start by making the strong tea using multiple tea bags and allow it to steep, now take the dried fruit and add the tea plus the alcohol, and leave to marinate for around three hours.
2.  Heat the oven to 140 degrees then grease a cake tin and mix the pumpkin puree, sweetener, eggs and zest in a bowl till combined.
3.  Now stir in the dried fruit and sift the dry ingredients into the bowl.
4.  Spoon into the cake tin and bake for around an hour, you can glaze with some sweetener and water then enjoy!

Final Words

Overall, Christmas cake is very high in syns, averaging at around 12.5 syns for a 70g slice, which is the majority of your 15 syn daily allowance, we suggest only having this cake as an occasional treat due to the high syn value.

This cake gets its high syns from ingredients such as sugar and alcohol, if you are curious about the syns in other kinds of cakes, we have a great syn guide to Victoria sponge cakes here.