Tropical fruit cake
This is the fruitcake you want for the holidays. Baked with tropical fruit and you've got paradise in every slice. Fresh coconut adds, there's no other word to describe it, a fresh light taste to a cake. Papaya melds nicely with strawberries with starfruit adding the shine on the top. Who needs icing or a lot of sugar in a cake when baked with tropicals inside?
Ingredients
- non-fat cooking spray
- Caribbean Red papaya - 1/4
- Groovy Coconut - 1/8 (about 1/2 cup shredded)
- Strawberries - 1 cup, trimmed and sliced
- Almonds - 1/2 cup, sliced
- Sugar - 1 tbs
- Cinnamon - 1 tbs
- Butter - 5 tbs, softened
- Buttermilk - 1/3 cup low-fat
- Eggs, large - 2
- Egg whites - 2
- Cake flour - 2 cups
- Baking powder - 2 tsp
- Starfruit - 2
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Spray a 9x12-inch baking dish with cooking spray.
- Peel the papaya. Cut in half and discard the seeds. Chop into small pieces. Use about 1 cup for this recipe. Reserve the other pieces for another dish.
- Add about 1/2 cup of the papaya pieces to a large bowl, put aside the other 1/2 cup for now.
- Open the coconut. Extract the white flesh and add to a food processor. Pulse until shredded. Add 1/2 cup of the shredded coconut to the large bowl, put aside 2 tbs for a garnish.
- In a medium bowl, use an electric mixer to beat the butter until creamy. Gradually add the sugar and buttermilk. Add the the eggs and egg whites. Then add the flour and baking powder. Pour into the fruit bowl and toss gently to combine.
- Pour the batter into the baking pan. Bake for 30 minutes.
- Add the remaining papaya, strawberries and almonds to a medium-sized bowl. Add 1 tbs of the sugar and cinnamon. Toss gently to coat.
- Top the almost baked cake with the papaya, strawberries and almonds.