Peach and Coconut Upside-down Cake- vegan, natural sugar

I had enough fruit and cake mixture to make one normal-sized cake and one small cake.

The cake is very moist and soft.

We went to our local fruit and veg market on Saturday and got- literally- bags of bargains! Inspired by Sobha's Eggless Mango Cake I was after some very ripe mangoes to try it out, but sadly it is a little too early in the year here to get the nice soft and sweet yellow ones from India/ Pakistan. So I decided to make a cake using nectarines instead, as we had bought some very nice, perfectly ripe ones. Their sun-kissed taste reminds me of the peaches from my Granny's tree, and of how although it never gave very many fruits in our damp English climate, she would always save one each for me and my cousins- But I digress: my chief sources of inspiration (and also my chief critics), the kids, were asking for an upside-down cake, so that is exactly what I made. After dinner we had to go out for a couple of hours, and judging by the fact that the smaller cake was completely gone by the time we came back, I think it was a success...

5-6 ripe peaches/ nectarines (depending on size), sliced thinly

400g self-raising flour

4 tsps baking powder

4 rounded tabs desiccated coconut (or more of you like coconut especially)

2000ml date syrup

400ml soya milk

150ml coconut oil

•  Grease and flour/ dampen a metal/ silicone cake mould and line carefully over the base and up the sides with the peach slices.
• Mix all the dry ingredients together in one bowl.
• Mix the wet ingredients together in another bowl or jug.
• Add the wet mixture to the dry immediately (otherwise the coconut oil re-solidifies and won't blend in properly) and beat well for about a minute.
• Bake in the middle of an oven preheated to 180C for 20-25 minutes, or until a thin skewer inserted into the middle of the cake emerges clean.
• When cool, turn the cake out upside-down onto a cake board or foil-covered tray, to show the lovely golden peach slices.
• Traditionally, an upside-down cake would have a mixture of butter and sugar or syrup spread over the base and sides before the fruit layer, but as peaches are so naturally sweet and juicy, I didn't feel it necessary.

PS: I have a really busy week coming up, so I may not post much- but I'll be back as soon as I can!