There was some coconut in my fridge inching its way to its expiration date and I have a lemon tree spitting old lemons at the backyard cats, so staying true to my credo bake it before it goes bad I made a Lemon Coconut Tea Cake.
I know lots of people don’t like coconut ( I don’t understand it, but I respect it) and while I would never force cake upon someone against their will, I must say that the coconut flavor is a whisper and it is the lemon flavor that wins the flavor battle.
Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour ( I didn’t have enough, so I used cake flour. Here’s a trick I just learned you can substitue cake flour for all-purpose flour, but you have to put in 2 tablespoons per cup of extra flour) or 2 cups and 4 tablespoons cake flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup lite coconut milk
1/4 cup of butter
Zest of 1 lemon
juice of 1 lemon ( I upped this from the juice of 1/2 of a lemon because I knew that half a lemon without its peel was just going to go bad)
4 large eggs at room temperature
2 cups of sugar ( I used 1 3/4 cups natural sugar substitue and because I ran out of that, I used 1/4 of regular sugar)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 teaspoons dark rum ( I skipped this. I didn’t have any and didn’t want to purchase a whole bottle for just a couple of teaspoons.)
3/4 cup shredded coconut
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Grease a 10-12 cup Bundt pan
Shift flour, baking powder and salt together
Put coconut milk and butter in a small saucepan and heat, stirring occasionally. When the milk is hot and the butter is melted remove from heat. I let it cool a tiny bit (5 minutes) then I added in the lemon zest and lemon juice.
Beat eggs and sugar/sugar substitute at a medium high speed until pale, thick and almost doubled in volume. I beat mine for about 6 minutes and it had a lovely creamy texture.
Beat in vanilla and rum(if you’re using it)
Fold in flour at a low speed, scraping the sides of the bowl as needed.
Add coconut and mix. Add the hot milk and butter in a steady stream into the batter. When mixture is smooth , stop mixing and stir to make sure everything is well blended.
Bake for 60-65 minutes or until cake is golden brown and knife comes out clean.
I normally try to avoid cakes with lots of eggs in them, but I couldn’t resist with this one. It’s really yummy and perfect with tea.
I used up
sugar substitute
coconut milk
and made a good dent in the shredded coconut