Tropical fruit cake

Tropical fruit cake

Makes one 23cm diameter round cake, serves 8-10

Ingredients:
125g wholemeal flour
100g white flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp mixed spice
200g soft brown sugar
50g desiccated coconut
435g can crushed pineapple
2 large, ripe bananas (or three small)
2 eggs (or egg substitute)
180ml oil (eg sunflower or olive)

Method:
Grease and line a round, deep cake tin of about 23cm diameter. 

Put the dry ingredients (flours, raising agents, spice, sugar and coconut) into a biggish mixing bowl, and stir with a metal spoon or silicon spatula to combine.

Peel and mash the bananas thoroughly, then add to the bowl with the pineapple (including the juice), the eggs (or substitute) and oil.  Fold the mixture together lightly until well mixed. 

Put in the tin, and bake at 160 C for about 40-45 minutes.  When done, the top should be slightly brown and the edges of the cake beginning to come away from the sides of the tin. 

Cool for at least five minutes in the tin, then carefully turn out onto a wire rack. 

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There are many recipes for 'tropical' cakes online and in recipe books. I don't recall where I found the inspiration for this one, but I've been making it for some years now. I like the combination of coconut, pineapple and banana; the resultant cake has a very pleasant consistency. If you prefer it spicier, use more mixed spice. If you don't have a mixed spice for cakes, you could use just cinnamon or even ginger if you prefer. 

The original recipe most likely used all white flour (probably self-raising) but I always prefer to have at least half the flour in any cake or bread wholemeal, if possible. This adds some nutrition and texture to the cake; white flour has almost no nutrients. But if you prefer a lighter cake, you can use all white, and if you never use white flour, I'm sure it would work with all wholemeal, though you might need a little extra liquid.

It's easiest to make this in a springform cake tin. Releasing the sides is much simpler than trying to gently turn the cake out without it breaking. One with a removable base would be a useful alternative. 

If you don't have a round cake tin, a square one with 20cm long sides should work equally well. 

As for egg substitutes, I have made this with chia eggs and that works well. Commercial egg substitutes intended for baking should be equally effective. I have not tried it with aquafaba. 

I have considered adding raisins to this, but decided that it was sweet enough, and that it's quite pleasant to have a fruit cake that doesn't use raisins, for a change. Note that the canned pineapple must be crushed; you could possibly try using pineapple chunks in juice and blending them, but it would be difficult to get the same consistency, and that's important. 

If you want a more luxurious cake, you could sprinkle the top with icing sugar, or make a cream cheese topping (dairy or otherwise) of the kind typically used with carrot cake.  But this recipe makes quite a sweet cake anyway, with the fruit in addition to the sugar. I sometimes serve it with lightly stewed or canned peaches, or with yogurt or coconut cream.