We have a new helper at home that my husband wanted for quite a while, and I’m still slowly getting to know it and trying out everything it can do. We bought a completely ordinary air fryer from Lidl — it happened to be on a big discount too, so we decided to give it a try.

There are only two of us at home, so its size is more than enough for us. Our air fryer also has two separate drawers, which is pretty handy — we can prepare two things at once, or, like this time, bake two small cakes at the same time. There’s one more thing I like about it. When my husband is exceptionally away for the weekend and I fancy something tasty, I don’t have to switch on and heat up the whole big oven just for a small portion. For this kind of small-batch baking, an air fryer is, in my opinion, absolutely ideal.

New Lékué moulds for the air fryer

For the air fryer, we got two green round Lékué moulds right away, made specifically for air fryers. We ordered them from the official Lékué.com website, and so far I’m really delighted with them. They’re 15 cm in diameter, so one mould fits beautifully into each drawer of the air fryer. They’re made of 100% platinum silicone, they’re flexible and can handle temperatures up to 220 °C. And best of all, I don’t have to grease them at all before baking. Once the cake had cooled briefly, it turned out of the mould beautifully and nothing stuck. The moulds also clean very well, which is another big plus for me. The manufacturer says they’re dishwasher-safe too.

Our air fryer with two drawers and the new silicone Lékué moulds

For this batch of batter, I used both moulds and filled each about halfway. Thanks to the air fryer’s two drawers, I could then bake both cakes at the same time. And it was in these moulds that today’s recipe came to life. 🙂

Moulds filled with batter about halfway, ready in the air fryer drawers

How the recipe actually came about

I found a simple recipe online for a coconut treat that caught my eye mainly because it only had a few ingredients. But when I was about to start baking, I realised we definitely didn’t have as much coconut at home as I’d need. I only had about 35 grams left. So there was nothing to do but improvise. 🙂

In the cupboard I found ground almonds and plain spelt flour, so I adapted the original coconut recipe to what we actually had at home. I kept a little of the coconut for flavour, added ground almonds, and finally some spelt flour so the batter would have the right consistency. And the result really surprised me. The cake turned out beautifully moist, tender, lightly coconutty and almondy, with a nicely baked golden-brown crust on top.

You can see the result in the photos. The surface baked to a lovely golden colour, and inside the cake stayed moist and fairly dense. And with almonds, eggs and yogurt in it, it’s also quite filling. 🙂