I adapted this recipe from Lazy cat kitchen's website where are lots more wonderful recipes that can be made suitable for an ayurvedic diet. It's one of the best vegan cake textures i've ever tried! The second time I made this I doubled up the recipe and put it in a large tray bake tin, this works equally well if you have a lot of people to feed!
This lovely vegan recipe combines the cooling nature of lime and coconut with the gentle heating nature of ginger. This great mix means that the cake is suitable for all dosha and especially good for symptoms of cold and flu such as fever and mucus. The ginger, when combined with lime and syrup helps to melt and dismantle any excess mucus whilst at the same time reducing heat or 'pitta' in the body in order to calm fever or headache and increase the body's natural immune response. For kapha individuals it's great to use a wholemeal wheat or spelt flour which will help reduce the blood sugar rise and dry out any excess moisture. Vata and pitta individuals can have this cake with some coconut cream for a cooling and moisening effect if there is no kapha aggravation. You can leave out the ginger and have a lovely cooling version of this cake if you have any pitta imbalance. Without the ginger this cake is great for the summer months.
Ingredients:
240 ml plant milk (I used almond), room temperature
80 g mild coconut oil (measured unmelted)
160 ml maple syrup
Juice of half a lime
zest of 4 limes
80 g desiccated coconut
110 g wholemeal wheat flour
100g wholemeal spelt flour
1 tsp baking powder
¾ tsp baking soda
1 tsp mixed spice
3 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground cardamom (optional)
a pinch of ground nutmeg
a pinch of salt and pepper
For the drizzle:
50 g maple syrup, adjust to taste
juice of 2 limes
Instructions
Heat up the oven to 180° C. Grease a loaf tin or a small round cake tin with coconut oil then shake flour around it until its all covered then pat the remaining flour off.
Melt the coconut oil then leave it to cool slightly before adding the maple syrup. Whisk these together until well combined.
Add the lime zest, juice and room temperature plant milk and mix well.
Add the desiccated coconut then sift over the flours, baking powder and soda and the spices.
Fold these in to the wet mix until everything is well combined.
Transfer the batter to your baking tin of choice. I then added some coconut flakes to the top for decoration.
Bake for about 40 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean and the top is golden.
Make the drissel by mixing the maple syrup with the lime juice until well combined.
Whilst the cake is still in the tin pierce the top with a toothpick all the way through and pour over the drizzle mix. After it has soaked in remove the cake from the pan and leave it to cool on a wire rack.