Caramelised coconut cake
DESCRIPTION
Caramelised coconut sits on top of a cloud-like vanilla sponge on a twist of a classic Danish cake named ‘dream cake’ (drømmekage) for good reason. It looks deceptively simple but the use of Cornish clotted cream in the butterscotch sauce creates the most moreish, luxurious flavour. This cake will soon become your favourite.
INGREDIENTS
For the cake
4 Eggs
260g Caster sugar
260g Plain flour
2 tsp Baking powder
1 tbsp Real vanilla extract
300ml Buttermilk
100g Trewithen Dairy salted butter, melted and cooled
For the coconut topping
200g Desiccated coconut
200g Trewithen Dairy clotted cream
100g Light brown sugar
Pinch of salt
METHOD
Preheat the oven to 200g. Grease and line the base of a 23cm springform tin.
Using a stand mixer, whisk together the eggs and sugar and vanilla for approximately 5 minutes, until they are fluffy, pale and have tripled in volume. In a bowl, combine the flour and baking powder. Sieve half of the flour into the egg mixture and gently fold in until just combined.
Now add the buttermilk and cooled melted butter, before sieving in the remaining flour. Very slowly stir through. Some small lumps of flour will be fine – if you stir until the mixture is smooth, you’ll lose all the air!
Bake in the centre of the preheated oven for 25 minutes or thereabouts. When it is just about cooked through, you’ll need to remove from the oven and add your premade coconut topping.
Melt the clotted cream in a saucepan over a low heat and add the sugar, coconut and salt. Mix well. Now turn up the heat slightly and stir from time to time. The mixture will get darker, caramelising from the bottom up – careful it doesn’t catch!
When the cake is just about cooked, smooth the caramelised coconut over the top. Return to the oven for five minutes so it develops a slight crust. Decorate with more coconut and perhaps a slick of caramel sauce. Delicious!
