Monday, July 18, 2011

Easy Pineapple Coconut Cake

Most of my experiments are based on things that need to be used up. And I have quite a few things that fall into this category at any time. For example: Eggs. I always have eggs at home even when it is used only for baking. Exception is when my mother-in-law stays with us for a few months (I bake egg free the entire time she stays). I had some eggs that would expire soon. Pair it with the pineapple juice that was the byproduct of using canned pineapple to make cranberry pineapple chutney few days back. I had to come up with something that uses both.
I had made a Pineapple Coconut Pound Cake for a friend few weeks back. I didn't blog about it though. I tried to mimic the same flavor but with less work and used both the ingredients that needed to be used up.

What did I do with the cake? you might wonder. I gave it away to a friend who had house full of guests. A win-win situation. Smart people probably would've thrown the eggs in trash, drank the pineapple juice. But then, I never said I am smart. Did I?

One Year back - Zucchini Bread
Ingredients:
All purpose flour - 3 cups
Sugar - 2 cups
Baking Soda - 1 tsp
Baking Powder - 1 tsp
Salt - 1/2 tsp
Pineapple juice - 1 1/2 cups
Oil - 1 cup
Vanilla - 2 tsp
Egg - 2 large
Sweetened shredded coconut - 1 cup


Optional Glaze:
Confectioner's Sugar - 1 cup
Milk - 2 - 3 TBSP to get the pouring consistency
Vanilla - 1/2 tsp
Sweetened or Unsweetened Shredded Coconut - 1/4 cup

Method:
In a bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt. Add shredded coconut and mix one more time. Set aside. Preheat the oven to 350 F. Grease and flour a 12 cup tube pan (a bundt pan would do just fine or two 8 X 4 or  9 X 5 loaf pans will do too). In a small bowl or a 4 cup measuring cup, whisk together oil, pineapple juice, eggs. You need to beat it till eggs are mixed with the oil and juice. Add vanilla. Stir. Pour this slowly on to the bowl of dry ingredients and stir till everything is uniform and no lumps are left. No vigorous beating is necessary. This batter is pretty thin. Pour in to the prepared pan. Bake for 50 - 55 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 15 minutes and then turn it on to the wire rack to cool completely.

To make the glaze:
Mix confectioner's sugar, vanilla and milk to make the glaze. Toast the coconut in a skillet till golden. Set aside to cool. Pour the glaze when the cake is completely cool. Sprinkle the toasted coconut on the glaze before it sets.

Enjoy.

22 comments:

  1. Loved the flavours in there.. lovely cake..

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  2. those two are my fav flavours. love the look of this cake.

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  3. pineapple and coconut yumm combo...

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  4. Hi Champa,

    Thanks for your kind comment on my blog regarding the "conversation" the ingredients of my hazelnut mousse had. I appreciate you taking the time to do that.

    I ADORE pineapple and this cake looks divine.

    Thanks again,
    Ginny

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  5. You are amazing, Champa.... in making good use of things without ever wasting anything...

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  6. delicious combination with pineapple

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  7. first time here and loving browising thru your recipes. Coconut and pineapple nice combo in cake..

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  8. how can eggs be replaced in the recipe?
    can you please tell the composition of self raising flour?

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  9. Tara,
    You can either use ener-G egg replacer or use soft silken tofu. Blended and measured 1/4 cup for each egg.
    Self raising flour is all purpose flour mixed with baking powder and salt.

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  10. I came across a pineapple cake recipe which said
    2 cups self raising flour
    1 cup castor sugar
    400 gm can crushed pineappl with juice
    do you think that this recipe would turn out without any fat and so much of sugar because the canned pineapple juice is also sweet apart from the sugar that the recipe calls for.
    comment

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  11. Tara,
    If there are eggs, that can take part of sugar too. Is this a fat free cake? I can't say anything since I don't know the recipe. I can tell that this cake was very well received and was not too sweet.

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  12. Champa, since you said tofu, will paneer also work?..just wondering..as always the cake looks awesome..

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  13. Srivalli,
    Paneer doesn't work the same way as tofu in baking. Reason being paneer is crumbly compared to tofu and tofu has some starch in it since it is extracted from soy beans. That makes it an excellent binder too. Even when paneer might not be a bad idea to use, the cake might not hold good. Having said that, if you bake them into cupcakes, they should be fine since they get the crust all around and hold it together.

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  14. This is such a pretty cake! I'm going to try it subbing applesauce for the oil :)

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  15. I'm sold on anything coconut these days :) Yum

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If you have a question and you leave it as a comment, I'll surely answer the question to the best of my knowledge. Thanks for visiting.