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!