Lemongrass Coconut Cake

Whilst I am quick to dismiss those who express surprise that I still manage to bake with a small baby in the house - I just enjoy it, I'm not Superwoman - I have to admit that I'm finding myself increasingly drawn towards a simpler style of cake nowadays.  I've never been one for overly-elaborate baking, I don't really have the patience for that, but right now my very favourite things to make have to be super-low-effort, super-tasty, and ideally keep super-well so I don't feel that I have to eat it all too quickly before it goes stale (one of the perils of being at home all day).

Nigella's Lemon Syrup Loaf Cake fits the bill very nicely and is one I make often (the link will take you to a nice write-up and the recipe on another blog).  The addition of the lemony syrup poured over the still-hot cake keeps it beautifully moist, and I can have the whole thing made, baked and mixing-bowl washed up within the hour.

But thanks to a cooking group that I am part of on Facebook, I have discovered a new favourite:  Lemongrass Coconut Cake.  When I saw the name I thought I'd like to try it, but when I saw how amazingly simple the recipe was I just knew I'd have to bake it.  This is a cake from Rachel Allen's latest series (and I assume an accompanying book?) 'Cake Diaries', but the recipe can be found online here. 

As you can see, it's one of those lovely bung-it-all-in-a-food-processor recipes - fabulous!  The smell of the lemongrass as it's blended into the sugar is incredible, and I have to say that the unbaked mix nearly didn't make it into the tin as it was so flipping delicious.

Once baked it looked plain, yet elegant, and when I'd doused it in the syrup I sprinkled over a little more dessiccated coconut; the recipe calls for 125g and I'd bought a 150g box of it so this seemed a good way to use up the annoyingly small amount left over. 

The recipe suggests serving this as a dessert, but the first few slices were simply eaten alongside cups of tea and coffee.  Last night however we did have some for pudding, accompanied by the creme fraiche indicated in the recipe, but also with some chunks of papaya spritzed with lime juice.  We ate papaya regularly when we lived in Brunei, so as well as being a perfect marriage of Asian flavours, this was a little trip down memory lane. 

Definitely a winning recipe, I think I'll be baking this one again and again.

Impossible Coconut Pie

I suppose it's the mark of a successful recipe when you dig into the dish so quickly that you don't have time to take a photograph of it first!

That was certainly the case with this pudding, the 'Impossible' Coconut Pie, taken from the 'Food and Wine' magazine and passed on to me by my Canadian friend Jody.  Having finally managed to source desiccated coconut here in Brunei (in Le Apple Bakery, for any readers in Brunei who may be interested) I ended up making this dish twice in one week, once for personal consumption (well, I did share it with Rob!) and then once as a contribution to a pot-luck supper with my colleagues. 

Two huge pies, and this was the point at which I finally managed to point my camera towards it:

The 'Impossible' in the name of this pie is down to the fact that it seems to miraculously form its own crust when baking - in fact it forms 2 crusts: a soft and slightly chewy bottom layer, and a cakey top layer.  In the middle is a delicious coconutty-egg-custard.

The recipe can be found here, on the Food and Wine website, but I made a couple of adaptations so 'my' recipe for it follows:

Impossible Coconut Pie

½ cup melted butter, plus more for greasing
1 cup sugar
4 large eggs
½ cup self-raising flour
2 cups unsweetened shredded coconut
2 cups milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and butter two 9 inch glass pie plates, or 1 large pyrex dish.

In a large bowl whisk the melted butter and sugar.

Add eggs and beat until smooth. Stir in the flour, coconut and milk.

Divide mixture between the two pie plates - or pour it all into the large pyrex (the mixture is very liquid) - and bake in the lower third of the oven (unsure if this is necessary when you have a fan-oven as I do...) for about 1 hour until pies are firm to the touch and golden.

My large pie was ready in an hour (when the middle stops wobbling!) but I covered it with foil after about 40 minutes as I thought it was browning rather too fast. 

This is most definitely a 'pudding' - not as glamorous as a 'dessert' - but homely and comforting.  It doesn't look beautiful (in fact it looks rather plain) but tastes divine.  We ate it warmed on its own, cold on its own, and hot or cold with ice-cream, but it would certainly be great with cream or custard too.