The Best Vegan Coconut Rum Cake
Ah, coconut. Never has there been a more perfect drupe. Because it is in fact a drupe, not a nut, don’tchaknow?
My love affair with coconuts didn’t start until fairly recently. In fact, up until a few years ago I thought I hated coconut. My only experience with it was pretty much eating a Mounds candy bar (which I ate once and decided I didn’t like), and when I was around 11 years old making a cake for a family friend out of coconut covered marshmallows that resembled a certain part of the female anatomy (boobs).
As I started learning about cooking vegan food, I realized that my dislike of coconut was going to have to be remedied. And remedied it was, I am now OBSESSED with coconut and keep all sorts of coconut products on hand at home. Did you know that from the humble coconut we get:
- Oil
- Water
- Flesh (coconut shreds, yogurt)
- Coconut Milk
- Sugar
- Charcoal
- Coir (I didn’t know either, it’s the husk and can be used to make so many things, like rope and packaging)
An octopus’s home
It’s a pretty amazing lil’ drupe and I love it now and forever.
It just so happens that the second cake I ever made to sell at Happy Buddha was a Coconut Rum Cake. I can’t exactly recall how I decided on this particular cake. Maybe that has something to do with the rum involved in the recipe.
So, without further ado, I welcome you to one of my all time favorite recipes!
Coconut Rum Cake
Ingredients
- 2 C soy milk
- 2 tsp. apple cider vinegar
- 1 C coconut oil (refined, virgin, whateves)
- 1.5 C white sugar (can sub with coconut sugar)
- 1.5 tsp. vanilla extract
- 1.5 tsp. rum (make yourself a nice cocktail with the rest, for what is baking without a good drink?)
- 3 C white flour (can sub other baking flours if you please)
- 3 tsp. baking powder
- 1 tsp. baking soda
- 5tsp salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F/180 C.
- In a medium sized bowl, add apple cider vinegar to the soy milk and allow to curdle for 5-8 minutes.
- In another large bowl mix together all of your dry ingredients until well combined.
- Add the remaining wet ingredients to your curdled soy milk.
- Make a well in your dry ingredient mixture and slowly pour in the wet ingredients, mixing as you pour, stopping as necessary to incorporate everything evenly.
- Pour the mixture into two round 8 inch baking pans#Bake for 40-45 minutes, checking at 40 minutes with a toothpick to make sure it comes out clean. Once it does, it's ready!
- Wait until completely cool then top with your favorite frosting and/or other toppings like berries, powdered sugar, berry drizzle, whatever floats your coc! We used to make a simple coconut whipped cream and toasted coconut pieces. So good!
Notes
I hope you and your loved ones like this as much as we do! It's sure to be a crowdpleaser and will definitely surprise people when you tell them it's vegan!