I round off my coconut theme with a Loaf Cake, for no other reason than knowing the half used pack of tropical snowflakes can sit around pretty for only so long.
Should you audit the above picture, you will note that I am not entirely in compliance with PH's recipe. Not that I disagree with the flavor alchemist he is, I just had to consider the adventurous streak of my tasters, many of whom aren't really so. In order to retain their gamely support, I decided to make a few tweaks to the underlying components.
First I replaced ground coriander with lime, a time tested partnership, I'm sure you will agree. Going a step further I replaced the rum in the soaking syrup with lime juice, to keep the simple flavors pronounced. Removing the rum was a tough call, believe me. But I'm sure I'll more than make amends in no time.
My favourite thing to do with dry spices and nuts, or in this case, coconut, is to toast them. This releases the flavors held their oils and hightens their presence in any dish they are called for.
The flavor punch of any citrus fruit is packed in their zest, so long as you keep the bitter whites out. The punctuation of these jade green specks against the pastle cream is a welcome addition I look forward to seeing in the final product.
The butter is creamed in a seperate bowl, until a pool of pale, light, shining cream results.
The above is self explanatory. However I would just like to take a moment to say, gosh I do love my eggs.
Under normal circumstances the butter, sugar and egg would have come together to form a smooth creamy mix. As you can see from the above, mine was not the case. For reasons beyond me, the trio simply refused to come together. Instead I had an emulsion gone terribly wrong.
No matter, we bravely forge on. In goes the toasted coconut, and what a saviour that proved to be, bringing the gobular mess together, readying it for the remaining flours to be incorporated.
Into the oven it goes, until a golden pillow emerges.
While waiting for the cake to bake, I made a magic potion of simple syrup and lime. Add as much or as little sugar / lime juice to suit your taste, I held back on the sugar and went all out with the cutting acid instead.
The application of the soaking syrup is as follows: Without waiting for the cake to cool, I docked the crust with a fork and started painting it with the syrup solution, as a warm cake would soak up the lovely liquid much more readily then when cooled.
Now would be the time to let the cake cool down and rest, for the egg protein to strengthen and give support to the moist rich cake. Wait, and you shall be rewards.
Taste Test: A visually pleasing cake when sliced, the specks of green delivered as promised. The taste? Yum. The coconut provided a warm, lingering background and merried delightfully with the cutting lime. A gamble paid off.
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