As promised here is the follow up post with the cake recipe. This is my first cake recipe that has gone from idea in my head to plate and I’m really pleased with how it turned out. It’s loosely based on the golden vanilla cupcakes recipe from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero, and is a positive tropical treat to get you in the mood for summer! Oh, and of course it’s also vegan 🙂
Ingredients
For the cake:
2 cups soya milk
2 tsps cider vinegar
2 cups plain flour
2 tbsps cornflour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp salt
2/3 cup oil (vegetable or coconut)
1 cup granulated sugar (I used 1/2 caster sugar and 1/2 stevia)
2 tbsps maple syrup
2 tsps vanilla extract
1/2 cup ground almonds
1/2 cup desiccated coconut
For the icing:
75g coconut oil, softened
175g icing sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2-3 tbsps pineapple juice (depending what consistency you want)
For the finishing touch (optional)
2 tbsps toasted dedicated coconut
7-8 pineapple rings
To make the cake:
Preheat the oven to 180° C/ 350° F and prepare two 20cm cake tins.
In a large bowl whisk together the soya milk and vinegar and leave to one side to curdle while you prepare the dry ingredients.
In another bowl measure out the flour, cornflour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt.
Go back to the milk mixture and add in the sugar, maple syrup, oil, and vanilla extract and whisk until combined. Then slowly add in the flour mixture, whisking until there are no large lumps. Finally add in the ground almonds and desiccated coconut and stir until evenly combined.
Split the mixture evenly between the two cake pans and bake for 28-30 minutes until a cake skewer comes out clean. Leave the cakes to cool completely before icing.
To make the icing:
Weigh out the coconut oil and icing sugar and mix with a fork (to prevent an icing sugar cloud!). Once combined add the vanilla extract and a little of the pineapple juice, adding more to slacken the mixture once it’s well combined, until the icing is at the consistency you want.
To finish:
Turn the completely cooled cakes out of their pans and cut a flat top on one to create the bottom layer. Spoon about 1/3 of the icing onto the bottom cake and spread evenly. Decorate with 3 of the pineapple rings, I cut them in half and made a short of curvy star shape.
Place the second cake on top and spoon the remaining icing on, spreading it evenly over the surface of the cake.
Toast a little coconut to finish the decoration by heating a couple of spoonfuls in a frying pan over a low heat until it turns golden brown. Make sure to keep it moving as you don’t want it to stick and burn. Allow it to completely cool before using.
Sprinkle the toasted coconut over the icing and add the final pineapple rings to decorate. (Note: of you are using pineapple from a tin make sure to dry off some of the liquid first otherwise the fruit can make your icing side off the cake! Not that I found that out by doing it… 😉 )
Now stand back, admire your creation, then dig in!
As we clearly have! Haha, it’s too yummy not to!
Enjoy! Let me know what you think of my recipe 🙂
PS: I think mango would also work well in this cake, and given my love of mangoes I think I shall have to test my theory!
Update: I made this cake again for my dad’s birthday and remembered to take a photo of the uncut cake! This time I made it without the toasted coconut on top as I had a dish of fresh coconut pieces to go with it. And I can confirm it was just as delicious second time round and went down very well with everyone!
...by Catriona 