Orange & Coconut Cake

When I first saw this recipe, it didn't jump out at me. There's no chocolate in it so I was about to scroll past it. Luckily, I kept reading. Shez, from One Bite More, described this cake as the best cake she has ever made. I had to give it a try. I'm not a baker so I was not looking forward to screwing up this recipe. It's rare that I make delicious baked goods. An hour and a half later it was out of the oven. It smelled amazing. I waited for it to cool and drizzled some glaze over it along with some coconut. It was delectable! The cake was moist and light, kind of like a sponge cake. It had the chewy texture of the coconut inside and the sweetness of the glaze. It came out PERFECT! That says a lot coming from me. Try this cake. It will not disappoint.

Recipe

Ingredients
225g butter
1 3/4C sugar
2tbsp raw cane sugar
4 eggs
1/4C orange juice
2tbsp orange zest
250ml natural yoghurt
1 1/2C plain flour
1C shredded coconut
1 tsp baking soda
1 cup icing sugar
orange juice (just enough for the glaze)
1/4 shredded coconut (topping)

Directions
1. Let the butter come to room temperature. Chop it into fat cubes and toss it in the large bowl of a stand mixer with the sugar and grated palm sugar. Beat until it is light and fluffy and pale. (If you don’t have a stand mixer, a hand held mixer or a wooden spoon + enormous biceps will do the job too).
2. Zest the orange and then juice it. I got slightly less than 1/4C of juice. Toss the juice, zest, eggs and yoghurt into the butter mixture and stir well to combine. It will look lumpy and curdled but that is ok.
3. Sift the plain flour and baking soda into the bowl then toss the shredded coconut in as well. Stir well to combine.
4. Tip the mixture into a well greased kugelhopf tin and bake it in a 170C oven for an hour, checking at 50 minutes to see if it’s done. A skewer poked through the middle of the cake should come out with a very light crumb attached. Let the cake cool in the tin for 10-15 minutes before upending it onto a rack to cool completely.
5. Add a little bit of orange juice to the icing sugar until you get the consistency of a glaze. Drizzle it over the cake and sprinkle some coconut on top.

Food For Thought: It would also be really good if the oranges were replaced with lemons! Lemon and coconut is a good combination... OR limes!