Which wasn’t very coconutty to be honest.
Thing was, I wanted to make a cake without using dairy…and so replaced the yogurt with coconut cream.
Except the beautiful cream with its sweet fragrance didn’t bake itself complete with the fragrance.
I’m getting increasingly annoyed with coconut milk. I find the fragrance and flavour disappear in baked and friend goods…I might have to resort to ‘coconut powder’ in an attempt at preservation.
Still, this cake was nice. The winner for me though were the dainty decorations on top.
I baked it in a tart tin, one without a loose bottom.
I made sure the base was well greased with butter so it came out quite easily. I set the cake upside down so I could fill the new ‘top’ with a glaze.
Step 2? Make an lime glaze, with icing sugar.
How to make a simple icing sugar glaze
Sift 1 1/2 cups of icing sugar into a bowl, add 1 teaspoon finely grated lime zest
With a spoon, gently stir in a teaspoon at a time, freshly squeezed lime juice. You want a thick, lighter than toothpaste mix. It’ll set ‘hard’.
For ages and a half, I’ve adored the simple, gorgeous pink flowers from water leaf. And was so glad I had enough growing to snip, snip, snip.
More on waterleaf and Nigerian vegetables from 9jafoodie.com
I gave the edible flowers a quick wash and prepped the other toppings, namely halved lime slices.
And then I made a one-sided ‘trellis’ (?) pattern, alternating flowers and lime.
So gorgeous, right?
And yes, we eventually had to cut into it. In spite of missing the intense coconut flavour, the texture was beautiful with a light crumb and a bit of sponginess.
Downed with glass upon glass of mint tea.
- Butter, to grease the tart tin
- 230g plain white flour (about 2 cups)
- 180g white granulated sugar (about 1 & 1/2 cups)
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- A pinch of salt
- 150ml coconut milk or cream
- 120ml oil (corn, coconut, sunflower, rice bran etc)
- 3 medium eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Zest and juice of 1 large lime
- Grease a tart tin very well with butter
- Preheat the oven to 180 degrees centigrade
- Combine dry ingredients - in a bowl, mix the white flour, baking powder and the pinch of salt. Sieve the mixture twice to incorporate air
- Add the sugar into the flour mixture and whisk together
- Combine the wet ingredients - put the oil, coconut milk or cream and vanilla extract into a bowl. Add the eggs and whisk together.
- Make a well in the centre of the bowl with the flour mixture. Put the yoghurt mixture in the centre and using a spatula, mix well, from the outside in so you don’t end up with lumps of unmixed flour.
- Bake in the centre of a pre-heated oven for 25 - 30 minutes
- Cake is ready when a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean and the edges turn golden
- Remove and set on a rack to cool, about an hour
- Once cold, pour glaze on and decorate as you like
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