thatseriousgirl: Fijian Chocolate Cake

I have always wanted to make a really luscious coconut cake, one that was just as delicious as a Bounty bar. I wanted to have chocolate on the outside and soft, moist coconut on the inside. I wanted it to the richest, softest, moistest cake I'd ever seen, so unbelievably rich and full of coconut flavour that you'd be converted even if you didn't like coconut. I found it in this recipe that I found at this website.

I searched a few different ones to get to this one and what really struck me was the use of a can of coconut cream. Last year, Mrs I., and I wanted to make a chocolate and coconut cake recipe, I found a few different recipes, we went home and made the cakes. I said that we should have a cake off and was pretty sure I'd win. Her daughter actually baked the cake and beat the pants off of me, which is embarrassing because her daughter was nine at the time. I've had one other chocolate and coconut based cake that had coconut milk in it and it was that cake, the addition of that coconut milk made it so COCONUT. It just screamed coconut, like pure coconut creaminess baked into a cake with the rich subtlety of chocolate to temper it.

The recipe proportions are a bit strange for my liking. Mostly because when I printed out the recipe, for some reason, both the metric and imperial measurements were included. I chopped and changed things a bit and this became what I actually had in my cake in the picture below. I added in some desiccated coconut for the chewiness and I felt like there could've been more eggs added but I left it as is. The colour of my cake isn't as dark as the picture from the original website, but I went by cup measurement rather than weight as suggested.

I'm quite happy with how the cake turned out however, as it was very moist and intensely coconut flavoured. When I poorly attempted to split the warm cake, half of the top layer crumbled away and I ate most of it rather than attempting to piece it back together. I normally never eat my own cake but I couldn't stop eating this one.

Fijian chocolate cake

Uses: converting people to the wonders of coconut, secretly making everyone have high cholesterol.

Cake ingredients:
210g of self raising flour
2 teaspoons of baking powder
200g of sugar
2 eggs
125g of melted butter
400ml coconut cream, remove 3 tablespoons and top up with milk/water
1/2 cup of desiccated coconut

Not much to it

Icing ingredients:
3 tablespoons of coconut cream, reserved from the cake's coconut cream
150g of softened butter
2 cups of icing sugar
1 cup of flaked/shredded coconut
Lemon juice

I forgot to put the icing sugar in this picture.

Instructions for cake:

1. Sift all the dry ingredients, flour, cocoa powder and baking powder, into a large mixing bowl. Add in the desiccated coconut. Line your cake tin and preheat your oven to 180C.

All the dry stuff!

2. Beat the eggs lightly, and pour on top of the flour. Add in the melted butter and the coconut cream.

Plus the wet stuff~

3. Mix vigorously for several minutes.

Makes a cake!

4. Pour into your cake tin and bake in the oven for at least 40-55 minutes. Skewer should come out nice and clean. Allow to cool before attempting icing if desired, otherwise consume immediately.

Well, almost

Instructions for icing
1. Heat a large frying/saucepan on a low medium heat until warm, throw in coconut and stir frequently until evenly golden brown. Set aside to cool.

Be patient!

Ta dah!

2. Cream the butter until pale, soft and fluffy.

Using a whisk is silly fyi.

3. Sift in half the sugar and coconut cream, and mix vigorously until incorporated.

Coconut cream is such an odd grey colour

4. Sift in the remaining sugars slowly, while mixing. Add some lemon juice to lessen the sweetness if required. I used about a quarter of a large lemon.