Chocolate And Coconut Cake

Okay, this is it: my final recipe from Zaitoun by Yasmin Khan!  Time to make a sweet treat, rather than the spicy mains I've made previously from her recipes.  I've made a tiny change or two (as per normal), just to ramp up the flavour.  And I've written the recipe in a manner that is just a wee bit clearer, I think!  Yasmin seems to go a bit vague at times :-)

Regular readers will know of my childhood filled with coconuts which our grandmother handed out regularly to our mum.  Dad would get the hammer and chisel, and whack away.  And we would be gnawing on chunks of coconut for days to come.  I think that was quite an unusual thing back in those days.  I certainly don't remember my comrades at school eating them.  Where on earth did Nan get them, I wonder?  Fresh coconuts were surely not the norm in cold and rainy Melbourne?  Maybe she was shimmying up coconut palms on her holidays?

darkly beautiful and delicious

ingredients:

The cake:

200g. (7 oz) butter (use unsalted if you wish)

200g. (7 oz) caster sugar - use vanilla sugar or raw caster for a deeper taste

3 large eggs

200g. (7 oz) plain flour

65g. (2.3 oz) cocoa powder 

1½ tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp sea salt

100g. (3.5 oz) shredded or dessicated coconut

185 mL (6.2 fl oz) coconut milk, or milk of your choice - see notes

1 tsp vanilla extract or paste

The ganache:

300 mL (10.5 oz) thickened cream

250g. (8 oz) dark chocolate, roughly chopped - I used Lindt 70% cocoa

3 tbs icing sugar/confectioners' sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

a scattering of extra coconut or bling of your choice, to serve 

Method:

On goes your oven to heat @ 180C/350F

Grease a 20 cm/8 inch x 5 cm/2 inch cake tin, and line the base with baking paper

Cream the butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl with electric hand beaters or a stand mixer (or a wooden spoon if you feel the need for some arm exercise)

Add the eggs one at a time, and beat in well

Tip in the sifted flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt and beat on a slow speed till incorporated into the batter

Stir in the shredded coconut, and add the coconut milk and vanilla extract - I gave it a gentle whizz with the beaters

Spoon/pour the batter into the prepared tin, and bake for about 35 minutes till a skewer thrust into its dark heart comes out clean

Let it sit and ponder the universe for five minutes, then out it comes onto a wire rack to get completely cool

Now you want to make the ganache, so heat the cream in a small saucepan till juuust boiling

Remove the saucepan from the heat and gently tip in the chopped chocolate

Stir, and keep stirring till the chocolate is melted

Now it sits and comes to room temperature, then you whip it good! (as the song goes) until light and fluffy like - you guessed it! - whipped cream 

In goes the icing sugar, and vanilla extract, and give it a quick stir

Spoon the ganache over the cake, and sprinkle on whatever bling you fancy - I used rose petals and glitter and sparkles ...

Notes:

I used some black cocoa powder which gave the batter a dark hue

I decided on coconut milk for a deeper coconut flavour, but go ahead with whatever milk you fancy - it's best to stick to a full-fat milk though.  But don't use that pallid fakery of a coconut milk that comes in a carton - it's nearly all water! - use the tinned, unsweetened one

I must confess it took waaaay longer to whip the ganache into a firm consistency than I thought it would.  I ended up putting it into the fridge halfway thru, and letting it cool right down before whipping some more.  I guess room temp. in the 'other' hemisphere is not the same as Queensland room temp.:-)

Tip:

Confession time: our quite new oven is giving me problems with the oven temp. - just like my old one!  I am having to add at least 15 degrees to the cooking temps. given; so this cake was a teensy bit dry when it came out.  My solution (which I've used several times in the past) is to make Nigella Lawson's chocolate syrup by simmering 125 mL of water, 100g. of sugar and 1 teaspoon of cocoa powder for a few minutes then cooling slightly.  You then either sit the cake in it, and let it soak up the syrup (as I had already iced it), or pour the syrup all over the cake before icing.  This gives it a lovely and moist flavour boost.  Oh yes, I added 1 tablespoon of Frangelico to the syrup too!

cream the butter and sugar till light and fluffy

sift the dry ingredients

beat together, and add the coconut

add the coconut milk

batter in the tin ready for baking at 180C for about 35 mins.

ready for icing

whip the ganache ingredients 

slather all over the cake

nice with a cuppa

© Sherry's Pickings