Feel The Tropics As You Enjoy Baking and Eating This Aloha Bread

April showers are ending and May-flowers are blooming, which excites my family and I, as we have been waiting for the weather to get warmer and soak up some sunshine and enjoy the warm outdoors. Many of you like us are probably waiting for the upcoming celebrations, the long weekend and the school holidays for the summer, which will be here before we know it :) Since I am missing the warmth of the sunshine with the cold rain and wind we are having these days, I decided my family and I need to taste something tropical to lift our moods up. 

I baked this awesome, Aloha Bread from the Dutch Oven Breakfasts book by Debbie Hair, which has become a favourite go-to cake recipe. Since I don't have a Dutch oven, I baked half the quantity of the following recipe from the book in a cast iron griddle and some in a baking pan that turned out fabulous. 

3 cups flour

2 cups sugar

2 tsp baking soda

2 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp salt

2 tbsp grated orange zest

1 cup shredded coconut

6 oz canned crushed pineapple with liquid

2 cups grated carrot

3 eggs

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup coconut oil or vegetable oil

1 1/2 cups chopped walnuts

Sift flour, sugar, and baking soda in a large bowl. Then add all the ingredients and beat well. Grease and flour the Dutch oven, place a parchment paper circle in the bottom of the Dutch oven and grease the parchment paper. 

If you have a Dutch oven, then...

Pour the batter, cover and bake using 8 coals underneath the oven and 17 coals on top for 45 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove the lid and allow to cool for 15 minutes. Replace the lid, wearing heavy gloves invert the oven and set on a trivet and remove the oven off the lid. Peel the paper from the bottom of the bread and cool for another 15 minutes before serving.

If you do not have a Dutch oven, then...

I poured some of the batter on a cast iron pan lined with parchment paper and the rest in a tin cake pan and baked uncovered in a preheated 375F oven for about 20-25 minutes, until a skewer inserted in the middle came out clean. I allowed the cake to rest for about 15 minutes before serving.  

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