Happy Saturday everyone.
I hope your weekend is glorious and enjoyable, and spent with family and friends, but if you have some spare time on your hands this weekend I suggest you make this easy and delicious coconut cake.
Coconut cake for coconut lovers
Hey, hey, coconut lovers, have I got a delicious coconut cake for you!
I am a bit of nut so it’s only natural that I love anything nutty and the biggest nut of all, if it’s not me, is the coconut. And everybody knows size matters.
With its hint of vanilla, this nutty little sweet cake is deliciously moist and morish. What can I say if you’re entertaining and you have a guest who’s a hard nut to crack, this cake is bound to get them out of their shell.
P.S. I attempted to make a chocolate egg which the coconut balls were supposed to nestle in. I know NOTHING about chocolate tempering and to make things worse I chose to make the chocolate egg on the hottest day possible, and it was melting at lightning speed while I was photographing it but I chose to leave it in because not everything works out the way one wants it in this world! Aggggrrr.
Coconut Cake
2 ¼ cups (270g) all purpose flour
1 ½ t teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon table salt
1 ½ cups white sugar
3 large eggs
1 ¼ teaspoons coconut extract
1&½ teaspoons vanilla extract
¾ cup vegetable oil
¾ cup full-fat canned coconut milk, shaken/stirred to be combined/smooth
¼ cup whole milk
2/3 cup sweetened shredded coconut
For the cream topping I used
300mls cream + ¼ cup coconut milk
3 tablespoons icing sugar mixture
2 teaspoons vanilla essence
5-6 tablespoons desiccated coconut
Method
Coconut Cake
Preheat the oven to 180C
Line a 20/21cm round springform cake tin with baking paper.
In a bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt, set aside. In a separate bowl, whisk the coconut and milk together until smooth, set aside.
In an electric, stand-alone mixer, using the paddle attachment (not the whisk attachment) beat the eggs, sugar, coconut extract and vanilla extract. Beat until you reach beautiful thick, fluffy and foamy light yellow cream consistency.
The mixture should triple in volume, and fall from lifted beaters in a ribbon-like pattern on the surface for a few moments before slowly disappearing.
This should take 7-8 minutes.
add oil in a slow and steady stream, once you finished adding the oil beat for one more minute.
Reduce speed to low and add the flour, baking powder and salt in thirds, alternating with the coconut milk mixture.
Beat until the cake batter is smooth in consistency.
Gently fold in the shredded coconut.
Transfer cake batter to cake tin and bake for 40-50 minutes, depending on your oven or until a skewer comes out clean when inserted into the centre of the cake.
Leave to cool down. In the meantime, prepare the cream topping.
Method for cream topping
In a stand-alone electric mixer or hand-held mixer bowl, whisk all the cream topping ingredients together, except for the desiccated coconut, whisk until firm peaks form.
Fold in the desiccated coconut, place in the fridge for about an hour before using.
Once cake has cooled down completely, place on a serving dish and top with whipped cream.
I used the leftover coconut milk to make coconut balls. I added desiccated coconut and condensed milk according to taste and kept adding desiccated coconut until consistency was firm enough to make a ball.
