Coconut Cake with Lemon Syrup

Wow, it's be ages since I've posted on blogger!  The user account has changed-but I like it!  I have no excuse for not posting on blogger.  I'm still baking but unfortunately I've gotten lazy in posting them.

The reason why I've suddenly resurfaced is that this next recipe is for a little assignment I have to do in my of my classes.  Many of us get stressed from the daily grind within our lives, and it's important to give ourselves a little bit of love in the form of self care.  Self care is doing something for you, whether it's physical like bike riding; relaxing like meditating; or in my case baking, which can be messy, but fun, you just have to take some "me time" once in a while.

With that being said, I decided to make a Coconut Cake with Lemon Syrup, taken from Donna Hay's book Modern Classics, Book 2.  I have to admit that my motivation in baking this particular cake was the photo in the book.  The cake looked beautiful drizzled with lemon syrup, garnished with what looked to be crystallized lemon peels on top.  Unfortunately my cake didn't look nearly as good as Donna Hey's version, but coconut and lemon is a great combination.  Happy Baking! 

~Ann

Coconut Cake with Lemon Syrup

125g (4oz) butter, softened
2 teaspoons finely grated lemon rind
1 cup caster (superfine) sugar (I used granulated sugar)
4 eggs
2 cups desiccated coconut
1 cup plain (all-purpose) flour, sifted
1 teaspoon baking powder, sifted

Lemon Syrup
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup (2 fl oz) lemon juice
3/4 cup (6 fl oz) water
1/2 cup shredded lemon rind

Direction

1) Preheat the oven to 160C (325F)
2) Place the butter, lemon rind and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat until light and creamy. Add the eggs gradually and beat well.
3) Fold through the coconut, flour and baking powder.
4) Pour the mixture into a 20cm (8 in) round cake tin lined with non-stick baking paper and bake for 45 minutes or until cooked when tested with a skewer.

Lemon syrup

1) Place the sugar, lemon juice, water and melon rind in a saucepan over low heat and stir until the sugar is dissolved.
2) Allow to boil for 5-7 minutes or until syrupy.
3) Pour half of the hot syrup over the hot cake in the tin.  Remove the cake from the tin, slice and serve with the remaining syrup and think (double) cream.  Serves 8-10.