Tropical Coconut and Pineapple Cake

It's rather late in posting, but in a bid to keep summer alive as long as possible, I thought I might as well put up this recipe for the fruity concoction of a cake I made shortly after my first lot of exams.

In keeping with the Tropicana theme of my (kinda) recent summer party, I decided to use the remaining, unused pineapple (from the cheese-and-pineapple-on-sticks) as well as some coconut-flavoured liqueur and Midori to make a fruity, slightly boozy, tropical cake.

I was aiming for a Hummingbird-style cake, and combined elements from two recipes to work with the ingredients I had in the flat: This one and this one.

Ingredients

1/2 can Coconut milk

2 shots midori

1 shot malibu,

2 eggs - separated

1 large ripe banana, mashed

50g ground almonds

(300g) gluten free flour

walnuts

macadamia

sliced almonds

1 tin pineapple in juice, crushed or cut into small chunks

75g desicated coconut

baking powder

bicarbonate of soda

xantham gum (optional)

caster sugar - half the amount of sugar

soft brown sugar

cinnamon

75ml vegetable oil

Method:

1. Grease and line two 9 inch cake tins, and preheat the oven to 170°C
2. Combine the flour, raising agents, desiccated coconut, cinnamon, nuts and ground almonds in a large bowl
3. Whisk the egg whites, and gradually add the caster sugar until stiff peaks form.
4. Combine oil and sugar, then the egg yolks, banana, coconut milk, and finally the alcohol, until well mixed.
5. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix gently until almost fully combined
6. Carefully fold in the egg white mixture, being careful not to beat out the air
7. Tip the cake mix into the cake tins and bake for about 20 minutes, or until the top is golden and springy to touch.
8. Cool on a wire rack, then sandwich cakes together with either a layer of coconut icing (or other icing of your choice) or thickly spread apricot jam. I used a bit of both!

Next time I would put less jam in the middle, or just try the icing alone, as the amount of jam I used made the icing in the middle  a little too gloopy. 

Coconut Icing

~2 tbsp Coconut milk

~1/2 tbsp lactose free cream cheese

~3 tbsp Pure dairy free spread

LOTS of icing sugar

Combine the cream cheese, coconut milk and dairy free spread, then mix in sifted icing sugar until it thickens to a spreadable consistency. Spread on the top of the cake and sprinkle with dessiccated coconut.

Serve in hefty slices!

Maia x