Vintage Floral Raspberry and Coconut Cake

This was a special cake for a special person, one of the people I love most in the world, my beautiful Grandmother! It was my Grandma's 85th birthday and I wanted to make her a cake that was as pretty inside as it was out.

My Grandma loves going out for coffee and cake, any outing we have ever gone on has been punctuated with a 'cappuccino break'. When I was little it was always exciting getting treated to an iced chocolate and something yummy. Grandma especially likes carrot cake and raspberry muffins, as the last cake I made her was carrot I decided to go with raspberry for this one.

This raspberry coconut cake is a new favourite of mine, I'm a little obsessed with coconut at the moment.  I blame the coconut bread from the coffee shop near work, It might be overpriced but the yummy toasted coconut flavour always brightens my day. 

The coconut in this cake made it yummy and moist and the raspberries dotted throughout are not only pretty but add lovely bursts of flavour. Coconut and raspberry are meant to be together and along with the white chocolate they make this a cake difficult to pass up.

For the Raspberry and Coconut Cake Printable Recipe

220 grams butter (softened)

1 3/4 cups caster sugar

1 teaspoon coconut extract

3 eggs

1 1/3 cup desiccated coconut

360 grams self raising flour

360 mls buttermilk

200 grams frozen or fresh raspberries ( if frozen, do not thaw)

To make the cake- Preheat oven to 180 degrees c. and grease two 8 inch round cake pans. Line the base and sides of the the cake pan with baking paper allowing about about an inch extra out the top of the pan.

In a medium bowl sift the flour and add the coconut, stir to combine.

Add the butter, sugar and coconut extract to a second mixer bowl and beat until light and fluffy.

 Add one egg at a time beating well after each addition. 

Fold in a quarter of the flour coconut mix at a time, alternately with the buttermilk.

Fold through the raspberries. (keeping the raspberries frozen stops them breaking up in the mix)

Divide the cake mixture between the 2 prepared pans and smooth over the tops.

Bake the cakes for about 1 hour, or until a skewer poked into the middle of the cake comes out clean. 

Allow the cakes to cool in the tins for around 10 minutes before turning them out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

For the White Chocolate Ganache

720 grams white chocolate (4 blocks)

220 mls cream

To make the Ganache- finely chop the chocolate and place in a large heat proof bowl.

Pour the cream into a small saucepan and bring to the boil. Pour the boiling cream over the chocolate. 

Stir the ganache mixture with a hand whisk until smooth. Allow to cool and set for a few hours before spreading onto cake. (I find if I make my ganache before work, its the perfect consistency when I get home in the afternoon.)

Sandwich the two cakes with a layer of ganache. Spread the remaining ganache over the top and sides of the cake. Allow the ganache to set. Decorate as you like or just cut a slice and enjoy.