Coconut and passionfruit loaf

Need a gluten free cake recipe? This one is a goodie. It uses coconut and almond meal. It’s topped with a tart passionfruit buttercream.


Serves 8. Prep time 20 minutes, bake time approx. 45 minutes. You’ll need a 20 cm loaf tin (or something similar).

FOR THE CAKE
120g butter, softened
180g castor sugar
1 orange, zested
1 tsp vanilla extract OR 1/2 tsp vanilla bean paste
3 eggs
230g almond meal
100g desiccated coconut
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder

FOR THE ICING
100g unsalted butter, softened
300g icing sugar
2 passionfruit
Lemon juice


Grease with butter and line with baking paper, a 20cm loaf tin. Preheat the oven to 170 C / 150 C fan.

To make the cake, beat the butter, castor sugar and orange zest together until pale and fluffy. Add the vanilla, then the eggs one at a time, and beat well after you add each egg.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the almond meal, coconut, salt and baking powder.

Add this to the butter and sugar mixture, mix until combined.

Pour mixture into the prepared tin. Bake for approx. 45 minutes, or until a skewer inserted comes out clean and it’s golden. Set aside to cool completely.

To make the icing, mix the butter and icing sugar, then beat until pale and fluffy. Halve the passionfruit and add the pulp to the icing, mix well. You may need to add some lemon juice to get a spreadable consistency.

To assemble the cake, remove the loaf from the tin (once cooled), spoon the icing on and roughly cover the top of it. Optional decoration: More passionfruit pulp, flaked coconut or edible flowers.


Store the cake in an airtight container. It will keep for up to 3 days.

CategoriesUncategorised