This is one of my favourite cake recipes, more like the coconutty version of the classic vanilla cake, but I'll choose coconut over vanilla cake any day, anytime. 

I made this over the weekend for my little brother's birthday. I was super busy that day so the cake was last minute (because how can we not eat cake on a birthday) plus we aren't that crazy about frosting in my family so I just quickly dusted some icing sugar on top and voila! everyone is happily munching. 

Ingredients:

1/2 teaspoon of salt

1 cup of butter

1-1/2 cups of sugar

4 medium-sized eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon of coconut extract

1 cup of fresh coconut milk

1/4 cup of dessicated coconut

Procedure:

1. Gather your materials: Start off by measuring out the dry ingredients and wet ingredients and placing them in bowls, this is to avoid leaving out anyone during the preparation and if there's anyone in the fridge like egg and butter, allow it to come down to room temperature. 

Prepare your baking pan by brushing with a little butter or oil and dusting with flour, keep aside. Then preheat your oven, if you don't have, you can use an old pot with a lid, just place a rack in it so the cake pan is not touching the bottom of the pot directly to avoid burning.

2. Mixing the dry ingredients: Add the flour, the baking powder and salt in a medium sized bowl and mix thoroughly to combine.

3. Creaming the butter and sugar: Place the butter a d sugar in a bigger bowl and whisk till the butter turns from yellow to a slight milky colour, a handmixer or electric mixer will make things easier if you have one.

Proceed to add in the eggs one at a time whisking thoroughly after each one. 

Add in the vanilla and coconut extract. 

4. Combining the wet and dry ingredients: This is done in bits, first pour half of the flour mixture into the egg mixture till it's a little bit combined, pour in the coconut milk and mix again, then lastly add the remaining flour mixture and mix to combine. You can switch and use a spatula for this to avoid overmixing the batter. Lastly, add the dessicated coconut, mix to combine the pour the batter into the prepared pan.

5. Bake: Bake the cake in the preheated pot on medium heat for 50-55 minutes (or in a preheated oven at 180°C) till a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Also when the cake is done, it tends to separate from the sides of the pan. Bring it down, allow to cool slightly then place it on a rack to cool completely. 

6. Serving: You can serve it just like that as a snack for tea or other beverages, or you can take it up a notch by decorating with your different choices of frosting; buttercream frosting, coconut cream filling, toasted coconut shavings etc. I dusted mine with some icing sugar.

Got any questions? Let me know in the comment section below.
Made this recipe? Tag me @onceuponafoodlover or #onceuponafoodlover, I'll love to see.
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