Cake Pudding: The story & recipe 12-31-13

Last week in the mist of my holiday baking storm I accidentally made a batch of holiday cakes without baking powder. The result was the hard footballs on the left. The cake failed to rise but still tasted lovely. A friend of mine suggested making a "cake pudding". I was intrigued!

Google search "cake pudding"! Not much came up, about three recipes. For each recipe, you had to make a specific kind of cake first, in order to create the "cake pudding". To me, that defeats the purpose. Traditional bread pudding is a way to utilize stale bread, so cake pudding should work the same way. So that means I have to experiment. I love to experiment Searching through hundreds of bread pudding recipes I came across a Hawaiian Bread pudding using fresh pineapple and coconut. Euerka! That's it. I had some glazed pineapple left over from a failed white fruit cake experiment and lots of dried coconut... cause I'm the CoconutBaby... lol. Anyway... recipe time. In creating my recipe I had to take a couple of things into consideration. 1. My cake was very dense because there was no baking powder 2. I wanted to add more fruit than what the bread pudding recipe called for. 3. I wasn't using fresh fruits. So, what does all this mean? 1. Had to use more liquid than recipe called for. I opted for a mix of coconut milk and evaporated milk. 2. Adding more fruit doesn't mean throwing in everything without measuring. Never go over the ratio set in the original recipe. If the total amount of fruit adds up to 1cup, then only use 1 cup just divide the fruit into that one cup. Example: If you're using pineapple, golden raisins, coconut and maraschino cherries. 1/4 of each fruit. 3. Using glazed fruit adds sugar to the recipe, this means you have to lessen the amount in the original. 1/2 cup became 1/4 cup. 4. The original recipe called for 4eggs. This cake is very dense and I want it to be vegan, so we will use cornstarch. Ok, so that's the thought process behind the recipe. Here is the actual recipe Any plain 1/2 sheet cake (no icing) 2 Tbsp cornstarch 1/2 cup of coconut milk 1/4 cup of coconut evaporated milk Vanilla extract 1/4 cup brown sugar 1/2 unsweetened coconut 1/4 dried pineapple, cut up 1/4 golden raisins 1/4 maraschino cherries, cut up 1/4 cup coconut oil Toasted coconut to garnish Glaze 1 cup powdered sugar 1 tablespoon of vanilla 2 tablespoons water Cut the cake into cubes. Add all the fruits. In a separate bowl add milks, sugar, cornstarch, coconut oil and vanilla extract. Pour over cake and fruit mixture. Mix, but don't mash. Make sure that all the cake has soaked in. Lightly mix and then transfer to a buttered baking pan. 350 degrees for 30- 45. Do a clean fork test. Garnish with vanilla glaze and toasted coconut Thats it. Enjoy