Heavenly feijoa cake – cinnamon spiced and filled with pulpy fruit and toasted walnuts. Enjoy a slice on a cosy Autumn afternoon with a big dollop of coconut yoghurt – bliss!
If you’re looking for the most delicious and moist feijoa cake recipe, you’ve found it here.
Feijoas AKA pineapple guavas are a bit of an enigma for most people outside of New Zealand – but we absolutely adore them here.
Once the season starts, most will be in a scramble to find creative ways to use up an abundance of the fresh fruits as Mother Nature more than provides.
So, if you’re in the mood for a spot of baking, this feijoa cake will more than satisfy. Serve with either a dusting of powdered sugar or a lashing of lemon icing.
🍂 If your feijoa tree is an over-achiever and you’ve gorged yourself silly on fruit and still have a pile to work through, try your hand at some of these great recipes: easy feijoa loaf, spiced feijoa muffins, apple and feijoa crumble, heavenly feijoa chutney or this chai spiced feijoa jam.
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✨Why you'll love this recipe
- 10 mins prep and 40 mins in the oven
- Fuss free – one bowl, no stand mixer or electric beater
- Gluten free, no eggs/butter/dairy
- Great way to make use of heaps of feijoas
- An easy recipe the whole family will love
🌿Ingredients
- Feijoas – you can freeze feijoas when your trees are laden with fruit to thaw and use in recipes like this later in the year
- Toasted walnuts – for crunch!
- Gluten free flour mix – I used the Healtheries Baking Mix
- Almond meal – helps make egg-free cakes soft and springy
- Psyllium husks – these act as a binder in lieu of eggs, find them at a health store or in the health isle of your supermarket then ground into a powder (flax seeds also work)
- Extra virgin olive oil – in lieu of butter or margarine. I use full flavor olive oil as the more beneficial phenols the better! Olive oil also makes for a lovely moist cake
For this feijoa cake you’ll also need coarse sea salt, baking powder and soda, vanilla essence or extract, oat milk and coconut sugar to sweeten.
👩🍳Feijoa cake, step by step
Step one. First up – let’s toast those walnuts, or not, up to you. Scatter a cups' worth over a baking tray, and bake until they’ve browned up. Roughly chop.
Step two. Slice and scoop out the flesh from the feijoas, and roughly chop. Frozen fruit works well too.
Step three. Sift all your dry ingredients together in a large bowl – the gluten free flour, almond meal, psyllium husks, coconut sugar, cinnamon powder, sea salt, baking soda and powder.
Step four. Pour over the oat milk (or your choice of plant milk), olive oil and vanilla, then fold together to create a medium-density batter.
Step five. Lastly – add your feijoa pulp and nuts. Fold them through quickly – over-mixing will add air to the batter causing the feijoa cake to rise then collapse.
Step six. Spoon the cake mixture into the prepared tin. Bake for just 25 minutes, then very stealthily, whip open the over door and place foil over the top, to bake a further 10-15 minutes. This prevents the top from browning, but if you don’t mind a little crunch, don’t bother.
🍐Flavour variant - try pressing pear slices into the top of the feijoa cake batter before baking. It will look beautiful once cooked and save the need for icing!
Once the feijoa cake has baked, let it cool completely before removing it from the cake tin to serve. I know, this is so hard, the actual worst ever.
🍰Serving suggestions
- Dust with icing sugar and add a few fresh feijoa slices to decorate
- Or make a batch of the most glorious cashew lemon icing featured in this Ginger Cake recipe
- A dollop of coconut yoghurt or ice cream is always a good idea
🥄Storing leftovers
- Store this feijoa cake recipe in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.
👏Expert tips
- If you do not have a gluten free flour mix, try one part each of oat flour, buckwheat flour, and tapioca starch, then add just a little xanthan gum
- Batter on the thick side? Add another tablespoon of oat milk
- Feijoas not in season? I’d go for fresh berries instead – yum!
- Avoid over-mixing the batter to prevent the cake from sinking
And that’s it guys! Such a lovely cake. Hope you enjoy as much as I did – next time I’ll be adding sultanas just to mix it up.
🌿Enjoyed this recipe? Leave a comment below, better yet - share a snap with me on instagram @ascensionkitchen. If you're after personalised health and nutrition advice, contact my clinic, I'd be happy to work with you.
📖Recipe
Feijoa cake with toasted walnuts
Equipment
- 9 inch spring form cake tin
Ingredients
To fold through:
- 11 medium-sized feijoa fruits – to yield 300g fruit once scooped
- 1 cup walnuts
Dry ingredients:
- 1 ¼ cups gluten free flour mix I used Healtheries Baking Mix
- 1 cup almond meal
- 2 tablespoons psyllium husks or flax/linseeds ground to a powder
- 3/4 cup coconut sugar
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon powder
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon coarse sea salt
Wet ingredients:
- 1 cup oat milk
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Instructions
- Pre-heat oven at 180˚C / 356˚F, fan bake. Line the base of a spring-form baking tin with baking paper and lightly grease the sides with olive oil.
- Place walnuts on an oven tray, toast until fragrant, then remove and roughly chop.
- Slice feijoas in half and scoop out the flesh, roughly chop, set aside with the walnuts for now.
- Sift all dry ingredients into a mixing bowl, stir to combine.
- Add oat milk and olive oil, fold through, taking care not to over mix.
- Add toasted walnuts and feijoas, fold through and transfer to the prepared cake tin.
- Bake for 25 minutes, then open up the oven quickly and cover the cake with foil, bake a further 10-15 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean (total cooking time of 35-40 minutes).
- Remove from oven and let cool completely before removing from the cake tin and serving.
Notes
- If you do not have a gluten free flour mix, try one part each of oat flour, buckwheat flour, and tapioca starch, then add just a little xanthan gum
- There is no easy substitute for the almond meal, sorry
- Try adding plump sultanas, citrus zest, goji berries – to mix up the flavour
- Feijoas not in season? I’d go for fresh berries instead – yum!
- Avoid over-mixing the batter to prevent the cake from sinking
- FYI - this cake does not rise super high
- Store in an airtight container on the bench top for up to 3 days
- Nutrition panel is an estimate only, and is based on one of ten servings.
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