Tropical mango cake with an orange-coconut sugar glaze - vegan and refined sugar free {London marathon fundraising}

In a re-run of the air mile apricots that I turned into apricot-almond cake, I have used my Peruvian mangoes to make a tropical mango cake. It was so good that it may be my favourite baked product of 2015. This doesn't help curb my impromptu imported fruit purchases, but it is a delicious outcome!

I love this cake for lots of reasons, but one of the big ones is the minimal ingredient list. The cake itself is sweetened entirely from the mango and banana, with no added sugar at all. By pureeing the fruit, the cake is also very moist without oil or butter: the only source of fat within the cake is desiccated coconut. This means that if you serve it without icing, this could easily be a breakfast-worthy fruit bread. It also uses spelt flour, which I am a big fan of.

If you do add the orange and coconut sugar glaze - and I recommend that you do! - this turns into something altogether more dessert-like, whilst still featuring basic whole food ingredients. The glaze has nothing more than coconut oil, coconut sugar and orange juice. I sprinkled some extra desiccated coconut over the top, but that is optional.

The cake without icing

If you need a chocolate free treat after Easter, or a break from refined sugar products, I can whole-heartedly recommend this. I can also recommend it if you want chocolate on the side. Don't panic if you don't have fresh mangoes either: frozen (defrosted) or tinned could be substituted, because you puree the mango flesh.

Tropical mango cake with an orange-coconut sugar glaze

Makes 1 loaf cake, to serve 8 to 12

Vegan and refined sugar free

Author: Bite-sized thoughts

Print recipe

Ingredients

For the cake

200g mango flesh (equivalent to 3 small mangoes)

70g banana (equivalent to 1 medium banana)

125g (1 metric cup) spelt flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

20g (1/4 metric cup) desiccated coconut

1 tsp vanilla

125ml (1/2 metric cup) unsweetened almond milk, or milk of choice

For the glaze

1 tbsp coconut oil, melted

1/3 cup orange juice (1/2 medium orange)

1/4 cup coconut sugar

Desiccated coconut, extra, for sprinkling over the top (optional)

Method

Preheat your oven to 175'C / 350'F and line a loaf tin.

In a small blender or food processor, puree the mango and banana until smooth (I used a NutriBullet). If you don't have a blender or processor, you could beat the fruit using electric mixers or mash by hand, although the puree will be a little chunkier. Set aside.

Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda and coconut in a mixing bowl. Add the pureed fruit, vanilla and milk and stir until fully combined.

Transfer the batter to your prepared loaf tin and bake for 22-25 minutes, until golden and a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean. Allow to cool for 10 minutes or so in the pan, before turning out to a wire rack to continue cooling.

To make the glaze, combine the melted coconut oil, orange juice and coconut sugar in a small bowl and whisk thoroughly with a fork until smooth (the coconut sugar will melt more readily if the coconut oil is warm). When the glaze and the cake are both cool, drizzle the glaze over the cake. Sprinkle with extra coconut if desired.

                                                                                                                               

This post is part of my fundraising efforts for the 2015 London Marathon. I am running for Beat, the UK eating disorder charity. If you liked this recipe and are in a position to make a donation, I'd be grateful for any contribution you could spare! You can make a donations of any size on my fundraising page.

Check out my introductory post and my fundraising page for more information. 

Days until the marathon: 17                   Training miles logged in 2015: 374.4

                                                                                                                               

What have you baked and enjoyed lately?

Tweet

Pin It