Serves 8-10
My friend Richard loves coconut, like really loves it. Every time I go back to London, I always take a bag of Cherry Ripes which he inhales with gusto. One time, I even made him his very own coconut cake just because. So when his daughter Ria came to stay with us earlier this year, I decided to make a coconut cake, because I figured if Rich loved coconut that Ria must too. Weird logic but that’s Sam logic.
Naturally, I consulted my guru, Nigella in the quest for the perfect coconut cake because she never lets me down and this time was no exception. There’s an cracker of a recipe in How to Be a Domestic Goddess which naturally I tweaked to my tastebuds and converted to the Thermomix. The biggest difference is my addition of jam and my skipping of Malibu, which I haven’t drunk since it gave me my first (unfortuantely not my last) hangover on the Costa Brava circa 1987. I use coconut essence instead which is just as tasty and means even the small people and teetotallers can have their cake and eat it which is just as well because this cake is one that is not to be missed.
I’m not going to lie, it’s really sweet, really delicious and a coconut lover’s dream. The combination of moist, fluffy sponge sandwiched with jam and creamy coconut filling, and decorated with lashings of coconut icing, it really is just too good to resist. I promise you everyone will go (coco) nuts for this!
So tell me are you a fan of coconut too? Have you got a coconut lover in your life? And what say you about Malibu? Is it a yay or a nay?
Ingredients
FOR THE CAKE
225g butter, softened
225g caster sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla essence
4 eggs
200g self-raising flour
25g cornflour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
50g dessicated coconut soaked in 15oml boiling water
FOR THE SANDWICH FILLING
3 tablespoons strawberry jam
25g dessicated coconut
75g unsalted butter, softened
150g icing sugar, sifted
1 teaspoon coconut essence
FOR THE ICING
150g icing sugar
1-2 tablespoons milk
1/2 teaspoon coconut essence
2 tablespoons dessicated coconut, for sprinkling (optional)
How to – Traditional
- Preheat oven to 180°C /160C fan-forced. Grease and line the base of 2 x 21cm sandwich tins.
- Put all the cake ingredients in a food processor and blitz until you have a soft batter.
- Pour into the prepared tins and cook for about 25 minutes. The cakes will be ready when the sponge starts to come away from the sides of the tin and when a cake tester inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean.
- Allow the cakes to cool and then make the buttercream filling.
- Toast the coconut in a dry frying pan, until golden. Remove from pan and set aside on a plate to cool slightly.
- Cream together the butter and icing sugar and when you have a smooth paste, stir in the coconut essence and then the toasted coconut.
- Spread a generous layer of jam on the top of the bottom layer of cake and spread the buttercream on the underside of the top layer of cake and then the best bit, sandwich the cakes together.
- To make the icing for the top of the cake, simply beat the icing sugar, milk and coconut essence together in a bowl until you have a smoothy, runny paste that will cover the top and drip (not pour) down the sides.
- Sprinkle with a couple of tablespoons of dessicated coconut if you so desire and leave to set before cutting and eating.
How to – Thermomix
- Preheat oven to 180°C /160C fan-forced. Grease and line the base of 2 x 21cm sandwich tins.
- Put all the cake ingredients into TM bowl and mix for 10 seconds on speed 4. Scrape down sides of bowl and mix for another 5 seconds on speed 4.
- Pour the batter into the prepared tins and cook for about 25 minutes. The cakes will be ready when the sponge starts to come away from the sides of the tin and when a cake tester inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean.
- Allow the cakes to cool and then make the buttercream filling. Toast the coconut in a dry frying pan, until golden. Remove from pan and set aside on a plate to cool slightly.
- Place butter, coconut essence, icing sugar and toasted coconut into TM bowl and mix on reverse speed 2 for 4 minutes.
- Spread a generous layer of jam on the top of the bottom layer of cake and spread the buttercream on the underside of the top layer of cake and then the best bit, sandwich the cakes together.
- To make the icing for the top of the cake, simply place the icing sugar, milk and coconut essence together in TM bowl and mix for 1 minute on speed 4 until you have a smoothy, runny paste that will cover the top and drip (not pour) down the sides.
- Sprinkle with a couple of tablespoons of shredded coconut if you so desire and leave to set before cutting and eating.
TIP!
If you’re using a Thermomix, you can mill raw sugar for the caster sugar, but I suggest using pure icing sugar for both the buttercream and the topping, because it looks so bright and white.
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