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—
- 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.
- Place a large sifter or a sieve in a large mixing bowl. Add the flour, baking powder, salt and cardamom and sift.
- Add the coconut and sugar to the flour mixture and whisk to combine.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the eggs and coconut milk.
- Gradually add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir until combined.
- Finally, add the melted butter and stir until smooth.
- 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.
- 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.