Lemon and coconut bundt cake

I have a horrible feeling my poor blog will suffer a little whilst writing my PhD thesis, it's only being a week and a bit and I have not managed a post. To be honest after a day of writing the last thing I want to do is do more writing.

Interestingly my thesis writing is definitely going to be fueled by cake, so there will still be lots of baking... Enough chat I have four baked goods not yet posted so I better get on it!

First up is one of the baked goodies I took to work for my birthday last week. I wanted something without nuts and chocolate or dairy to cater to everyone's allergies and/or Lenten promises! This lemon and coconut cake came to the rescue. It attracted my eye as quite often coconut is paired with lime. It was simple to make and although it is vegan it required no tricky to get hold or unusual ingredients.

The cake itself tasted lovely, the lemon contrasted nicely with the coconut. The texture was lovely, no one at work could believe it was vegan. Apologies for lack of pictures, I forget when I take things to work the opportunity to take a photo before its devoured is very very slim.

The coconut theme will be continuing shortly, my mum made an amazing lime and coconut cake when I went home for my birthday, it was amazing, I had to have two slices in one day, just to check it was amazing you understand. I will have to get that recipe...

And about to come out of the oven is yet another coconut cake... This time with orange! My own creation it will appear on the blog soon.

Lime and coconut cake

The second of bake from my mad weekend if baking. A simple lime and coconut loaf that came about thanks to coconut milk and limes lurking in my fridge.

The cake contains desiccated coconut, coconut milk and lime zest and I stopped with a sharp lime glaze.

Lime and coconut cake

150g butter

175g caster sugar

Zest of two limes

3 eggs

25ml coconut milk (or grams if you coconut milk is really thick)

175g self raising flour

40g desiccated coconut

Two (or more) tablespoons of coconut milk

Juice of one lime

Tablespoon if caster sugar

Preheat the oven to 180C/160C FAN and grease and the base of a loaf tin.

Beat the butter and sugar together until light and creamy thn beat in the lime zest. Beat in the 3 eggs until well combined then briefly beat in the 25ml coconut milk. Gently beat in the flour until just combined then add in the desiccated coconut, finally beat in the remaining two tablespoons of coconut milk. If your batter is very thick and you have coconut milk to spare you can add a little more here.

Pour the batter into the prepared tin and using a spatula make a gentle grove down the middle, this will help stop it rising too much in the middle.

Bake for 40-50 minutes until golden and a skewer comes out clean. Allow to cool for a few minutes in the tin whilst you make the glaze.

To make the glaze gently heat the lime juice and caster sugar in a pan until thick and syrupy.

Turn the cake out onto a wire rack and while still warm brush the top with the sticky glaze. If you like sprinkle a little desiccated coconut on the top for a pretty affect.

Mark really liked this cake but if I am being brutally honest I think I under baked it just a tad. The flavour was good but I think the texture would be greatly improved from an extra 5 minutes in the oven.

Coconut spiced caramels

This is the last of my homemade Christmas gifts. I made these for Mark who loves coconut and I liked the idea of the spicing.
It is an Annie Rigg recipe, from her amazing book Sweet Thing adapted ever so slightly considering what I had in the cupboard.

Coconut spiced caramels

vegetable oil for greasing
400ml (can) full fat coconut milk
6 cardamom pods
1 large cinnamon stick
50g dark brown sugar
100g light brown sugar
75g golen syrup
50g unsalted butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
pinch of sea salt
225g caster sugar
2 tablespoons dessicated coconut

Grease the base and sides of a 17cm square baking tin and line with baking parchment.

Put the coconut milk into a saucepan and add the cardamom pods and cinnamon stick. Set over a low heat for 4-5 minutes to infuse the milk with the spices. Add the brown sugars, golden syrup, butter, vanilla and salt. Once the butter has melted and the sugar dissolved remove from the heat.

Put the caster sugar into a saucepan and add 2 tablespoons of water. Set over a low heat to dissolve the sugar. Do not stir. If sugar crystals form on the sides dissolve them with a pastry brush dipped in hot water. Bring the syrup to the boil and cook steadily until it becomes a pale coloured caramel, swirl the pan occasionally to make sure it caramelises evenly.  

Working quickly bring the coconut mixture back up to just under the boil. Continue to cook the caramel till it becomes maple syrup coloured. Take the pan from the heat and slowly strain the coconut milk mixture into it. Be careful, the mixture may hiss and splutter.

Return the pan to the heat and stir till smooth, and to dissolve any caramel that has hardened. Pop a sugar thermometer into the pan and bring to the boil. Stir frequently and continue to cook until the caramel reaches 118C. I used my thermospatula so the pan was not over crowded.

Remove the pan from the heat, whisk the caramel util smooth then pour into the prepared tin.

Lightly toast the coconut in a non stick frying pan over a low heat util golden. Scatter over the caramel and leave to set for at least 4 hours or overnight.

Tip out of the pan onto a chopping board and cut with a greased kitchen knife. Wrap each caramel in a piece of parchment paper, twisting the ends.

Best eaten within a week, though will keep for a couple.   

Annie adds ginger and star anise to the coconut milk along with the cardamom and cinnamon. I a) had neither of these, and b) one of my recipients is not so keen on ginger.

I do not think it mattered too much, the flavour of the spice comes through and makes a very different but delicious caramel.

I got the 'Sweet Thing'  cookbook for Christmas and I cannot wait to get properly stuck in and making some treats!

Salted caramel and dark chocolate macaroons

One day, perusing twitter I saw a tweet proclaiming that 'today is the last day to sign up to the Great Food Bloggers Cookie Swap'. I was hooked at the word cookies and quickly signed up before the deadline could pass me by.

The basic premise of the swap is that you register your interest, get sent three names and addresses of other bloggers and send them cookies. In return 3 different bloggers send cookies to you. You pay a small fee to enter ($4, £2.50) and this money goes to charity, the money raised is also matched by companies so lots of money is raised. So lots money for charity and lots of cookies for me, everyone is a winner.

The cookies had to be robust enough to stand up to transport and also keep well. I initially considered biscotti, one of the toughest of biscuits. You're not allowed to send a recipe already featured on your blog but are able to send a variation. I have a few biscotti recipes already, and although I could have tweaked one I had another think.

After trawling the internet I found some European biscuits that for some reason made me think of English coconut macaroons. And that was that. English macaroons fit the bill perfectly, the keep very well and are robust enough to send.

The basic English macaroon is coconut, flour and condensed milk, shaped into mounds and baked until golden.

I decided I would jazz up my macaroons and make them a little less sweet and more sophisticated. I made salted caramel macaroons and dipped the base in dark chocolate.

Salted caramel and dark chocolate coconut macaroons

makes 40-45

225g caramel (from a tin or make your own)
sea salt to taste
one tin of condensed milk (390g)
500g coconut
120g plain flour
100g dark chocolate

Preheat the oven to 160C/140C FAN and line a baking sheet or sheets with baking parchment.

First gently warm the caramel and add sea salt to taste stir till dissolved. I salted a little more than I usually would, almost too salty. I wanted it to be able to stand up to the sweetness of the condensed milk and coconut.

Mix the condensed milk with the salted caramel. Add in the flour and the coconut and mix well until everything is thoroughly combined.

Using a tablespoon put heaped mounds onto the prepared baking sheets. Leave a few centimetres between each one, you will need to bake these in a few batches!

Bake for 12-15 minutes until golden. Leave to cool on the baking sheet for a few minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. They will firm up as they cool.

Once the macaroons are completely cold melt the dark chocolate and dip the base of each macaroon. Leave the macaroons upside down for the chocolate to set then devour!

Thankfully I had a few spare macaroons, so I could sample some, for quality control you understand! I really liked the texture of these, caramelised on the outside, soft in the middle, and the caramel chocolate combination helped temper the sweetness.  I hope that my recipients enjoyed them as much as we did here.

I would like to express my thanks to Merunnisa from Come.Con.Ella. for her delicious brownie roll out cookies. Pat from Pat's Kitchen for her seriously moreish Chocolate frostbite cookies. And finally Victoria from Victoria Sponge, Pease Pudding for her lovely festive Brandy soaked cranberry, Golden pecan and Dark chocolate Christmas cookies.

Coconut and raspberry cake

I had been looking forward to making this coconut and raspberry cake for a while so admit to having a minor meltdown when it started to go horribly wrong...

The cakes looked good, and the raw batter was insanely delicious. Once stone cold on went the jam, so far so good. Then I made the coconut butter cream, was my recipe wrong, was it the fact I used lactofree spread instead of butter or was it that my kitchen was too warm? Who knows but the second the cakes were sandwiched together the top one started to slip and slide, there was coconut buttercream everywhere. I shoved it in the fridge muttering about wanting to throw it out of the window.

I should note that I have made buttercream many a time and have sandwiched together many a cake, the buttercream did not seem too loose. maybe the weight of the top cake was just too much?

An hour or so later and the buttercream had firmed up, I ran a palette knife around the edge and the cake was not a complete disaster. It was only for me and Mark to eat anyway, I would not have given it to anyone in that state.

The cake does taste very good and I imagine it tastes even better with slightly more filling, I guess I lost at least a 1/3.

If you like the sound of this cake please do not be put of by my mishap. Just make sure your buttercream is very very firm indeed, refrigerate it before sandwiching cakes if need be.

Leaking buttercream!!

Coconut and raspberry cake

175g butter

175g caster sugar

175g self raising flour

1 ½ tsp baking powder

3 eggs

50g desiccated coconut

30ml coconut cream

140g icing sugar

50g butter

20ml coconut cream

Raspberry jam

Preheat the oven to 180C/160C FAN. Grease 2x 20cm round cake tin and line the bases.

Beat the butter and sugar until light and creamy. Beat in the eggs one at a time. Beat in the flour and baking powder 1/3 at a time until just incorporated, do not over beat. Fold in the coconut and coconut cream.

Divide the batter between the prepared tins and smooth..

Bake for 25 minutes until golden. Loosen the edges and allow the cake to cool in the tin for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack and allowing to cool completely.

Beat the butter, icing sugar and coconut cream together. Sandwich the cakes together with the jam and the buttercream.

Dairy free coconut cake

Still on my two weeks of no dairy. Mind you without these two weeks I would not have discovered coconut oil. It smells like summer in a jar! It has various uses in cooking but I used it, instead of butter, as the fat component of my cake.

This cake is a simple flavoured one, it is not overly sweet, in fact not sweet at all, and has subtle coconut, almond, and honey flavours. The almond taste comes from the huge quantities of ground almonds in this cake, there is very little flour at all.

Dairy free coconut cake

60g coconut oil
2 eggs, separated
120g honey
3 tablespoons almond milk/ soy milk/ rice milk
200g ground almonds
55g plain flour
tsp bicarbonate of soda
50g desiccated coconut

Preheat the oven to 160C/140C FAN. Grease (with a little oil) a springform cake tin. Line the base with parchment paper.

Gently heat the coconut oil until it has just melted. Mix together the egg yolks, milk and honey, add in the coconut oil, taking care that it is not so hot that it scrambles the eggs!

To the wet ingredients add the flour, bicarbonate of soda, coconut and almonds and mix to just combine. 

Whisk the egg whites to stiff peaks, stir a third into the cake mix to loosen. Gently fold in the remaining egg whites. Pour the batter into the prepared tin and level the top. Bake in the preheated oven for ~30 minutes 

Leave to cool in the tin for 15 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Its really good with banana ice cream on the side! It is just as lovely with a morning or afternoon cup of tea. It keeps really well, I am on day four and it is still fantastically moist.

n.b. you could easily make this cake gluten free by using either a gluten free flour blend or coconut flour

Dairy free, gluten free 'Candy bars'

Uh oh. Stomach pains are never good, so off the the doctor I went. Everything super bad ruled out. Current thinking is IBS triggered by excess dairy or maybe even a mild lactose intolerence.

I was not impressed. I appreciate many people live with this but it would mean a HUGE change in my baking habits. Then a glimmer of hope, I only have to give lactose up for two weeks to see if my symptoms completely disappear. After that I should be allowed a small amount (phew chocolate stays!), I reckon I can still bake the way I always did with maybe a few tweaks along the way.

However that does not help me for the coming weeks, no butter, milk, yoghurt, cream, sour cream, creme fraiche, caramel, chocolate, cheese etc.

I do have cake recipes that are oil based instead of dairy so that is a good option for cake. Its a little tricky should I want any sort of luscious creamy frosting. I reckon I could make a brownie that contained no butter too. What about biscuits? I am not a fan of margarine and have never made a biscuit with oil, research and experimentation required I think.

I actually decided I wanted some sort of nutty chocolate fix and stumbled across these 'Candy Bars' from Gwyneth Paltrow's book 'Its all good'. In a quick aside this book has received some stick, and while I do not think elimination diets and detoxes are necessary, and if I ignore some of the waffle about food we are 'all' allergic to, it actually has fantastic recipes, that are healthy, packed full of goodness and more importantly all the ones I have tried are packed full of flavour and super delicious.

Sorry for the waffle, back to the 'Candy Bars', they are not a candy bar in the traditional sense, these are no snickers, but they do taste fantastic. Nuts, maple syrup, sticky dates, and intense dark chocolate are a winning combination in my book!

Candy Bars (Gwyneth Paltrow, its all good)

200g plain cashews
240g dates, weighed without stones, roughly chopped
50g desiccated coconut
170g almond butter (If you cannot find almond butter this could work with peanut butter too)
125ml maple syrup
100g dark chocolate (I used green & blacks)

Line a small traybake tin with baking paper.

Put the cashews in a food processor and pulse until finely ground. Add the dates, coconut, almond butter and maple syrup. Pulse until the mixture is combined and forms a ball of sticky dough. 

Transfer this dough to your prepared tin, press into all the corners and level with your hands. Slightly damp hands will stop the mixture sticking to you.

Put in the fridge for 5-6 hours to set. Once set gently melt the chocolate, pour on top, and gently spread out with a spatula to cover the whole surface. Put back into the fridge for and hour before cutting into bars and devouring. 

update: perhaps cut them before the chocolate has completely set otherwise it cracks

Keep in the fridge, they will keep for up to two weeks.

I think these taste really really good, they have texture, are just sweet enough and the dark chocolate gives a sophisticated edge.

Gwyneth says that they can also be stored in the freezer. I like them this way best but Mark likes them from the fridge. The chocolate from the freezer and the chew from the bar reminds me a little bit of a choc ice!

Jammy coconut squares

I made these for Mark to take to work. In the interests of research I decided to try one. It turns out they are addictive and very scrummy. I could not leave them alone and ended up polishing off at least half over the course of 5 days. Oops. There were still plenty for Mark though, he also declared them scrummy. I can see these being made again in the not so distant future and I would not change a thing.

The only down side is that they do take a little time and effort, though they are not complicated. It is not a bake that can be made and cooked in under an hour. But as they say, good things come to those who wait!

Jammy coconut squares

for the base

175g plain flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
30g butter
50g caster sugar
2 large egg yolks

for the topping

200g raspberry jam
175g dessicated coconut
175g caster sugar
4 egg whites
50g plain flour

Preheat the oven to 160C/140C FAN and grease and line a brownie pan, or similar with baking parchment.

Mix the flour and baking powder then rub in the butter until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Stir in the sugar, then mix the egg yolks with 2 tablespoons of water. Add the egg mix to the dry ingredients and mix until well combined.

Press the base into the prepared tin. Do not panic, there IS enough mix, you do have to press it really thin to get it to cover the base but are rewarded with a decent base later on. Bake for 15 minutes until lightly golden then leave to cool completely in the tin.

When the base is cool you can assemble the topping. To a saucepan add the coconut, sugar, one of the egg whites and 2 tablespoons of water. Gently warm over a low heat, stirring constantly until the sugar has dissolved and the mixture is thick and paste like. Add the flour and cook, stirring constantly, for 1 minute. Tip the mixture into a large bowl and let cool slightly.

Whisk the remaining 3 egg whites until stiff peaks form. Stir ~1/3 of the egg whites into the cooled coconut mix to loosen it. Gently fold in the remaining egg whites, half at a time.

Spread the jam over the cooled base, then top with the coconut mixture, making sure to spread it out evenly.

Place in the oven (preheated, as above) and bake for 25-30 minutes until the coconut is golden and toasted.

 Cool the mixture in the tin before cutting into generous squares! 

Nigella breakfast bars

So that is it. Lent has begun and so has my abstinence from chocolate. I would not call myself a complete and utter chocoholic, yes I love it and yes, if I am honest I have it most days, however I do not have it multiple times a day and occasionally turn it down (!) so therefore do not feel a complete addict...

The lovely Mark has decided to abstain too which makes both out lives easier, I do not have to watch him chomping it and he does not get biffed on the nose for wafting it in front of me one too many times.

A mini problem arises as I realise that he takes his breakfast to work everyday. His favourite cereal bar. His favourite chocolate cereal bar.

With this thought in my mind I began to think more about the commercial cereal bar. Most of which are full of sugar and not much goodness, and do not keep a man, or woman for that matter, full till lunch time.

I had heard a few people rave about the Nigella breakfast bars so decided to see if I these would be a more nutritious, more filling and chocolate free breakfast.

They are full of good things, oats, plain nuts, mixed plain seeds, dried fruit, a little unsweetened dessicated coconut and condensed milk. These seemed to me a much better thing to eat for breakfast regardless of whether or not they contained chocolate.


The exact recipe can be found here. The beauty of this recipe is that it is adaptable to suit your own tastes. I made a few tweaks myself. Firstly I used light condensed milk, it tastes the same and gives the same baked result. I also altered the amount of nuts and seeds slightly, purely based on the size of the bag the shop sold. Mark also requested prunes instead of apricots.

I had a couple of these myself as snacks before dance classes when tea was going to be late. They really kept me going, are very filling and most importantly delicious.

In the coming weeks these bars will be tweaked a number of ways for new exciting breakfasts and snacks. I have an idea involving apples, raisins and hazelnuts, if they turn out well I will be posting that recipe here very soon.

Cardamom, coconut and vanilla cupcakes

I absolutely love cardamom in baking, it adds such a lovely warmth and flavour to biscuits and cakes. The other week I had a fantastic cardamom crème brulee that reminded me just how much I love it.

I had some coconut milk left over from a curry on Friday and an idea was born. Coconut and cardamom are always combined in curries to delicious affect and I saw no reason why combining them in a cupcake would not be as equally delicious.

I only made 6, there are only two of us! The recipe is easily doubled.

Cardamom, coconut and vanilla cupcakes

For the cakes

65g butter
65g caster sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla paste
seeds of 5 cardamom pods, ground in a pestle and mortar
1 egg
65g self raising flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
2 tbsp coconut milk

For the frosting

60g butter
125g icing sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla paste
2 tbsp coconut milk


Preheat the oven to 180C/160C FAN and line a cupcake tin with cases. 

Beat the butter, sugar, vanilla and crushed cardamom seeds together until very light and fluffy. Add the egg and beat for a further minute.

Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula and add the flour and baking powder, beat until just combined. Add the coconut milk and beat for a further minute.

Divide the cupcake mix between the cases and bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes. When done the cupcakes should be golden and springy. Transfer the cupcakes to a wire rack to cool completely. 

To make the the frosting beat together the butter, icing sugar, vanilla and 1 tbsp of the coconut milk until very light and fluffy, add the remaining coconut milk and beat again. Refrigerate for about 20-30 minutes. Once the cupcakes are completely cool pipe swirls of frosting onto each cupcake.

These cupcakes are lovely and light with the warming, aromatic cardamom really coming through. The cake is complemented perfectly by a creamy luxurious frosting.

I am giving these cakes full credit for helping me get through my science report! It is my firm believe that  cake will help any form of writers block/work issue.

Lime and coconut cupcakes

I made these a few days ago, mainly as I wanted to bake something using the lime curd I had recently made.

They are simply a coconut flavoured cupcake, with a lime curd filling and a coconut buttercream. Sometimes I find that coconut buttercream made with coconut milk a) does not really taste that coconut-y and b) unless I making something else with coconut is quite wasteful. I tried an experiment with a block of creamed coconut and am pleasantly surprised by the results, especially in the buttercream.

Lime and coconut cupcakes

makes 12

125g butter
125g caster sugar
2 eggs
125g self raising flour
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
2 tbsps of milk
10g of creamed coconut

Lime curd

80g butter
250g icing sugar
2 tbsps milk
10g creamed coconut


Preheat the oven to 190C/170C FAN and line a cupcake tin with cases. Gently heat the milk with the coconut, with gentle stirring, until the coconut has melted into the milk. Remove from the heat and leave to cool. 

Cream the butter and sugar5 for ~ 5 minutes until light and fluffy. At the eggs and mix for another minute. Add the flour and bicarbonate of soda and beat slowly until just incorporated. Add the cooled coconut-y milk and beat for a final minute. Fill the cupcake case2/3 full, I use an ice cream scoop for ease. 

Bake for 20-25 minutes until golden and springy to the touch then transfer to a wire rack to cool. 

Once the cakes are cool, use a knife to take a cone from the cupcake, make sure you keep it! Fill the cupcake with lime curd, place the cone back on top, the cone may need a little trimming to refit. 

To make the frosting gently heat the milk and coconut as before and set aside to cool. Beat the butter and icing sugar together, it should come together after a while. Add the cooled milk and continue beating until light and fluffy. 

Place the frosting in the fridge to set up a little then pipe onto the cupcakes.

These are indulgent little cupcakes with an uplifting zing from the lime curd.

Pineapple and coconut cupcakes

The sun has finally come out! Time for some sunny baking to accompany it.

This is a slightly tweaked recipe from the hummingbird bakery cookbook. The tweaks did not alter the amount of ingredients so I was very surprised at the amount of batter I got. I have normally found that when a hummingbird recipe says makes 12 cupcakes it means 14-16! I halved this recipe to make 6 but honestly think I would have been better making 4. I do not think it is my liners as I have not had this issue with other cupcake recipes. Just something to bear in mind if you make these, they will either be smaller, or you will end up with less then you expect.

The cakes themselves are light and fluffy, their size appears to be totally down to amount of batter, they have not sunk and become dense and heavy, quite the opposite. The pineapple and coconut combo helps keep them really moist. They have a subtle background coconut flavour and the pineapple is a nice contrast. The frosting is lovely and light. I would personally love to pack a little more coconut flavour into the frosting, but adding too much more coconut milk is going to alter the consistency too much I fear. 

Definitely a cupcake I will be making again, I just will not be halving the recipe next time!

Pineapple and coconut cupcake (adapted from hummingbird bakery)

makes 12


80g plain flour
40g self raising flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
140g caster sugar
40g butter
1/2 tsp vanilla paste
120ml coconut milk
1 egg
180g crushed pineapple, drained


250 icing sugar
80g butter
40ml coconut milk
dessicated coconut to decorate.


Preheat the oven to 170C/150F and line a cupcake tin with cases.


Add the flours, baking powder, sugar and butter to a bowl. Beat until the mix comes together and looks 'sandy'.


Add the coconut milk and vanilla paste and beat until the mixture comes together. Add the egg and beat until fully incorporated, making sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl. 


Finally stir in just over half the pineapple.

Put a little pineapple into the bottom of each case. Top with batter until each case is 2/3 full. Bake in a preheated oven for 20-25 minutes, until golden and springy when lightly pressed. 


Leave to cool on a wire rack.


When the cupcakes are fully cool, they can be frosted. Beat the butter and icing sugar until they start to come together, add the coconut milk and continue to beat for ~5 minutes until very light and white in colour. Pipe the frosting onto the cupcakes and sprinkle with dessicated coconut. 

p.s. I promise to try very hard to not mention the weather in my next post, this is in danger of becoming some sort of British weather blog.

p.p.s I will of course have to mention the weather if we get a blizzard mid june...

Lemon and coconut squares

So I asked M if I should bake biscuits, cupcakes or a traybake. He said traybake, excellent I thought, I  had wanted to try out blondies with pecans and peanut butter chips. Alas he did not really want nuts and thought that brownies made with white chocolate would be too sickly sweet.

So back to the drawing board. He then said he remembered something from his childhood. A lemon coconut square thing. He remembered it had lemon and coconut and that it was really nice.

So working on limited information I tweaked a lemon square recipe, adding coconut to the biscuity base. Upon eating them they were declared yummy but not like the ones from his youth. These, in fact, we have worked out seem to have a 15 (digestive, marshmallow, coconut and condensed milk) base topped with more of a lemon icing, not a baked curd. I will never make these as 15s are so excruciatingly sweet that it hurts, and with more sugary icing on top I think I would have a hyperglycaemic attack! And so I am afraid it is my lemon coconut hybrid that will have to be put up with. And yes I do see the irony that he will eat the sugar fests of his youth but not a white chocolate brownie. Mind you he has said he is willing to be proved wrong.

The recipe below produces lovely lemon squares, the curd is definitely lemony enough, and the coconut adds a welcome different dimension to the shortbread style base.

Lemon Coconut squares


For the base:


230g plain flour
85g icing sugar
160g butter
100g dessicated coconut


For the topping:


3 lemons
4 large eggs
400g caster sugar
50g plain flour


Heat the oven to 180C/160C fan and line the sides and base of your tin with baking parchment. A brownie pan is the perfect size.


Put the base ingredients into a food processor and whiz until it forms fine crumbs. Tip into the prepared tin and smoothly level with the back of spoon, ,pressing it down lightly. Bake for 20-25 minutes. 




For the topping finely grate the zest of the lemons, and squeeze all the juice, you need 100-120ml. Whisk together the eggs and sugar, using an electric whisk for 1 minute. Add the zest and juice and whisk briefly to mix. Add the flour and whisk well to mix.


Pour the topping over the base and bake for 15-20 minutes, until the topping has just set.

The topping about to go into the oven

Leave to cool completely in the tin. I had to cover with foil and put it in the fridge overnight.


Lift out of the tin using the paper and dust with icing sugar. Cut into bars and enjoy.

Milk chocolate and coconut biscuits

Now I cannot tell a lie, I am new to the joys of coconut. Oh I have long enjoyed it in savoury dishes, but sweet and coconut, for me, were NOT a match made in heaven.

However I have suddenly developed a love for most things coconut (not all, I will never like the bounty bar...). After the yummy success of vanilla coconut cupcakes, I wanted more coconut in my life.

This weekend was one of those times where I wanted to bake but did not want anything complicated, not lots of stages, no separate elements, no piping bag etc. By fabulous coincidence I had read a very simple looking biscuit recipe earlier that week and it contained coconut. It seemed obvious what I had to do...

The recipe in question can be found on the caked crusaders blog, I urge you to have a look at this blog, it has cakes galore and I want to make everything!

I admit I did half the recipe as I was not sure how many biscuits I would end up with. I shaped them using my tablespoon and ended up with 14 nice sized biscuits.

I used dairy milk chopped up as my milk chocolate, when I use milk chocolate in baking I tend to buy milka, galaxy or dairy milk depending what is the best price, it is so much cheaper than buying ready chopped chocolate chunks. And inevitably there is always some left over for the chef to munch!

These biscuits are light and crumbly, and quite frankly absolutely divine, they do last a few days in an air tight tin but I am not entirely sure I see them lasting that long at all!

Vanilla coconut cupcakes - Cupcake book club

Kelly, www.americancupcakeabroad.com, has the most fantastic blog, everything looks yummy, don't read it if you are hungry!

In a fantastic flash of inspiration she has started a cupcake book club, the basic premise is to read a book with a foodie theme then bake a delicious treat inspired by the book. You can read all the details here, why don't you join in?

This months book is called Love in the making (also called Semi sweet: A novel of love and cupcakes) by Roisin Meany and it centres on Hannah opening a cupcake shop in Ireland. Lots of flavours of cupcake are mentioned but not specific execution, which allows you to be creative.

The words vanilla coconut jumped out at me and that was the starting point for my cupcake.

I made a vanilla cupcake filled with a coconut pastry cream, this was frosted with a marshmallow frosting and the whole thing topped with toasted dessicated coconut.

Vanilla Coconut cupcakes

makes 12

For the cakes:

125g butter at room temperature

125g caster sugar

1 tsp vanilla paste (what I would recommend) or 1 tsp vanilla extract (NOT vanilla flavouring)

2 medium eggs at room temperature

125g self raising flour

½ tsp baking powder

3 tbsp milk 

For the pastry cream:

2 egg yolks (you will use the whites in the frosting)

50g caster sugar

12g plain flour

175ml coconut milk (I used light)

For the marsmallow frosting:

225g caster sugar

3 tablespoons water

2 egg whites at room temperature

pinch salt

pinch cream of tarter

First make the pastry cream to allow it time to chill in the fridge. 

In a bowl, whisk the egg yolks with the sugar and flour until light and thick. 

Put the coconut milk in a saucepan and bring it slowly just up to the boil. Pour the hot coconut milk onto the egg mixture slowly, whisking all the time. Return the mixture to the pan and stir over a low-medium heat until it comes up to a gentle boil. (It must boil for it to thicken.) Continue to cook, stirring all the time, for 2 minutes or until it has thickened.  Mine thickened very quickly.

Remove the saucepan from the heat and pour into a bowl.

Cover with Clingfilm, the surface of the Clingfilm must touch the custard or a skin will form, and allow to completely cool in the fridge.

Next make the cakes. Beat your butter, sugar and vanilla together until very light and fluffy, this can take up to 7 minutes (!) depending on the speed of your mixer, thankfully it takes me about 3-4.

Add the eggs one at a time and beat for a further two minutes.

Add the flour and baking powder and mix until just combined. Finally add 3 tbsp of milk and mix till combined

Fill each of your cases 2/3 full and bake in a preheated oven at 180/Fan 160^oC for ~20minutes. They are done when they are lightly springy on top. Allow the cakes to fully cool on a wire rack. 

Once the cakes are completely cool cut out a cone and fill the cavity with the pastry cream, put the cone back in, trimming it to fit. 

Next make the frosting. In a small saucepan, combine the caster sugar with the water and bring to a boil over a moderately high heat, stirring constantly until the sugar has dissolved, this will take ~2 to 3 minutes.

Beat the egg whites (with a hand or free standing electric whisk) with the pinches of cream of tartar and salt until soft peaks form.

With the mixer at medium speed, carefully pour the hot sugar syrup into the egg whites, make sure you keep whisking as you pour the syrup in.  Continue beating the frosting until cool and billowy, the bottom of the bowl should feel cool, this will take about 5 minutes. 

Pipe swirls onto the top of the cupcakes and top with toasted dessicated coconut. (to do this just put dessicated coconut in a pan and toast lightly till golden, keep an eye on it, it will turn very quickly).

These cupcakes are one of the nicest I have eaten in a long time, the flavours and textures are made for each other. The general consensus is that the frosting could be eaten straight from the bowl with a spoon. Nb. Do keep an eye on your frosting otherwise partners/lodgers/houseguests might just well attempt to do this from under your nose...

The only downside was I gave most of these away as gifts. I am under strict instructions to make them again soon and this time not let one solitary cupcake out of our front door!