Coconut Orange Cake

I had an urge to bake a cake yesterday. As you do. Well as I do anyway and after getting so wrapped up in The Great British Bake Off recently but not having enough time to bake, ignoring this urge was just not an option. I think seeing all their wonderful cake creations on there inspired me to make a cake just for the sake of it! Because who says a cake has to be for a special occasion? I definitely don't need an excuse to eat cake...

The question was what to put in it. For some reason, I got it into my head that I wanted to make a coconut-y cake, but with something a little more unusual. My inspiration came from some orange and coconut tea that my mum tried the other day and said worked beautifully together. I'd never have put orange with coconut but after trying this cake, I can safely say it definitely works. I think there's something a bit autumnal about oranges too and the dessicated coconut inside the cake just gives it a bit of extra crunch. Actually, the recipe comes from my very trusty Be-Ro book that I am sure I must have mentioned before. It basically has every basic baking recipe in there that you could possibly ever want, in particularly simple steps! I just changed it slightly and used coconut milk instead of ordinary cow's milk to bring out the coconut flavour a little bit more. But I have to say, my favourite part has to be the icing. It's loosely based on a coconut icing from the Hummingbird Bakery 'Home Sweet Home' book, with the addition of orange zest and juice. I spent several minutes scraping the bowl very carefully after I'd iced the cake to make sure I hadn't left any icing in the bowl that I could have eaten!! 

The end result was not a disappointment and I think this will be something I will be making again. Sitting down to a slab of coconut orange cake and a cup of tea whilst listening to the wind howling around outside is my idea of a Sunday afternoon...

Coconut Orange Cake

Ingredients:
Cake:
225g Self Raising Flour
Pinch Salt
100g Margarine
100g Soft Dark Brown Sugar
50g Dessicated Coconut
1 Egg
3tbsp Coconut Milk
1 Orange, grated rind and juice
Icing:
250g Icing Sugar
80g Unsalted Butter
2tbsp Coconut Milk
1tbsp Orange juice
Zest of half an orange

Method:

1. Grease and line 2 cake tins.
2. Preheat oven to 180 degrees.
3. Mix flour and salt together and rub in margarine.
4. Stir in sugar, coconut and orange zest.
5. Beat together eggs, orange juice and coconut milk.
6. Mix together to a soft consistency.
7. Place in prepared tins for about half an hour, until an inserted skewer comes out clean.
8. Remove from tins and allow to cool.
9. Whilst cakes are cooling make the icing by mixing the icing sugar and butter together with an electric whisk until combined.
10. Add the coconut milk, orange juice and zest and mix again until light and fluffy.
11. Once cakes have cooled, spread just under half the icing on top of one of the cakes.
12. Sandwich the other cake on top and spread the top and sides with the remaining icing.
13. Sprinkle with some orange zest and toasted coconut then cut yourself a generous slice and enjoy!  

Spiced Iced Apple Buns

This post has been ready to write for a while now - it's just finding the time to get round to it! Anyway, here goes... As I mentioned in my previous post, we've had a glut of apples from our apple tree so I tried to be experimental and find something a bit out of the ordinary to make with them. With the help of my best friend foodgawker (which if you love to salivate over lots of delicious-looking recipes, is definitely the website for you!) I came across this very autumnal recipe for baked doughnuts. The combination of cinnamon, apple and maple syrup instantly appealed to me and I just had to give it a go! I don't think you can beat these flavours put together, especially at this time of year as the weather is starting to feel a bit more blustery and the leaves are starting to turn those beautiful shades of red and orange. I do love Autumn. 

But you may be wondering why I've not actually called these little buns doughnuts. Well that's because they didn't really taste much like doughnuts, not like any doughnuts I've ever tasted anyway! Don't get me wrong, they tasted wonderful and it was like taking a bite of autumn with every mouthful, but they just weren't quite how I'd imagined. As my cousin (who is 11) said to me after eating one, they failed as doughnuts, but they tasted even nicer! I like how he put that and I think it was a quick comeback after seeing my hurt face after he'd said the word 'failed'! But I have to agree with him - they did fail as doughnuts, although they did succeed as iced buns!!

I'm not quite sure how you can make doughnuts taste like doughnuts if you're not frying them, but when it said they were baked I was intrigued...I will be on the lookout for another baked doughnut recipe I think. Another good thing about them I guess, is that they really are quite healthy. Aside from the maple syrup you use to sweeten them, the tiny bit of oil and the icing sugar on the glaze, there's really not a lot of anything you shouldn't be eating in there. Which gives you an excuse to make lots of them! Oh and if you're wondering how I got the holes in the middle since I don't have a doughnut pan, I used a muffin tin and put a ball of foil in each cup which kind of worked for most of them....It was all a bit of an experiment anyway, but I definitely urge you to give them a go! 

Spiced Iced Apple Buns

Ingredients:

Buns

130g Plain Flour

1 1/2 tsp Baking Powder

1/2 tsp Cinnamon

1/8 tsp Nutmeg

1/8 tsp Allspice

1/4 tsp Salt

100g Maple Syrup

60ml Apple Cider

90g Apple Sauce

1tbsp Vegetable Oil

1 tsp Vanilla Extract

Icing

130g Icing Sugar

2 tbsp Apple Cider

Cinnamon Sugar Topping

50g Granulated Sugar

1/2 tsp Cinnamon

1/8 tsp Nutmeg

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.
2. Grease muffin tin and place foil balls inside each cup.
3. Combine flour, baking powder, spices and salt in a bowl.
4. In a separate bowl, whisk together the maple syrup, apple cider, apple sauce, oil and vanilla extract.
5. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and mix until just combined.
6. Spoon or pipe mixture into muffin cups.
7. Bake for 8-10 minutes, until the dough springs back when pressed.
8. Remove from oven and allow to cool before removing and placing on a cooling rack to cool completely.
9. To make the glaze mix the cider and icing sugar together in a small bowl.
10. In another bowl combine the sugar and spices for the topping.
11. Dip the top of each bun into the glaze and sprinkle with the sugar topping.
12. Allow to set and enjoy!