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:
Katie, Love your recipes. I like to print them out to use in the kitchen. Is there a way to print just the recipe without the comments? I do this from my iPad and when I later go to the printer to retrieve the recipe, I have one page of recipe and sometimes 20 pages of comments! Any way to prevent this?
What I do with recipes is I copy and paste just the recipe into a word document (highlight the recipe and press “control c” then click in the word document and press “control v”)
That way you can fit a lot on one page, and you can even reduce the font size so you save paper ;).
In some browsers you can highlight just the recipe part, and then press Print, and in your options check the box that says “Print selection only”. I use Chrome and this works perfectly for me!
I LOVE coconut, and love all your recipes! they are so straight-forward that, even if I have no experience as a cook, I am not able to mess them up! I am trying to stay sugar-free and don’t like artificial sweeteners: do you think I could subsitute mashed bananas or pureed dates/prunes/raisins for the sugar?
Xylitol is sugar free.
But not calorie free
I never said it was.
Unfortunately I have never been able to find it where I live, and also I don’t think it would be as cheap as using bananas or other friuts as sweeteners… Thank you for the sugestion, though!
Sorry, I can’t vouch for any substitutions because I haven’t tried them.
I like to use coconut palm crystals or sometimes maple sugar (made from pure maple syrup). Both have the same amount of calories as real sugar but no icky after taste and its not artificial. You should try to Google those. You could also look into date sugar (made from dates). I mainly use coconut palm because price wise I get more. Maple and date sugar is pricey for a small amount!
Also you can wean yourself down on the amount of sweetness. In most recipes I can cut it in half, sometimes just a few tablespoons depending on the recipe.
This recipe makes a pretty moist bread already, adding pureed fruit might make it not turn out very well.
This cake look delicious! And so moist!! How fun that you got to celebrate Easter twice! I love Hawaii! It’s so beautiful!
I read a lot of blogs, but this is the only website where I want to make EVERY SINGLE recipe you post. Seriously, you need to slow down because my recipe files can’t keep up! 😉
I made your coconut macaroons again last night, and they were as delicious as always!
My fav tropical location…..Zanzibar!
Coconut and pineapple, you said the magic words! I really wish I had canned pineapple in my pantry, because I want to make this bread right now! I’ll have to wait until I can get to the grocery store, but then I’m making it for sure!
P.S. I love the photos!
The title of this post spoke to me in a way that nothing has been able to speak to me in a LONG time, lol. 🙂 Coconut is my favorite food, I will be trying this shortly! Thanks!
I assumed you called for canned pineapple. Fresh would work too, right?! I happened to have some fresh pineapple at home. I love pineapple, and coconut (oh those easter macaroons…).
As for tropics, I’ve been to Costa Rica, and I lived in Kenya. Well, I don’t know if Kenya would be considered tropical, but they certainly have tropical fruits, the baby bananas were my favorite, and the mangos…
Yes, definitely! Just make sure to crush it small. One reader said she just blended it with the other liquid ingredients.
I didn’t know that you had a coconut tab!!! I’m in love with this!
What flour would you recommend to make this gluten free? Coconut flour? And would I need to add any xantham gum? Sounds delicious!!!!
Sorry, I’ve only tried it as written. I have no clue how it’d go with other flours.