Vegan coconut pineapple cake

When I tasted these, OMG! They were amazing, as both big muffins and cake. I gave them to my friends to try and everybody, really everybody, loved them and could not believe they are dairy and egg free. Moist, dense, juicy, amazing. I love them.

Ingredients

240 g peeled, ripe banana
230 g coconut mango yogurt*
130 g coconut oil
170 g white or golden caster sugar
1.5 tsp lavender
1 organic orange zest, finely grated
100 g whole grain flour
130 wheat flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp soda
pinch of sea salt
130 g candied pineapple pieces

For cream:
1 can coconut milk, refrigerated for 24-48 h
2 tbsp maple syrup
vanilla powder
pinch of sea salt

Prepare

Heat oven to 200° and butter a 10 x 25 cm pan, or you can use a regular 12-muffin pan. Put the pineapple pieces in water to get rid of the excess sugar around them. Sieve and pat dry. Cut into medium size pieces.

Place the banana in a blender and blend until smooth and silky. Pour into a bowl, add yogurt, oil, vanilla, lavender, orange zest and sugar. Mix with a hand whisk.

In another bowl, mix together the flours, soda, baking powder and salt. Pour the wet ingredients and pineapple into the dry ingredients. Mix with a wooden spoon or fork until lump-free.

Place equal amounts in the pan, if using muffin pan, or in a tin. Bake the cake for 35-45 minutes, muffins for 18-20 minutes, or until a skewer poked in the centre comes out clean. Cool muffins for 10 minutes in the pan and cake for 30, then carefully lift onto a wire rack to finish cooling.

When cool, put cream on top. For the cream, open the can and spoon out the thick part of the milk. Add syrup, salt and vanilla and whip until creamy**. Decorate to your liking.

* I use "Harvest moon" or "Happy coco".

** It is important to find the right coconut milk, because not all of them whip up well. The first ones I tried did not whip up normally, so I started to doubt my ability to cook, but as I found out later, you have to find the right one. If you think it is too soft to spread on a cake (after whipping), put it in the fridge for some time and then spread.

Recipe and pictures: Signe Meirane
Camera: Sony Alpha 7s