This cake absolutely dreamy. Soft and buttery, full of coconut and lemon flavour, layered with luscious lemon and cream cheese icing.
This is my husband Che’s favourite cake. If he had to choose one dessert to have for the rest of this life this would be it. Coconut and lemon make a great match in this cake, the coconut is soft and buttery and the lemon gives it a nice tart kick. The cream cheese icing is literally the icing on the cake and it’s the perfect way to finish it. It’s creamy, light and lemony.
The base is consists of ingredients you would usually find in a sponge cake, like flour, eggs, butter, and sugar but it’s all the coconut and lemon flavour that’s crammed in there that makes it so great.
The coconut comes from not only the desiccated coconut that’s added to the batter. It also comes from the full cup of rich coconut milk that’s added instead of regular milk. Then there’s a nice big helping of lemon zest and juice for zingy fresh flavour.
I’ve made it a triple layer cake as it makes it look a little grander, and as I usually make this to celebrate a birthday, something grand is always nice. I make it a triple layer in a 17cm cake tin, but a double layered cake in a 23cm cake tin would work too. Just bake for a little longer.
I don’t have three separate 17cm cake tins, only two so the batter for the third layer has to sit and wait 30 minutes before being baked but I find it doesn’t affect the last cake layer.
Ingredients
- 2 1/3 cups (350g) plain flour, sifted
- 1 cup (100g) desiccated coconut
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 200 g unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1 1/3 cup (300g) white sugar
- 4 eggs
- 1 cup coconut milk
- 1/2 cup lemon juice (about 3 lemons)
- Zest of 3 lemons
- 220g soft cream cheese
- 120 g unsalted butter, room temperature
- Zest of 1 lemon
- Juice of 1 lemon
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 3- 3 1/2 cups icing sugar
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180 Degrees Celsius
- In a large bowl, combine the sifted flour, coconut, baking powder, baking soda and salt
- In a stand mixer bowl, combine the butter, sugar and lemon zest and beat on high until light and creamy. Lower the speed and beat in the eggs 1 at a time
- Add in the coconut cream and lemon juice (it's okay if the mixture looks like it has split)
- Fold in the dry ingredients so they are well incorporated but not over mixed
- Divide the mixture into three greased and lined 17cm cake pans or two 23cm cake pans
- Bake each 17cm cake for about 25 minutes, and each 23 cake pan for about 30-35 minutes until a skewer poked in the middle of the cake comes out clean
- Leave each layer to cool completely before icing
- In a stand mixer, beat the cream cheese and butter together until light and creamy. Add in half the icing sugar, zest and salt and beat well.
- Drizzle in the lemon juice and add the remaining icing sugar and beat on high until thick and creamy.
- Ice the cake by sandwiching the layers together with the icing then spreading another layer on top. Sprinkle on some extra desiccated coconut as decoration if you like.
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