Hello everyone, it’s been such a long time since I put a post on I feel as though I’ve fallen off my bike and forgotten how to get back on again. It’s lovely to be back though and thanks to everyone who asked for the recipe for this blueberry and coconut cake. Your kind requests have brought me back, not quite kicking and screaming, to my long suffering blog which for one reason and another stops and starts like an old banger of a car.
I have literally made thousands of cakes over the years, selling many of them at my weekly stall at Wyken Hall Farmers Market, but my husband thought this was the best cake I have ever made, so that is certainly saying something. He doesn’t have a particularly sweet tooth so he’s not a great fan of cakes with huge amounts of buttercream or big fudgey chocolate affairs, although, thinking about it, I have never seen him turn down a slice!
This cake came about because of a tub of lonely blueberries I had sitting in the fruit bowl. I put a handful on my breakfast yoghurt in the morning and although I ate them they were not the sweetest or most tasty of berries. As I couldn’t imagine anyone else finishing them up, they were destined for the chicken coop. Rather than give them to our hens I thought it would be a good idea to use them up in a cake, which killed two birds with one stone as the cake tin was looking noticeably unemployed. An empty cake tin at any time, let alone in the summer holidays is classed as a sin in this house, so after a reccy in the cupboards I came up with this.
Served warm with vanilla ice cream, it would also make a great dessert.
Hopefully you will like it as much as the Dickson household!
- 175g unsalted butter, softened
- 175g golden caster sugar
- 150g plain flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 125g desiccated coconut
- 3 eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
- 3 Tbs milk
- 200g blueberries
- 1 lemon
- 60g granulated sugar
- Preheat oven to 170c (fan)
- Using an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar together until really pale and fluffy (about 5 minutes).
- Sift the flour and baking powder into the bowl and then add the eggs, vanilla, milk and coconut. Beat together until everything is mixed together.
- Manually fold in just over half of the blueberries, taking care not to crush the berries. The mixture will be quite stiff.
- Spoon into the prepared tin, smooth the top and scatter over the remaining blueberries (don't push them in).
- Bake in the oven for 45-50 minutes until golden brown, raised and firm to the touch in the middle.
- Ten minutes before the end of baking, grate the lemon and put the zest into a small bowl, mix with 30g of the sugar.
- Juice the lemon into a small pan with the other 30g of sugar and cook gently until the sugar has melted then simmer rapidly for 3-4 minutes.
- When the cake is cooked, remove from the oven and scatter the lemon zest and sugar. Spoon over the hot sugar and lemon mixture. Leave for a few minutes until the tin is cool enough to handle then remove the cake and leave to cool on a wire rack.
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