Thursday, January 20, 2011

Orange Coconut Cake


It seems Summer has finally hit, only about a month and a half late. After what seems like months of rain and oddly cool temps, the clouds have cleared giving us blue skies and super hot humid days.

I'm more of a winter girl but I do love the flavours of summer, my favorite is the combination of coconut and pineapple. The only problem I had no pineapple, but I did have oranges. After flicking through a whole bunch of books I found a nice and simple recipe in my very old copy of Women's Weekly Cakes and Slices for a coconut and orange cake.

The coconut made the cake lovely and moist and it had the perfect amount of orange flavour. The original recipe suggested an orange buttercream frosting, but I love the look of drizzle icing and it's so so easy.

For the cake

1/2 cup coconut
1 cup milk
125grams softened butter
1 tablespoon orange zest
2 eggs
1 3/4 cups self-raising flour

To make the cake- In a small bowl combine milk and coconut, allow to stand at room temperature for one hour.


Grease and flour a cake tin. (I used a 8 inch round tin) Preheat the oven to 180 degrees c.

In a medium bowl, cream together butter, sugar and orange zest until light and fluffy.

Add the eggs one at a time, beating until combined.

Mix in half of the flour and half of the coconut and milk.

Add the second half of the milk, coconut and flour and continue mixing until the batter is smooth.

Pour the cake batter into the preparded pan, smooth over the top.


Bake the cake for 1 1/2 hours until a skewer poked into the middle comes out clean. Remove the cake from the oven and allow to stand for 5 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool.

Once the cake is totally cool pour the icing onto the cake, spread over the top and allow to drip down the sides.


For the icing

1 1/2 cups icing sugar
3 tablespoons squeezed orange juice
1 teaspoon orange zest.

To make the icing- whisk together all ingredients until smooth. Pour over cooled cake.


PS. I have been dying to show off the beautiful teacup boyfriend got me for Christmas, I love it so much.

15 comments:

  1. I will defo be making this
    http://amyswamy.blogspot.com

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  2. I lov e the drizzle oozing over the side of the cake!!! Positively licking the laptop screen.

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  3. Your image is gorgeous - I love that tea cup and saucer! It looks so familiar.. Is it from T2? Hm, I'm trying to think of other tea places I go to. Is it royal dolton? Either way, the cake looks gorgeous particularly the drizzled icing look.

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  4. That is a beautiful cake. It looks so fluffy with a gorgeous crumb and that glaze all over it makes it look fantastic. I have a new linky on my blog called "Sweets for a Saturday" and I'd like to invite you to stop by this weekend and link this up.

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  5. Thank you for the lovely comments, they always make me smile.

    Les rêves d'une boulangère (Brittany)- The tea set is Royal Albert, I think it was from David Jones.

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  6. well worth showing off - it's delightful.

    Cake looks great too!!

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  7. Oh my! Your site is way too adorable for words!! I love everything about it, your images and presentation are just gorgeous - I shall be returning often! x

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  8. Replies
    1. The coconut I used was dried, soaking it with the milk made the cake lovely and moist though.

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  9. I'm not really a fan of coconut flakes. Do you have any suggestions for getting the flavor without the flakes?

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    1. Hi Kendall. Soaking the coconut in milk makes it super moist, not dry and scratchy like coconut can sometimes be. I'm not exactly sure what a good substitution would be for the coconut so I won't risk recommending something. I'm making another orange cake over the weekend for my Mum's birthday, so stop by next week for the recipe.

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  10. As there is no sugar listed in the ingredient list........how did any of you work out how much sugar to use???????

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    1. I used 1 cup caster sugar. Also one hour is sufficient for baking in a moderate oven. I hope this helps anyone stuck in the middle of making it and discovered the missing ingredient.

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  11. lovely recipe, thank you but what temp/degrees in the over?

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  12. Hi can u use coconut milk instead of milk.
    Thanks
    Miryana

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