Coconut & Cardamom Cake

Coconut & Cardamom Cake

This cake is wonderful for morning or afternoon tea. No fancy equipment needed: two bowls and a wooden spoon or whisk and you’ve got this. It’s got two of my favorite flavors, coconut, and not too much cardamom. My wedding cake was a coconut cake, so I’m sentimental for it. It’s moist, so can be simply dusted generously with confectioners’ sugar, like all my cakes in Simple Cake.

Makes:
One 8 by 2- inch round cake
One 9 by 5-inch loaf pan. Bake for 50 minutes.
One 10 1/2 by 7 1/2-inch rectangular ceramic dish. Bake for 30 minutes.
One 12-cup cupcake pan. Bake for 17-20 minutes.

Photographs: Hallie Burton

Ingredients—

1 cup (130g) all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

 ½ teaspoon ground cardamom

1 cup (70g) fine dried shredded unsweetened coconut

¾ cup (150g) granulated sugar

2 eggs, at room temperature

⅔ cup (160ml) well-stirred unsweetened coconut milk

8 tablespoons (1 stick/115g) unsalted butter, melted

Preparation—

  1. Preheat the oven to 350F. Grease an 8 by 2-inch round pan with butter, line the bottom and sides of the pan with parchment paper. Alternatively, grease the pan and dust with coconut, shaking off any excess. 
  2. Place a large sifter or a sieve in a large mixing bowl. Add the flour, baking powder, salt and cardamom and sift.
  3. Add the coconut and sugar to the flour mixture and whisk to combine.
  4. In a small bowl, whisk together the eggs and coconut milk.
  5. Gradually add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir until combined.
  6. Finally, add the melted butter and stir until smooth.
  7. Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake in the center of the oven for 30 to 35 minutes or until a wooden skewer inserted in the center comes out clean, and the cake bounces back when lightly pressed. 
  8. Remove the cake from the oven and let it stand for 10 minutes. Run a butter knife around the cake to gently release. Peel off the parchment paper from the sides. Invert the cake, peel off the bottom piece of parchment paper, and cool on a wire rack.