Easy vegan ginger coconut cake which is gluten free and has no refined sugar.
When most people think of Australia, they think of warm and sunny weather. To many, even Australia's winters are considered warm. However, I live in one of the coldest parts of Australia (Canberra, the nation's capital) where it rarely reachess more than 10 degrees on any Winter day.
Over the last few years, my boyfriend and I would routinely play a not-so-fun 'flu game' over Winter. It always starts of with my boyfriend catching the flu by not eating well, not layering up, inadequate sleep and overworking. He would pass the flu to me, he'd recover, then I'd pass the flu back to him, I'd recover, then he'd pass the flu back to me etc. I don't often point fingers, but I could honestly say that 'he always started it'. The last 6 flus that I've had were consistently caught through this 'flu game'.
Except this year... I was the first one to catch the flu. As I have a different work routine this year, I haven't been looking after my body. Stress, lack of sleep, lack of food and lack of layers.
I needed some medicine for my soul. Something comforting, warm and easy. Out with the cold raw cakes. In with the warm baked cakes. I thought I'd create my own winter in July June.
The ginger and spices in this cake remind me of the radiance of an open fire. The desiccated coconut in the cake mix allows each bite to just crumble in your mouth. I added coconut sugar and syrup to give the cake a deep caramel flavour.
The cake is vegan, gluten-free, nut-free and can easily be adjusted to suit your preferences for sweetness, spiciness etc.
The cake is also perfectly fluffy and moist. Leaving it in the cake pan for 5 minutes after baking allows the outside to crisp up. Oh my...
Ginger and coconut cake
Ingredients
Dry ingredients
- 2 tbsp chia seeds
- 1 cup buckwheat
- ½ cup desiccated coconut
- ½ cup coconut sugar
- 2 tbsp ground ginger
- 1 tbsp ground cinnamon
- ½ tbsp ground nutmeg
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp baking soda
Wet ingredients
- 1 ½ cup canned coconut milk
- ¼ cup coconut sugar
- 1-2 tbsp molasses, to taste
- 1 tbsp coconut oil
- ⅛ cup ginger juice, optional
Decorations
- 1 medium-sized apple, sliced thinly
- ¼ cup desiccated coconut
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 180C. Line a 20cm cake tin with baking paper.
- Using a high-powered blender, grind the chia seeds. Remove, mix with ½ cup water and set aside.
- Put buckwheat, coconut and ginger crystals in a blender and blend until it forms a fine flour. Put into a large bowl and mix through other dry ingredients. Create a well in the centre
- In a seperate bowl, combine all of the wet ingredients (coconut syrup, molasses, milk and juice).
- Pour wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix until just combined. The mixture should be pourable but still thick. If it is too thick, add more milk/water or if it is too thin, add more coconut
- Pour cake mixture into cake tin. Arrange apple slices on top as desired
- Bake cake in oven for 40-60 minutes or until a skewer can be dipped in the middle and comes out dry. 10 minutes before it has fully cooked, spread the extra dessicated coconut on a baking tray and bake until golden.
- Remove cake and coconut from oven and cool. Decorate cake with coconut and coconut nectar, as desired
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