Recipe from Frances' visit & demo - Lemon Coconut Cake

Lemon Coconut Cake

Recipe from Toba Garrett’s book “The Well Decorated Cake” (Toba iss demonstrating at conference 2011)

This is a delicious cake which I use a lot (with but often without the coconut!) and keeps for three weeks wrapped in the fridge uniced, I’ve kept it in the fridge for a few days but it’s so easy to eat I don’t know how long it keeps.  Keep for two months in freezer.  Best with a butter cream icing rather than fresh cream. Try the Italian Meringue for a lemon meringue cake! Frances Dalton-Hayward

1 cup (250g) butter

2 cups white sugar

1/3 cup lemon curd (or lemon flavoured yoghurt)

2 tablespoon lemon juice

zest of 3 lemons

3 cups flour

3 tsp baking powder

½ tsp salt

1 cup coconut, optional, if not using no need to substitute with any dry ingredients

5 large eggs

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup milk

Preheat oven to 180ºC (350ºF). Grease and line pans, these can be 2 x 20cm (8 inch) or 1 x 25cm (10inch) or 1 x deep sponge roll tin.

Cream together butter, sugar, zest, lemon juice, and lemon curd for 5 minutes.  Stop and scrape bowl and cream for another minute.

Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt.  Mix in the coconut if using.

Whisk together the eggs, milk and vanilla.

Alternately add the dry and liquid  ingredients to the batter in three turns.  Mix batter until smooth.  Spoon batter in to prepared pans.

Bake 45 to 50 minutes for 20 cm pans and the same for the sponge roll pan but 60 – 70 minutes for the large 25 cm pan or until a tooth pick inserted into the centre comes out clean.