If you’re not a big fan of the dreary winter months after Christmas has passed, give this summery tropical loaf cake a try! This cake is packed with delicious bits of pecan, raisins, coconut and pineapple chunks and is best enjoyed with a cup of tea (so will still keep you warm). It’ll keep up to 3 days in an airtight container.
Ingredients
- 80 g pecan halves
- 1 tin (432 g) crushed pineapple (or pineapple rings) in juice
- 125 g unsalted butter
- 150 g demerara sugar
- 80 g raisins
- 2 large eggs
- 320 g self-raising flour
- 50 g desiccated coconut
- pinch of cinnamon
- pinch of mixed spice
Directions
- Preheat the oven to 180°C / 160°C fan / 350°F and lightly roast the pecan halves for 7 minutes. Once cooled, roughly chop the pecans into small pieces.
- Increase the oven temperature to 190°C / 170°C fan / 375°F and line a loaf tin with parchment paper.
- If you’ve got pineapple rings/slices, blitz them for a quick second so that they are more like small chunks, rather than a puree.
- In a saucepan on medium heat, combine the pineapple juice, pineapple chunks, sugar and butter until everything is melted together.
- Take off the heat and add the raisins and spices. Leave to cool to room temperature.
- Whisk the eggs and mix into the pineapple mixture.
- Sift the flour into the wet ingredients and gently fold together.
- Add the pecans and 30g of the desiccated coconut and combine well.
- Pour into the loaf tin and sprinkle the remaining coconut on top.
- Bake for 50 minutes until a wooden skewer comes out clean.
- Leave to cool on a wire rack for 15 minutes before serving.
- Enjoy!
(Recipe adapted from Sweet by Yotam Ottolenghi & Helen Goh, ‘Pineapple, pecan and currant tin can cake’)