Our food shopping habits have completely changed; both since moving to rural Wales and since the Covid-19 lockdown. We’ve been driving the few miles into the nearest town to the supermarket (after popping into the hardware store) about once every week and a half to a fortnight… much less often than usual.
I had a look in the store cupboard and fridge to see what needed to be used up before it started deteriorating. I found a few limes that were rolling around the drawer of the fridge; like us, they’ve been waiting for a sunny day to go into a gin & tonic… there hasn’t been one for a while!
Seeing as there’s been only wind & rain in the forecast, I thought that I’d better put them to another use. An afternoon tea-time loaf cake always goes down well in this house, so I whipped us up a lime and coconut iced loaf cake.
It’s very strange, I can’t stand lemons, oranges or tangerines – especially the smell of the zest when they’ve been peeled. However, for some reason, I quite like limes and grapefruit.
The secret to this cake is pre-toasting the desiccated coconut before adding it to the batter. It really brings out the flavour. It’s almost like a piña colada in cake form!
Click here or on the image below to save my recipe to Pinterest
- 100g/3½oz desiccated coconut
- 150g/5oz butter, softened
- 150g/5oz caster sugar
- 2 eggs
- juice & zest of 1 lime
- 150g/5oz plain flour
- 2tsp baking powder
- pinch of salt
- 150g icing sugar
- juice & zest of 1 lime
- Line the base and sides of a 900g (2lb) loaf tin with baking parchment or pre-made loaf tin liner
- Preheat the oven to 170ºC/150ºC fan/325ºF/Gas mark 3
- Lightly toast the desiccated coconut in a heavy-bottomed frying or sauté pan, either on the hob or in the oven. Toss every couple of minutes to ensure it is toasted evenly and doesn't burn. Set aside to cool.
- In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar
- Lightly whisk the eggs in a medium-sized measuring jug. Slowly pour the beaten eggs into the creamed mixture while stirring constantly
- Stir in the juice and zest of the lime
- Mix in the toasted desiccated coconut
- In a medium-sized mixing bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder and salt
- Fold the flour into the batter using a spatula or large spoon
- Spoon the batter into the prepared loaf tin, using the bak for the spoon/spatula to level the top
- Bake for 50 minutes to an hour or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes away clean
- Allow to cool completely
- Sift the icing sugar into a measuring jug to remove any lumps
- Pour in the lime juice and zest and mix thoroughly. It should be a thick paste consistency - add a couple teaspoons of water/icing sugar if the mixture is too thick/thin
- Pour the glaze evenly over the top of the cake
Cakes & Bakes: Coconut and lime cake
Inspiration for our weekly Cakes & Bakes posts come from all manner of places. This week’s was slightly out of the ordinary – a scrap of crumpled old paper with Justin’s handwriting on it, that fell out of a book whilst we were tidying some shelves.
He’d jotted down a recipe for a coconut and lime cake. I showed it to him but he couldn’t remember doing it or where he’d, in fact, copied it from; I guessed it might have been an episode of a Rachel Allen cookery program from years ago maybe. I’m probably wrong!
The notes he made were pretty vague. The instructions read thus: “Mix all ingredients together. Bake in cake tins. Gas Mark 3 → 30-35 mins”.
Delia’s All-in-one sponge method is pretty similar; however, with the addition of lime juice, I thought that the mixture would be prone to curdling if I just chucked it all in together. In the end, I did the classic creaming of the butter & sugar, adding the eggs (pre-beaten) a little at a time interspersed with a serving spoon of the flour, then the juice, followed by the sifted flour/baking powder and dessicated coconut.
The other thing I did differently was to use a single cake tin instead of dividing the mixture equally between two. I merely upped the cook time from 30 minutes to an hour, keeping the temperature the same. Sometimes I prefer to simply slice the one cake horizontally through the middle; I find that it sandwiches back together better after spreading the icing.
Oh, and I didn’t have any coconut milk powder (the original recipe calls for 2 tablespoons) – I substituted it with powdered skimmed milk and a little coconut extract. It worked for me!
Finally, I decided against the water icing topping and went instead for a butter icing. I think it turned out brilliantly. It’s an attractive, ‘summery’ looking cake. The combination of coconut and lime is a well established cooking classic – sweet, yet zingy. I can vouch for the fact that it works really well in this sponge cake manifestation!
Click here to save the recipe to Pinterest
- 170g/6oz butter, softened
- 170g/6oz caster sugar
- 3 eggs
- juice of 2 limes
- 170g/6oz self-raising flour
- 1tsp baking powder
- 60g/2oz dessicated coconut
- 285g/10oz icing sugar (powdered sugar)
- 50g/1¾oz butter, softened
- 2tbsp lime juice
- Zest of 2 limes
- Preheat the oven to 160ºC/325ºF/Gas mark 3
- Grease and line a 15cm/6" loose-bottomed cake tin with baking parchment
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream the butter and the sugar
- In a measuring jug, lightly beat the eggs
- Pour the eggs into the butter/sugar mixture in 3 stages and mix in, with a serving spoon of the flour (to prevent curdling)
- Mix in the lime juice
- Fold in the dry ingredients (flour/baking powder/dessicated coconut)
- Spoon the mixture into the prepared cake tin, levelling out the surface
- Bake for 50 minutes to an hour or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes away clean
- Allow to cool in its tin for 5 minutes before removing it and letting it cool completely on a wire rack
- Sift the icing sugar into a bowl to remove any lumps
- Add the butter and combine well
- Add the lime juice, a tablespoon at a time, until the required consistency is achieved
- Sprinkle over the lime zest and serve
Cakes & Bakes: Coconut Pecan Cake
The past few things I’ve made for the weekly Cakes & Bakes post have been pretty easy and speedy. Today’s coconut pecan cake is also pretty easy – however, the multiple stages take that little bit longer.
If you’re in the mood to spend a lazy, rainy morning baking this is a great cake to try. The recipe is the work of Dolester Miles (or ‘Dol’ as she prefers) who last month (May 2018) won the prestigious James Beard Foundation pastry chef award.
If you’ve not got the luxury of a few hours in a single day, it’s easy to spread the steps over two or three days and bring everything together on the final day.
As the chef (and her recipe) is from Alabama, a couple of the ingredients may be a bit unfamiliar to us Brits. The cream of coconut is the thick, syrupy, sweet tinned stuff that you can use to make piña colada. The sweetened, shredded coconut seems to be similar to the dessicated coconut we get here in the UK, but it appears to be shaved rather finely grated. I used dessicated in the custard filling, but used Tree of Life organic coconut chips in the cake batter and toasted on the top and sides.
I don’t think I’ve incorporated a custard filling into a sponge cake before, it works really well. And I’ll save the recipe for a doughnut filling (when I eventually get round to making those for Cakes & Bakes!).
Once all the component parts have been prepared, it’s simply a case of building up the layers and then coating. I think the colour and textures are very attractive – perfect to display in our recently purchased glass cake dome.
It’s a substantial cake, but light and airy too – coconutty and moist. Absolutely delicious – I’d be very happy if I was served a slice of this in a tea shop!
Here’s Dol making her now-even-more-famous coconut pecan cake!
Click here to save Dol’s coconut pecan cake recipe to Pinterest!
- 85g/3oz firmly packed sweetened shredded coconut
- 74g/2⅔oz pecan halves, toasted
- 402g/14oz granulated sugar
- 287g/10oz plain flour
- 1tbsp baking powder
- ¾tsp kosher salt
- 170g/6oz unsalted butter, softened, plus more to grease the tins
- 60ml/2fl oz cream of coconut
- 4 large eggs
- ¼tsp coconut extract (optional)
- 270ml/9½fl oz unsweetened coconut milk
- 2 large egg yolks, lightly beaten
- 230g/8oz sweetened condensed milk
- 57g/2oz unsalted butter
- 1tbsp cream of coconut
- 85g/3oz sweetened shredded coconut
- 101g/3½oz granulated sugar
- 235ml/8 fl oz water
- 240ml/8½ fl oz double cream
- 31g/1oz icing sugar
- 1tbsp coconut extract (optional)
- 170g/6oz sweetened shredded coconut, toasted
- Heat oven to 175ºC/350ºF/Gas mark 4
- Grease two 9-inch round cake tins and line the bottom of each with parchment paper
- Finely grind the coconut in a food processor, then transfer to a bowl
- Add the pecans to the food processor, along with 2tbsps of the sugar, and finely grind together
- In a large mixing bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder and salt
- Stir in the ground coconut and pecans
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter, cream of coconut and the remaining sugar on high speed until light and fluffy, about 4 minutes
- Add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition and scraping down the bowl as necessary, then beat in the coconut extract
- Add the flour mixture in 3 batches, alternating with the coconut milk, starting and ending with the flour mixture
- Divide the batter equally between the tins and smooth the top of each with a spatula
- Bake until the cakes are golden and a skewer inserted into the centre comes away clean, 30 to 35 minutes
- Allow the cakes cool in the tins on a wire rack for 30 minutes
- Run a knife around the edge of each cake, invert onto a wire rack and remove the parchment. Allow to cool completely
- Place the egg yolks into a small, heatproof bowl and set aside
- In a saucepan, combine the condensed milk, butter and cream of coconut and cook over a medium-low heat, stirring constantly until hot, about 4 minutes
- Whisk ⅓ of the hot milk into the egg yolks
- Transfer the egg mixture to the saucepan of milk and whisk constantly over medium-low heat until mixture has the consistency of custard, about 4 minutes. Don't allow the mixture to get too thick
- Transfer to a bowl and stir in the shredded coconut. Allow to cool completely
- In a saucepan, heat the sugar and water, stirring occasionally, until sugar has dissolved
- Remove from the heat
- Cut each cake in half horizontally
- Place one layer in the bottom of a /9-inch cake tin, moisten the top with 2 to 3 tablespoons simple syrup and spread ⅓ of the coconut filling in a thin, even layer with an offset spatula
- Repeat to make 2 more layers of cake and filling, then place the last layer on the top
- Refrigerate the cake for about 1 hour
- To remove, run a spatula around the edges, invert a cake plate over the top, and flip the cake over onto the plate
- Whip the cream with the icing sugar and coconut extract until stiff peaks form
- Spread on the top and sides of the cake and sprinkle with toasted coconut
- Refrigerate until ready to serve
Cakes & Bakes: Coconut buttermilk pound cake
I bought a pot of buttermilk last week with the intention of making a loaf of Irish soda bread. After spending the last few days eating the sourdough burger buns I’d baked, we were all breaded out!
Rather than allow the buttermilk to reach it’s ‘best before’ date, I used it to make a coconut buttermilk pound cake.
I found the perfect recipe on the Martha Stewart website – I already had all the ingredients in the kitchen.
Sometimes, on an online recipe, the comments made by people who have tried out the recipe are hugely useful. A couple of people stated that the size of the loaf tin recommended wasn’t big enough and they had left over batter. Because of this, I used my largest loaf tin – 19 x 15 x 10cm (8 x 6 x 4-inch). This was probably a bit to big – a smaller one would have sufficed.
Martha Stewart’s original recipe uses sweetened, shredded coconut however, dessicated coconut is easier to get hold of in the supermarket here in the UK. Dessicated is much finer than shredded, so I altered the recipe slightly.
It’s not often that there’s a ‘how to’ video of a recipe available – the one I embedded at the bottom of the post shows just how easy this recipe is.
Click here to save it to Pinterest for later – you won’t be disappointed!
- 170g/6oz butter, softened
- 170g/6oz caster sugar
- 3 eggs
- 1tsp vanilla extract
- 240g/8½oz plain flour
- 1½tsp baking powder
- 1tsp salt
- 240ml/8fl oz buttermilk
- 75g/2⅔oz dessicated coconut, toasted
- 2tbsp buttermilk
- 125g icing sugar
- 1tbsp dessicated coconut, toasted
- Preheat the oven to 175ºC/350ºF/Gas mark 4
- Grease a 12 x 22cm (4½ x 8½-inch) loaf tin
- In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and caster sugar until light and fluffy
- In a small measuring jug, lightly whisk the eggs
- Add vanilla, then the beaten eggs, combining well
- In a medium-sized mixing bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt
- Carefully add the flour to the mixture in 3 additions, alternating with two additions of buttermilk. Combine well
- Using a silicone spatula, fold in the 75g of toasted, dessicated coconut
- Spoon the batter into the prepared loaf tin and bake for 60 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the middle comes away clean
- Allow the cake to cool in its tin on a wire rack for about an hour
- Remove the cake from the tin and allow to cool completely
- Whisk together the icing sugar and 2 tbsp buttermilk making sure there are no lumps
- Drizzle over the cake and sprinkle with tablespoon of dessicated coconut
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