Vegan Kiwi Upside-Down Cake

In an attempt to use up some abandoned kiwi in my kitchen and bake a sweet treat for the weekend, I made this incredible kiwi cake. It looks a bit trippy, I won't lie, with the kiwi rounds resembling alien eyes or some other extraterrestrial entity. But the cake was delicious - perfectly sweet, with a fresh tang from the kiwi, and and oh so fluffy crumb texture.

This vegan version uses soya milk and sunflower oil instead of butter and eggs. The vanilla gives it a wonderful aroma and flavour. Here I've used self-raising flour, which, for my American friends, is equivalent to all purpose flour mixed with baking powder. 

If you end up making this, share a picture on Instagram and tag me @vegannigerian - I'd love to see!

Ingredients

2 cups self-raising flour

Pinch of salt

1 cup caster sugar

1 cup plant-based milk (such as soya milk)

1/2 cup sunflower oil

1 tsp vanilla essence

3-4 kiwis (peeled and sliced into thin rounds)

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius.

2. Combine the flour, salt, sugar, plant-based milk, sunflower oil and vanilla essence in a large mixing bowl. Gently mix with a wooden spoon or spatula until you have a smooth cake batter. Do not stir/whisk for too long or you may end up with a dense or gummy cake texture.

3. Lightly grease a 20 cm round cake tin with a little oil and line the bottom with a circle of baking paper. Arrange the sliced kiwi across the bottom of the pan and pour the cake batter over the top. Use a spatula to smooth the top.

4. Bake in the oven for 30-35 minutes or until a skewer stuck in the middle of the cake comes out clean. Leave the cake to cool in the pan before taking it out and serving.