Lychee & Banana Cake with Coconut Rum Cream (Vegan & Sugar Free)

Sometimes I buy silly amounts of things when they're really cheap. Guilty. At the end of last summer (yes, I know, a while ago now!), my supermarket sold off huge tubs of lychees really cheap. I love lychees, but I don't have them often because they're generally a bit expensive. So I went a bit stupid and bought four huge packets. I didn't actually have any plans for them so I shelled them all (it took me about an hour) and put them in plastic containers in my freezer so that they would be there when inspiration struck. I forgot about them for a while.

Then, I was faced with the challenge of making a sugar free birthday cake. I'm happy cooking sugar free because I'm keen to eat less sugar myself, but what made this difficult was that it also had to be free of dried fruits including dates! Dates are the go to ingredient for the sugar free cake maker so my initial thoughts of an easy chocolate date cake evaporated. Then I remembered the lychees in my freezer - one of the most naturally sweet fruits you can buy! Combined with banana, it made a perfect birthday cake. Definitely sweet enough but not sickly sweet, my partner (who generally doesn't like cake because it's too sweet) loved this cake better than any other cake I've made..... and I've made a lot of cake.

For the icing I used whipped coconut cream with rum extract (because I looked at the ingredients and couldn't find anything which looked like sugar) - but if you're not being strict about your sugar than go ahead and add a splash of the real stuff instead!

Lychee & Banana Cake with Coconut Rum Cream

Ingredients
1 cup very ripe mashed banana
1/2 cup canola oil
1 cup lychee juice (from the lychees you just shelled ideally - or from the can if you bought it in natural juice or a bottle if you can find unsweetened lychee juice)
1/2 cup unsweetened oat or soy milk
1 cup drained lychee flesh, roughly chopped
2 1/2 cups plain wholemeal flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarb soda
1/2 tsp salt

1 can coconut cream, left in the fridge overnight (or longer)
1 tsp rum extract (or actual rum, if you prefer)

To Make
1. Heat the oven to 180 degrees.
2. Whisk together the banana, canola oil, lychee juice and oat milk. Stir the lychee flesh through.
3. Sift in the flour, baking powder, bicarb soda and salt and mix well.
4. Grease a medium sized cake tin well and pour the batter in. Bake for 1 hour, or until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean. Turn out onto a cooling rack and allow to cool completely.
5. When you open the tin you will notice that the top is a very solid thick cream. Scoop out all of the solid thick cream on top (you can reserve the rest of it to use in another meal – like a smoothie or a curry).

6. Put the thick cream into a bowl and mix well using a hand held electric mixer. Move the beaters up and down to try and get as much air into the cream as possible. Add the rum extract and beat until it pretty much resembles thick cream.
7. Spread the cream over the top of the cake. If you've got some more lychee flesh you can decorate the top with fresh lychee.

Rujak (Indonesian Fruit Salad with Chilli Dressing)

When I heard about rujak it went immediately on my Indonesian meal plan. It's everything I love about south east Asian food - fresh, brightly coloured and laced with chilli! An admission though - I cheated a bit. I know, I feel terrible. But the thing is, that I just happened to find a jar in my cupboard that had been sitting up the back unopened for a while. It was labelled Sambal Rujak! Great, makes it easier for me AND uses up one of the many jars in my over crowded pantry!

It still feels like cheating though, and I realise that this may be an ingredient not available to a lot of people. So, for those who don't have an Asian grocer nearby, I have included a recipe for the sambal rujak which comes from the lovely SBS Feast Magazine, which also has a beautiful recipe for Rujak in it's October edition. I'll definitely have to give it a try myself sometime, because I'm sure that making a fresh sauce is much nicer than getting it out of a jar.

Despite a lot of recipes and references for rujak around on the internet, not one of them mentioned when this dish is traditionally served. Is it a dinner or dessert? Or maybe just a snack. It could really go either way in my opinion - the fruit makes it light and sweet and good for dessert, the chilli sauce lends a savoury flair. I couldn't find an answer so I served it up with my savoury dishes at my Indonesian feast. So, if any Indonesians read this, please let me know!

Ingredients
2 mangoes
1/2 papaya
1 small pineapple
1 400g can of lychees
2 pink grapefruits
(Starfruit - sadly I couldn't get this, but I really wanted to put it in mine!)
Sambal Rujak (either from a jar or use the recipe below)
Juice of 1 lime

To Make
1. Cut the mango flesh, into large chunks. Remove the skin and seeds from the papaya and also chop into big chunks.
2. Remove the skin from the pineapple, remove the woody core and chop into large pieces. Peel the skin off the grapefruit and divide into segments.
3. Drain the can of lychees and combine in a bowl with the mango, papaya, pineapple and grapefruit. Drizzle sauce over to taste (I used about scant 1/4 cup). Drizzle the lime juice over and mix through. Serve.

Serves 4, or 6-8 as part of a buffet.

Sambal Rujak (from SBS Feast Issue #14)
3 tsp sambal oelek
1/3 cup grated palm sugar
1/3 cup kecap manis
1 tbsp lemon juice

To Make: 
1. Whisk ingredients together until combined. Pour over fruit.

This month I'm featuring lots of amazing recipes from Indonesia!

Check out my other Indonesian recipe posts:

Gado Gado

Triple Threat Coconut Cake

Acar Kuning (Hot, Sour & Sweet Vegetables)

Lontong Paris 

Jus Alpukat (Avocado Milkshake)
Lawar Ayam (Coconut and Bean Salad)

Rendang Tofu