Time for the letter ‘I’
This is a cake I hadn’t even heard of before. I had to trail through the internet to find a cake beginning with ‘I’. Most of the cakes I found in my books all had something to do with ice-cream, which if I’m honest, I’m not really a fan of. What, I hear you all shout,” you don’t like ice-cream!” Nope, I admit I’m not that keen on it, I’d much prefer a cold drink with plenty of ice.
The ingredient that attracted me to this recipe was coconut. I do like coconut cake and my mother-in-law used to make me a wicked cherry and coconut cake when myself and my husband were young and dating (now that was a long time ago).
I did, however, change the filling of the cake, as I had been given a pot of Lakeland’s Classic White Frosting and had been wanting to try it out for ages, I have listed the original filling below, but all I did was add the desiccated coconut to the frosting, together with a tablespoon of buttermilk to take the edge off the sweetness.
Ingredients
- 225ml buttermilk
- 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 220g butter
- 400g caster sugar
- 5 eggs
- 1tsp vanilla extract
- 75g desiccated coconut
- 1tsp baking powder
- 250g plain flour
Filling
- 225g cream cheese
- 110g butter
- 1tsp vanilla extract
- 480g icing sugar
- 2tbsp single cream
- 60g chopped walnuts
- 75g desiccated coconut
Method
- Preheat the oven to 180C/Gas 4. Grease three 23cm round cake tins (I also lined the bottom).
- In a bowl measure out the buttermilk and add the bicarbonate of soda and mix. Don’t put this in too small a bowl as it will fizz up. The bowl I used was just the right size, it came right up to the top, but thankfully didn’t overflow!
- In a large bowl cream together the butter and caster sugar until light and fluffy. Mix in the eggs, vanilla extract, desiccated coconut, baking powder and flour.
- Finally add the buttermilk mixture and gently fold through.
- Divide the mixture between the three tins and level the surface.
- Bake in the preheated oven for approximately 30-35 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. Allow to cool in the tins.
- To make the icing (as listed above instead of doing what I did) combine the cream cheese, butter, vanilla extract and icing sugar. Beat until light and fluffy. Mix in a small amount of the single cream to attain the desired consistency. Finally stir in the chopped nuts and desiccated coconut.
- Spread the icing between the layers and on the top and sides of the cake (I didn’t have enough to do the sides)
I really wasn’t too sure how this cake would taste. However, I was really surprised at how moist and light the sponge was, and the taste of coconut was delicious. Admittedly it’s not the prettiest looking of cakes, but it sure tasted good!
My husband loved the cake, so much he’s added it to his list of all time favourites, so it must have been good. It’s definitely one I’ll be making again and I’m glad I came across the recipe online.
Self Raising Flower 