Coconut Loaf – Simple, Delicious & Healthy :)
We all have some favorite ingredients which we try to use quite often in our cooking. One of my favorite ingredients is coconut. I love coconut. And I try to use it in many of the desserts I make. I must have made a handful of cakes which have coconut in it. But this time, I wanted to bake something which is fairly healthy (so no guilt factor while hogging :D) and made with minimum ingredients. I came across this recipe and I knew that it would taste great and I was right!
Coconut Loaf
Ingredients:
- Desiccated Coconut – 3 cups
- Eggs – 4 (large) or 6 (small to medium)
- Vanilla Extract – 3 teaspoons
- Orange/pineapple Extract – 2 teaspoons
- Natural Honey – 4 tablespoons (more to make it sweet)
- Mixed dried fruits – 1/2 cup (optional)
- Bicarbonate of Soda – 2 teaspoons
Steps:
- Preheat the oven to 140 degrees C. Line a loaf tin with a baking paper and keep aside.
- Mix coconut, eggs, vanilla extract, orange/pineapple extract, honey and soda in a food processor or using a hand mixer. Mix well until well combined.
- Add the dried fruits into the batter and fold in gently.
- Pour the batter into the lined tin and bake for 40 minutes or until a knife or a skewer inserted through the center of the loaf comes out clean.
- Remove from the oven and let it cool in the tin for 10 minutes then turn onto a wire rack and allow it to cool completely before cutting it.
You can modify this recipe as per your taste because it has so much scope for tweaking. I know I will make more modifications 😀
Have it with your evening cuppa of tea or coffee or make it for a tea party, I am sure everyone will love it 🙂
Do share your experience 🙂
Happy Hour at Tea time – Rum ‘n Raisin Cake
The inspiration for this flavor came from one of my favorite chocolate flavors, Rum ‘n Raisin. This is *the* only flavored chocolate that I can eat without getting bored 😀 So, I decided to bake a cake with this flavor thinking I would love it in a cake as well and I was not disappointed at all. In fact, I loved it so much, that I tried a different version of this cake and now both are my favorites 🙂 One is a plain Rum ‘n Raisin flavored sponge and the other is a Chocolate flavored variant of the same. Both variants follow the same basic recipe expect for an additional step for the chocolate flavored one.
Just a heads up, for best results, soak the raisins/dried fruits in the rum overnight or more. By doing this, you are infusing the flavor of rum into the raisins/dried fruits which will then hold that flavor better through the baking process.
Ingredients:
- Chopped Raisins – 1 cup (for a twist, you can add a cup of mixed dried fruits instead of just raisins)
- Dark Rum – ¾ cup (you can change the quantity as per your taste)
- Unsalted Butter – 225 grams
- Self-raising flour – 280 grams (you can also use plain flour)
- Caster Sugar – 200 grams
- Large Eggs, at room temperature – 4
- Baking Powder – 1 teaspoon
- Salt – ½ teaspoon
- Pure Vanilla Extract – 1 ½ teaspoons
- Grated Orange Zest – 1 tablespoon (you can also use orange essence/extract)
- Milk – ¼ cup
- Cocoa Powder (only for the chocolate variant) – ¾ cup (it always helps to use 100% natural Cocoa Powder)
- Boiling Water (only for the chocolate variant) – 2 or 3 tablespoons
Steps:
- Preheat oven to 350 degree F (165 degree C). Butter and line an 8″ round/square tin.
- Drain the soaked raisins/dried fruits. We will keep the rum used for soaking and the drained raisins/dried fruits separate.
- Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. Keep it aside.
- Cream the butter and sugar until light and creamy, scraping the sides of the bowl occasionally.
- Add in the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
- Mix in the orange zest (essence/extract) along with the pure vanilla extract. Mix well.
- Fold in flour, milk and rum (from which the raisins/dried fruits were drained out earlier) in the whisked butter sugar mixture one by one until well combined. Please follow steps 8 & 9, additionally, for the chocolate variant else skip directly to step 10.
- Only for chocolate variant: In a small bowl, mix the cocoa powder and boiling water together until smooth with no lumps.
- Only for chocolate variant: Allow to cool slightly then add to the cake mixture until evenly blended.
- Fold in half of the raisins/dried fruits in the batter. Mix well.
- Pour half of the batter in the lined tin. Add a layer of the remaining raisins/dried fruits and top it up with the rest of the batter.
- Bake it for about 60 minutes until a knife or a skewer inserted through the center of the cake comes out clean.
- Remove from the oven and let in cool in the tin for 10 minutes then turn out onto a wire rack and allow it to cool completely before cutting it.
Have it with a cuppa tea or coffee to add a dash of happiness to a dull day 🙂
Your feedback is always welcome 🙂
P.S. You can turn this cake non-alcholic by replacing the Rum with Apple Juice.
Flavors & Aromas 