Taste-wise, it was lovely- obviously I am not doing anything new with the pineapple-coconut flavour combination, but it came off well as a cake. For the cake itself, I used a Nigella recipe for a coconut cake. The original recipe uses a coconut buttercream as the filling, and I just switched it with some of my pineapple curd. I haven't tried the original, so I can't compare, but I did like my version's contrast of sweet coconut with tangy pineapple. I was a little apprehensive about part of the recipe- you soak the desiccated coconut in 150ml water, and then put all of it into the cake batter- I wasn't sure if adding so much water would make the cake heavy. But in reality, it came out as a very light sponge. I kept the topping the same- just an icing made with Malibu- but I sprinkled on the zest of a lime, which was my own touch, and one I would keep for this recipe.
Cake
25g unsalted butter, softened
225g caster sugar
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
4 eggs
200g self-raising flour
25g cornflour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
50g desiccated coconut, soaked in 150ml boiling water
Filling
About 6 tbsp pineapple curd (see recipe)
Topping
2-4 tablespoons Malibu
125g instant royal icing
Preheat the oven to 180C / 160C fan, and line two 20cm sandwich tins. At this point, I boiled the kettle and soaked the dessicated cocount- you need to give it time to cool before adding it later. Cream the butter until pale and fluffy, and cream in the sugar. Beat in the vanilla extract. Mix in one egg, along with a tablespoon of self raising flour. Repeat with the 3 other eggs (again, with a spoonful of flour with each one). Sift in the remaining flour with the cornflour and baking powder, and fold in. Finally, fold in the coconut and water. Divide between the tins and bake for about 20 minutes, until a skewer comes out clean. Let them cool for about 5 minutes, then gently remove them from the tins, and let them cool completely on a wire rack.
Place one n the cakes on a plate, and spread over the curd. Put the over cake on top. Sift the icing sugar into a bowl, and mix in the Malibu. Spoon and smooth over the top of the cake. Enjoy!
