Caribbean Tropical Fruit Loaf

If you to serve something a bit different this holiday weekend, you may enjoy this super moist and deliciously crumbly Tropical Fruit Loaf. I found this recipe in a pile of recipes I seem to be hoarding. It came for the Guardian newspaper therefore the measurements are in grams you will need to do some conversions or if you have a scale, all the better to put that kitchen scale to use, will make it easier for measuring the ingredients. 

Caribbean Tropical Fruit Loaf

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350g dried tropical fruit (mango, banana, papaya, pineapple)

50g caster sugar

200ml white rum

40g crystallized ginger

half a teaspoon allspice

175g unsalted butter, softened

175g caster sugar

3 eggs

1 teaspoon baking powder

50g corn flour

200g plain flour

A handful of toasted coconut curls

Soak the fruit in the rum, sugar and about 200ml boiling water for as much as 3 days and as little as overnight.

Preheat oven to 150ºC/300ºF. Prepare a loaf tin about 10cmx20cm, by lightly buttering and flouring it. I also lined the tin with baking parchment paper.

When it comes to making the cake - drain the fruit, keep the liquid, and roughly chop or blitz in food processor - however do not over blitz into small pieces.

Cream the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy, then add the eggs, one by one until totally incorporated. 

Sift the baking powder, flour and cornflour together and fold into the batter (butter mixture). Now turn in the chopped fruit, leaving a little to sprinkle on top of the cake. 

Tip in the mix, sprinkle over the remaining fruit and put int the middle of the oven on a tray. 

Cook for about 1 hour, until it passes the skewer test and as that's happening reduce the remaining rum syrup on the hob in a little pan to a loose glaze.

Fold in the coconut curls into the brown sticky syrup and then once you've taken the loaf from the tin, spoon gently over the top.

NOTES: I didn't have any crystallized ginger so that was omitted. Also I did not chop the soaked fruit as I like larger pieces of fruit. I added grated orange rind to the batter. And to punctuate the rum flavour I added a dash of rum flavouring. I used British mixed spice as I had no allspice. Cornflour, sometimes in British baking it means cornstarch, however reading the recipe a few times and placing it into context I understood it to be actual cornflour not cornstarch or cornmeal. 

As far as the baking time... you may have to allot for more time. I followed the recipe, 300ºF oven for 1 hour, however found that the loaf was not ready and did not pass the skewer test. Back in the oven it went for another 30 minutes and after that another 15 minutes. The loaf baked for the recipes' initial 1 hour plus an additional 30 minutes plus another 15 minutes equalling 45 minutes; making the total baking time 1 hour and 45 minutes in a 300ºF oven.

And because I felt like it... when the loaf was slightly cooled, with a toothpick I gently poked the top of the loaf and squeezed the juice from half of an orange over the top and then made a simple drizzle icing to go over the the top rather than the syrup that was stated in the recipe.

Have a great long weekend everyone! - JD 

Luscious Coconut Desserts

Anything with coconut catches my eye and my stomach. This simple and indulgent cookbook offers over 50 recipes dedicated to the fragrant and delicate coconut. Until most recently coconut seemed exotic... reserved faraway on tropical islands. With coconut water surfacing on shelves, nutrient rich coconut sugar placed on tables and coconut oil becoming a pantry staple. The coconut has made a culinary resurgence.

Throughout the 143 pages and 8 chapters the recipes focus entirely on sweet than savoury. I suppose when one does think of coconut one leans towards the sweeter rather than the savoury side. I would have preferred a more rounded cookbook on coconut seeing how this is the only cookbook I have focused on coconut. Regardless I will enjoy this cookbook for what it has to offer. The photographs are full page and not overly glossy. The front cover reminds me, and I do not know why, of the many food photographs from vintage Betty Crocker cookbooks. It could be the colour combination, the font... who knows. The table of equivalents always comes in handy as with any cookbook. If you luv coconut then you will absolutely enjoy this book.

Recipes that I want to try are the Elegant Coconut and Curry Butter Cookies, Classic Toasted Coconut Cream Pie, Coconut-Caramel Popcorn, Ginger Beer Ice Cream Float, Luscious Coconut Layer Cake, Deep Dark Chocolate, Coconut, and Ginger Brownies and the Coconut and Pistachio Baklava.  

If you luv coconut then you will absolutely enjoy this book. And even if you do not these recipes could change that. I think I will make the Elegant Coconut and Curry Butter Cookies today. And I will post about it and the recipe tomorrow.

Have a good day everyone! - JW