White chocolate & coconut cake.

Yesterday I was craving cake. And I mean BIG TIME. I think it’s because after the DISASTER that was lent (basically I gave up nothing but pretended I was giving up everything, as you do) I thought it best that I give up all sweet things, just for a while, so that when I do have them, i’ll appreciate them more. Wise words right? WRONG… IT’S. SO. HARD. So yesterday whilst at work I basically sat at my desk and dreamed about cake. I dreamed about a soft, dense sponge with LASHINGS of creamy frosting next to a nice steaming mug of coffee. I tried to convince myself that I wasn’t going to make it and dreaming about it was enough.. but when my brain whispered to me “You could totally spin off on those favourite truffles you make and do a white chocolate and coconut cake..” I almost smiled as my feet walked me into the shop and to the chocolate aisle. It’s not that I LOVE cake, I’m totally more of a savoury girl – like if I had to chose between cake and a tray of roast potatoes drizzled in sea salt and olive oil from Tuscany.. well I’m drooling slightly. Let’s leave it at that. But sometimes a girl just needs cake. And chocolate. And one of her 5 a day. (I don’t know if the coconut in here can quiiite count as 1 of your 5 a day so I wouldn’t quote me on that. But a girl can dream, right?) Anyway, just the smell of cake was making me drool whilst I was scouring Google looking for a new way to frost this show-stopper to be. In the end I went back to my fail safe Pinterest. If you haven’t got it – get it, and I saw that I’d pinned this rose cake and I knew that I’d found it. Now, I made my frosting with white chocolate and coconut and sandwiched the cakes together with it. Perfect. Then I made my ‘crumb layer’. Something which I had never heard of before but is apparently essential to cake baking. Actually, scratch the apparantly, it IS essential. It’s basically a layer of frosting (or buttercream) which you then leave to set before you pipe the fancy bits on to save crumbs getting in your design. Whoever thought of that deserves a medal. Pinterest PROMISED me it was easy to do. It literally said “THIS IS SO EASY TO DO.” And I thought, “YES – found something that looks great and is massively simple. Go me.” … They lied. Ok, ok. So Mayyyyybe if I had an ACTUAL piping bag, AND i’d left my icing to set a little (I’m too impatient when I want cake) And also maybe if I had actually made enough frosting (My jaw dropped when I’d run out HALF WAY THROUGH) then it would have turned out a little better, and a little less messy. But it tasted incredible. I went to bed full of cake mix and leftover icing, put the cake in the fridge, and went to bed. This morning, it was raining. London has been a MONSOON these last few weeks and I think i’ve actually gained a stone in water weight from being rained on so often. (This has nothing to do with all the food I’ve been eating, no way.) But I opened my fridge, and there it was. I made a hot coffee, sliced a big slice and sat by the window with a blanket watching the rain. Perfection. Ingredients Needed: For the cake: Recipe adapted from Good Food. 280g Self raising flour 4 beaten eggs 1 tbsp vanilla extract 200g caster sugar 1 tsp baking powder 200g salted farmhouse butter For the frosting: Recipe adapted from River Cafe. 280g softened, salted jersey butter 280g Icing sugar 4 tbsp milk 600g White chocolate Desiccated coconut Method Start by preheating the oven to Gas Mark 4. Yes we have a gas oven. Yes it makes cooking things a little more tricky. Then grease your baking tins if using metal ones. Mix together the eggs, sugar, butter and vanilla into a paste and then add to the flour. Beat together to form a smooth cake mix. Here, you have two choices – if you’re using a smaller cake tin then you can split the mixture and bake the two tiers that way. My cake tin however, is GINORMOUS. So I repeated the above steps and make the cake twice – giving it a little more of a show-stopper feel. So as above, pour the mix into the tins in the way you’ve chosen. If you are doing a smaller cake, then check it after 20 minutes. My larger one took around 35 all in all. You know your cake tins and times better than anyone, so go with your best instinct here as each size is different! While your cake is cooking, make the frosting. mix the icing sugar bit by bit with the butter until gone. Then, melt your white chocolate and leave it to cool for around 10 minutes. Then pour in the chocolate and mix. Leave in the fridge to set for an hour or so. Once your cakes have cooled, mix a quarter of your frosting with a healthy amount of coconut and spread onto the top of one as a filling and sandwich together. Next, make your crumb coating. Frost the entire cake so you can’t see what’s underneath, but not too thick that you’ve accidentally iced it. Put this back in the fridge for 30 minutes. You’ll need a star tip for your piping bag. Fill with the frosting and pipe in a circular motion over the cake, making sure to end in the same place each time. Refrigerate for another 30 minutes just to set the roses. Eat with a steaming cup of something and enjoy.