Coconut Cake

I first made this coconut cake on the day my youngest bubba Deedee turned 6 months old.  I wanted to make her a happy half birthday cake and it turned out I had everything I needed for this cake and some lemon curd in the pantry.  I've put up the recipes for this cake in two amounts, firstly what you will need to bake a  8" cake in a deep round tin and secondly a smaller amount of batter for 16 cupcakes.  It can be made completely dairy free if you substitute the butter for Nuttelex, which it fantastic for lactose intolerant people.  I found this cake to be a beautiful light and delicate cake perfect for anyone who love coconut.  It has become a favourite in this house, I even made it as the top tier of Deedee first birthday cake.

What you need...

                   8" Cake                                                               Cupcakes

• 295 grams of Butter or Nuttelex                                125 grams
• 2 Teaspoons of coconut essence                                 1 teaspoon
• 2 1/2 cups caster sugar                                               1 cup
• 1 3/4 cups coconut cream                                           3/4 of a cup
• 2 2/3 cups self raising flour                                        1 cup
• 7 egg whites                                                                3 egg whites

How you do it...

• Preheat the oven to 160 degrees and line your tin with baking paper, extending the paper 5cm above the sides. Or prepare you cupcake patties as you usually would do.
• Beat the butter or Nuttelex, coconut essence and sugar until light and fluffy.
• Stir in coconut cream and sifted flour in two batches.
• Beat egg whites until you get soft peaks.
• Fold egg whites into your coconut mixture in two batches.
• Pour into your prepared tin. Or scoop a desert spoonful into your cupcake patty.
• Bake for 1 hour and 45 mins, if the cake is starting to brown half way through cover with foil.  Or for 20 minutes for cupcakes.
• Let cool, and either ice with a Lemon buttercream, of dust with icing sugar and serve with lemon curd.

Lemon Curd to serve with coconut cake

Ingredients

• 1/2 a cup caster sugar
• 1/4 of a cup cornflour
• 2 teaspoons lemon zest
• 8ml/1/2 a cup lemon juice
• 185ml  Water
• 30 grams butter/nuttelex
• 2 egg yolks

Method

• Combine the sugar, cornflour, lemon zest and juice and water in medium saucepan and stir over a medium heat.
• Once the mixture boils and thickens remove from the heat.
• Add the butter and mix well
• Gradually stir in the egg yolks.
• Let cool and refrigerate until you are ready to use.

Lemon Buttercream 

Ingredients

• 1 cup of butter
• 4 cups of icing sugar
• Juice and zest of 1 lemon
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla paste
• 1/8 of a teaspoon of salt

Method

• Like every butter cream I make you need to whip the room temperature butter by itself for a good 5 minutes before starting to add the sugar.
• Add the sugar 1/2  a cup at a time to ensure that it is combining well.
• Add the salt
• Once it is combined well add the lemon juice and zest and continue to beat for another  5 minutes so the mixture is nice and creamy.
• Pipe onto you cupcakes. 

Happy Baking