You look like you could use a slice of coconut cake…
A big slice of soft coconut cake… for breakfast!
Yes, coconut cake for breakfast.
Cake so soft and crumbly and sweet, bursting with juicy pineapple and luxurious vanilla… You’ll feel as if you went to bed and woke up in paradise, and then you won’t want breakfast to end!
Above, glazed with coconut milk and Sugar-Free Powdered Sugar.
Brunch time!
This year, I celebrated Easter twice. Emily’s parents drove up on Saturday morning, and she and I hosted a fancy Easter brunch. (Emily is my friend with whom I share a house. I call her my roommate, but luckily we have our own rooms!)
And Emily made mimosas, as well as some non-vegan foods. It was quite a big mess to clean up afterwards. So many dishes…
Her parents loved the coconut cake and had two slices each, even though there was a ton of other food!
I was originally calling it coconut bread because it’s cooked in a loaf pan, but they said the recipe was so soft and cakey that it was more like a breakfast cake than a bread.
Coconut Breakfast Cake
(makes 1 large loaf)
- 1 cup spelt or white flour (or this: gluten-free version)
- 1/4 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 2 tsp Ener-g or 2 tbsp ground flax (If you must, you can omit. The loaf just won’t rise as much)
- 1/4 cup + 2 tbsp sugar, unrefined if desired, or xylitol
- 1/8 tsp uncut stevia OR 1/4 cup more sugar
- 2 1/4 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1 cup (240g) crushed pineapple, drained (You can sub ripe banana)
- 1/2 cup full-fat canned coconut milk (see nutrition link below, for a lower-fat option)
- optional ingredients: chopped macadamia nuts or walnuts, shredded coconut, rum extract
Preheat oven to 350 F. Combine all wet ingredients. In a separate bowl, combine dry and stir well. Mix dry into wet, but don’t overmix. Pour into a greased or sprayed loaf pan, and cook for 35-38 minutes. Let cool at least ten minutes before going around the sides with a knife and removing from loaf pan. As mentioned above, I used a simple glaze of the sugar-free powdered sugar mixed with a little leftover coconut milk. But my absolute favorite way to eat this recipe is spread with coconut butter! Store very loosely covered overnight, or cover with saran wrap and fridge for a few days. This cake/loaf tastes even better the longer it sits, because it keeps getting sweeter! This recipe freezes well.
Have you ever been to Hawaii?
Or any tropical location? We visited Hawaii a lot when I was little, because it was a good connecting point between Japan (where we lived) and the US. My other favorite tropical location is Thailand… one of the best things about these tropical locations is the plethora of tropical fruits, especially coconut! Side note: I also have a tab just for coconut recipes:
Link Of The Day:
mmmm just made this it was DELICIOUS!! I subbed a few things, so here’s what I did in case people are wondering if it will work (because it DOES!)
Used all ingredients originally written except:
– Just used sugar
– Subbed ripe banana for pineapple
– Subbed soy milk for coconut
– Added 1 T coconut oil
And cooked in muffin-form.
For the glaze, I did what Katie said and just mixed powdered sugar and soy milk, and then added some shredded coconut on each muffin. These things are ADDICTIVE!
Thanks for testing them in muffin form! Another commenter and I had been wondering if it would work or stay gooey. I’m really glad to know it works :).
I made this yesterday and it was AMAZING. I think next time I’ll try to make it in a muffin tin to try to get 8 servings out of it because the way I cut it I ended up with 8 servings. I’m not vegan so I used two eggs, and used turbinado sugar and stevia in the raw for the sweeteners called for and it was amazing! As I still have half a container of coconut milk I sort of want to make another one BUT I’ll actually be taking off Friday on an cruise of the western Caribbean, which is in keeping with your theme of “some place tropical” have yet to make it to Hawaii, but I was on a big explore Europe kick when I lived in NC, Now I’m in Upstate NY and ready to explore warmer locations! Thanks for another amazing recipe!
Sooo, because I am not great at following directions I used pineapple chunks instead of crushed. I had a fresh pineapple and just didn’t think to blend it up, so I made little chunks instead. It was still good and tasted very tropical! I also added macadamia nuts and made it gluten free. I did two mini loaves and in, let’s see, an hour? One entire loaf is gone (between me and my son). YUM!
OK–I made a GF version.
Here’s what I did:
Instead of 1 cup wheat/spelt flour I used:
1/2 cup white rice flour (62g)
1/4 cup tapioca starch (31g)
1/4 cup potato starch (not flour) (34g)
1 tsp xantham gum
Other than that, I kept the recipe just like you said, which you know is not my usual m.o.–I’m an incorrigible recipe tweaker! Oh but I didn’t put any glaze one.
The reaction: it came out moist, chewy, soft and delectable. Most importantly, my husband, who doesn’t usually like gf and sugar free recipes (he’s a total omnivore and gluten and sugar lover) _loved_ it! I’ve never had pineapple coconut cake before, but he has, and he said this might be the best he’s ever had. He’s already eaten four pieces of it! I’ve had a piece too, and liked it a lot.
So, major success, as judged by the most ‘healthy-recipe-resistant’ man I know!
Katie, would you be willing to crunch the numbers for the nutritional stats with the ingredients I listed? I don’t think they’ll be very different than with the wheat flour, but I’d love to know what they are. I don’t have calorie counting software (is there any you recommend?)
thanks,
Ela
Thank you so much for posting this! A lot of people ask about gf versions of some of the recipes I post, so I’m really happy to have a tried-and-true recipe to show them. I’ll definitely point anyone who asks to your recipe .
As for nutritional info, I use a free website: spark recipe calculator. Hope that helps!
Wonder what would happen if I sub with almond or coconut flour?
I made this for Easter using only coconut flour as a substitute for the white flour and the texture was a bit off. It still tasted good, but was really crumbly and had a VERY slight grittiness to it. It still got eaten, but I think if you substitute the flour you need to do it with a blend like Ela suggests above & not just straight coconut flour.
I love this recipe. I love the pineapple version and my daughter the banana version.
My heart sank when I couldn’t find the gluten-free version (the link isn’t working, at wasn’t for me today). I’m so excited I found it after much searching. I’ll be baking both versions for christmas breakfast.
Thanks Katie and Ella!
Katie,
If I’m going to sub in ripe banana – would it just be one ripe banana? Or should I mash up banana and measure exactly one cup out?
Thanks!
Measure 1 cup, or 240g if you have a food scale :).
Thanks Katie!
P.S. After dinner tonight my boyfriend asked where the cookie pie was – he was very disappointed when I told him I hadn’t made any today!
Since this is coconut cake, can you use coconut flour? I am GF, bean and legume free and basically ALL grains. So I can’t use spelt or rice flour….but I can use almond meal, flax meal and coconut flour! ???
Sorry, I don’t know since I haven’t tried it.
See my comment above – I made it with just coconut flour & the consistency was off, but it still tasted yummy.
Coconut flour does not bake equally with other flours. It is extremely absorbent; generally needing more liquid or less flour to begin with. I have not tried this recipe with coconut flour but that may help answer why your read was gritty and crumbly.
OK, this is probably a dumb question, but if I don’t have any chia seeds or ener-G egg stuff, can I just use eggs? Obviously the recipe would not longer be vegan, but I’m OK with that.
My husband and I went to Hawaii for a second honeymoon when I was pregnant with our 3rd child. It was quite some time before I was able to eat grocery store pineapple without extreme disappointment. It’s just no comparison to fresh pinapple straight from the field.
Sorry I haven’t used a real egg in over 10 years, so I don’t know how it would work.
I’m new to your site, learned about it from my Health Coach, and make this cake tonight. The flavour is great, and I opted to added shredded coconut and chopped walnuts. However, it’s definitely not “cakey”, it’s too soft. I’m not sure where I went wrong as I look over all the ingredients. I even baked it for an extra 10 minutes just to see if that would make a difference, it did but not much. I’d like to try this again. What should the consistency look/feel like before I put it in the oven?
Hmmm… can you tell me more about the specific ingredients you used? Especially what flour?
Here’s what I did. The flavour is great. I wonder if I messed up with my pineapple and the stevia:
■1 cup spelt flour
■1/4 tsp cinnamon
■1 tsp baking powder
■1/2 tsp salt
■1/2 tsp baking soda
■ 2 chia eggs (2 tbsp of chia seeds and 1/2 cup of water)
■1/4 cup sugar
■ 4 single serving packets of stevia (the packets look like what sweet’n low would come in)
■2 and 1/4 tsp pure vanilla extract
■1 can (I read it as a can instead of a cup) crushed pineapple, drained
■ 1/2 cup full-fat canned coconut milk ■chopped macadamia walnuts and shredded coconut (handful)
You forgot the extra 2 tbsp sugar (just as a side note).
But also, how much is in a can of your pineapple? Maybe that’s the difference?
I don’t have any more cans of pineapple, but thinking back now, I think that’s where I made my mistake. I misread it as a can instead of a cup. I’ll have to try it again. Have you ever froze this into individual slices?
I haven’t tried freezing this, but I think it would work well.