Vegan Coconut Pound Cake Recipe

Tonight we had a beloved visitor--a man who is my husband's Blackfoot teacher and my son's unofficial godfather, whom we call Mr. Chuck.  Mr. Chuck loves coconut, so my son and I are always trying to find new dessert recipes that feature coconut to cook for Mr. Chuck.  But this is complicated by the fact that my son is allergic to nuts, dairy, and eggs.

Our local newspaper had a recipe in last week's cooking session for a coconut pound cake that was supposed to be delicious.  However, pound cake is usually a problem for us, given that it includes large amounts of my son's forbidden foods.  But we tried adapting the recipe by using our substitutes for the traditional butter, eggs, and milk.  This brings cooking beyond merely life skill lessons to exercises in math and chemistry, as we try to figure out the correct proportions of our substituted ingredients.

Anyway, we had this for dessert after dinner tonight, and it was generally considered to be a great success.  Mr. Chuck said it was better than the pound cake he had been served in France, although he was probably just being nice.  It is more crumbly and cakier than I consider real pound cake to be, but given how many of my vegan baking experiments turned out to be dense bricks the consistency of fruit cakes, I think cakier is not a bad problem to have.  It did have a nice coconut-y flavor (for other coconut fans like Mr. Chuck).

So here is our attempt at a vegan poundcake:

Mr. Chuck’s Vegan Coconut Pound Cake

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) vegan margarine
• 2 cups sugar
• 7 1/2 teaspoons Egg Replacer
• 10 tablespoons warm water
• 1/2 cup coconut milk
• 7 ounces flaked coconut

Grease and flour a tube cake pan or a Bundt pan.

Make the egg substitutes by putting 10 tablespoons in warm water and adding 7 1/2 teaspoons egg replacer.  Stir and set aside to thicken.

Mix together the flour, baking powder, and salt and set aside for later.

Cream the margarine and sugar together in a large bowl until light yellow and fluffy.  Add the egg replacers and beat well.

Add 1/2 of flour mixture and mix well.  Then add 1/4 cup of coconut milk and mix well.  Repeat with the remainder of the flour mixture and coconut milk.  Mix in flaked coconut.

Pour into prepared pan and bake in a 350 degree oven for approximately one hour.