Coconut sandwich cake with coconut buttercream

Whilst rummaging through my larder cupboard this week I found something I’d bought a while back and not really considered since: cream of coconut. I got it from a large off-licence and it’s meant for making cocktails, hence the rather snazzy squeezy bottle. Far more practical too as, once you open a tin how do you store any leftover coconut cream?

But what to do with my coconut cream? As I pondered the question the Universe revealed the answer to me. Maybe Noel Edmonds was right with his ‘cosmic ordering’. Maybe I have stumbled upon a baker’s belief system ‘cosmic cake ordering’? For no sooner did I think of how to use my ingredient than I came across this recipe!

I would describe this cake as a classic crumbly coconut sponge teamed with a rich, flavoursome buttercream. The addition of the jam adds a fruity kick and stickiness that works well with the sponge.

We all agreed that the buttercream to sponge ratio was spot on – usually you wouldn’t top a sponge sandwich with buttercream but this is so flavoursome with coconut that the more the better! I love it when you fill a sponge with jam and buttercream and the two start to amalgamate – mouth wateringly yummy!

And that concludes another successful day’s baking:

Ingredients

For the cake:

175g unsalted butter, at room temperature
175g golden caster sugar
175g self raising flour
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
3 eggs
50g desiccated coconut
2 tablespoons coconut cream

For the buttercream:

280g icing sugar
100g unsalted butter, at room temperature
3 tablespoons coconut cream

For the filling:

5 tablespoons raspberry jam

Method

Preheat the oven to 180˚c/fan oven 160˚c/350˚f/gas mark 4

Line the base of two 20cm round sandwich tins with baking paper.

Place the butter, golden caster sugar, flour, baking powder and eggs into a food processor and blitz until completely smooth. You can also do this with an electric mixer.

Stir in the coconut and coconut cream.

Spoon the mixture into the two prepared pans and level the surfaces.

Bake for approximately 25 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the sponges comes out clean.

Cool in the tins for 10 minutes and then turn out the sponges to cool completely on a wire rack.

The cakes can be stored in a tin at this point and kept for a day until you fill them.

Now make the buttercream: place all the ingredients in a bowl and mix until smooth and light.

Now you can assemble the finished cake: place one sponge (flat side up) on a plate and spread the jam over it.

Spread just under half the buttercream on top of the jam and top with the other sponge (flat side down).

Spread the top with the remaining buttercream.

Bask in the glory of the wonderful thing you have created.

Eat.