VEGAN COCONUT AND LYCHEE CAKE
VEGAN COCONUT AND LYCHEE CAKE
Recipe
I love lychees for their uniquely floral flavour and unusual texture, and they are perfectly paired with the light nutty flavour of coconut in this moist cake. This recipe completely vegan, but using butter instead of coconut oil, and regular milk in place of the coconut milk also works really well.
FOR THE CAKE
150g plain flour
75g ground almonds
2 tsp baking powder
85g desiccated coconut
100g coconut sugar
½ cup coconut oil, melted
1 cup coconut milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
120g tinned lychees
FOR THE TOPPING
400ml of full fat coconut cream (refrigerated for at least 8 hours)
8 tinned lychees, cut in half
- Preheat the oven to 170C fan bake. Line a 20cm cake tin with baking paper.
- In a large bowl, combine the flour, ground almonds, baking powder, coconut and coconut sugar. Add in the melted coconut oil, coconut milk and vanilla. Mix until ingredients are well combined, but be careful not to over mix. Pour the batter into the tin and dot the lychees into it, pressing them down with a spoon quite deep into the batter.
- Bake for approximately 40 minutes or until golden in colour, springy to the touch and a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean. Allow the cake to cool for 10 minutes before turning out onto a cooling rack.
- Meanwhile, make the whipped coconut cream. Open the chilled can of coconut cream, being careful not to shake it. Scrape out the top, thickened layer into your mixing bowl and discard the liquid. Beat the coconut cream using an electric beater on high speed until soft peaks form.
- Once the cake is fully cooled, spread the whipped coconut cream over the top of it, and decorate with lychee halves.
- Refrigerate in an airtight container for up to 3 days.