Pineapple and coconut sponge

It has felt so cold this week that I have been reminiscing about when I used to have to travel for work and got to dodge some of Winter’s bleakness with trips to glorious places such as the Bahamas and Cayman Islands.  I don’t miss the travel at all – in fact I love getting to sleep in my own bed every night – but a bit of sunshine wouldn’t go amiss. I had ice on the inside of my car windscreen this week – the inside!!!

My choice of bake was to capture the feeling of more tropical climates – for me, this is always pineapple and coconut; two flavours I adore.  The addition of sour cream to the sponge created a soft crumb texture.  This is a dangerous cake in that you could happily work your way through several slices in one sitting…..hypothetically, of course…..this didn’t actually happen….oh no….never…not my style….

I decided to make this all about the sponge so didn’t bother with any icing or buttercream, opting for a light dusting of icing sugar – we call this ‘Fannying it’.  Fanny Cradock fans out there will understand what I mean by this; whenever she made anything and it didn’t look too pretty or seemed burned, she would always bury it under about 3 inches of icing sugar to hide the defects (usually claiming it was what they did in Paris!) – her lovely mincemeat omelette is a good example.  There was nothing to hide with this bake, but I ‘fannyed it’ anyway!

Ingredients

165g unsalted butter, at room temperature
165g caster sugar
3 eggs
375ml sour cream
300g self raising flour
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
225g desiccated coconut
300g pineapple, crushed or in chunks – I used tinned, and drained the crushed pineapple in a sieve to stop it being too wet

To decorate: 2 tablespoons icing sugar

Method

Preheat oven to 180C/fan oven 160C/350F/Gas mark 4.

Line a 23cm springform round tin with baking paper – don’t be tempted to gamble and use a 20cm tin; it’s a big cake.

Beat together the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy.

Beat in the eggs, one at a time.

Fold in the sour cream.

Fold in the flour and bicarbonate of soda.

Stir in the coconut and pineapple.

Spoon into the prepared tin and level the surface.

Bake for approximately 45 minutes -1 hour or until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean.  Mine took an hour.

Leave to cool in the tin for about 20 minutes before de-tinning and leaving to cool completely on a wire rack.

Just before serving, dust the top of the cake with icing sugar.

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

Eat.