Bounty Cake: a coconut cake with chocolate buttermilk icing
So you’ll like this. For my new job, I do all sorts of bonkers things (like cooking Christmas dinner in October, but that’s another story), but it does give you lots of new ideas. I’ve been working on cupcakes recently, and this is how I started with the Bounty cake idea. I was trying to think of a nice icing to go with a coconut cupcake. I have a really nice lemon cream cheese icing recipe, which would be fab with ginger or carrot cupcakes but somehow it just didn’t seem right with the coconut. And then it hit me: what better combination is there than coconut and chocolate? And so the Bounty cupcake was born. This is its older brother: just as nice, you just get to have bigger portions. Result.
For the coconut cake:
150g soft butter
250g caster sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs
300g self-raising flour
40g desiccated coconut
250ml buttermilk (if you can’t find it, make your own by squeezing the juice of half a lemon into 250ml milk)
For the ganache:
175g bar dark chocolate (or white would be lovely)
Leftover buttermilk (or cream)
So preheat your oven to 180/gas 4 and line a baking tin with greaseproof paper (one with a removable bottom – ooer – is good here). Give it a brush round with some soft butter too, just to make doubly sure it won’t stick. Whack it in the mixer, or just beat the butter and sugar until they’re light and fluffy, then add in the vanilla and the eggs, beating well after each addition. Then just bung in all the dry ingredients, pour over the buttermilk and stir gently until just combined. Pour the mixture into the buttered tin and bake for about 40 minutes until the top is golden and a knife poked into the centre comes out clean. Mine was going a bit too brown on top, so I covered it with foil for the last 5 or 10 minutes. (Obviously if you’d prefer, you can spoon the mixture into about 12 cupcake papers. They’ll only take about 20 minutes to cook.)
Take the cake out and leave it somewhere to cool. Then make your ganache. Melt the chocolate in a bowl over a pan of hot water (turn the heat out once the water is bubbling otherwise it will spit boiling water at you). As soon as the chocolate’s about there, take it off the heat and let it cool a bit, before whisking in a splosh of buttermilk, then another, until the mixture gets to a spreadable consistency. Put the icing in the fridge. You’ll get the same result if you use cream, but somehow the buttermilk gives it a more ‘grown up’ tang which works well with the dark chocolate.
When the cake is cool, take the icing out of the fridge and whisk it, preferably with an electric whisk. This will incorporate a bit of air and make it fluffier and paler. Don’t worry if you whisk too far and it goes grainy and solid – splosh a bit more buttermilk in, whisk it a bit more and it’ll recover. Spread all over the cake, sprinkle on some desiccated coconut and stuff into face, preferably with a latte, a roaring fire and a very fat, spoilt greyhound for company.
28 Responses to “Bounty Cake: a coconut cake with chocolate buttermilk icing”
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Anyway, I’m all bah humbug about Halloween. It seems to be an Irish/American thing. We never went trick or treating back in England. I’d rather go and see the new Bond film which is out on the same day! xx
(wipes face and keyboard)
I think I might make one!
Looks great, this cooking thing must be rubbing off on me, I cooked last night for Mrs M, and we have agreed that I will now always cook at the week-ends …. hold tight, I am reaching for the recipe books as we speak, all healthy stuff though ….. detox time !!!!
But my birthday is coming up in a few weeks, and will need a caaaaaaake….hmmmmmmm
Thrifty: Sadly, everyone liked it in my house. Then Mr and Mrs Lovely came round and they like coconut too. And now there’s none left. *sob*
Moon: I happen to have a recipe book in the barrel. Swap you for a camera? No? Damn.
Susan: Ooh yes. Maybe you could try the white chocolate version? I’d like to see what it looks like – bet it’s pretty x
Tina: For you? Course! Except it’s all gone. Boo. x
DBM: Ugh. I have to say, I remember coconut being really disgusting, but this stuff surprised me, it was kind of like shards of coconut rather than the dry, dusty stuff I remember. Still, I’m with you on Bond. I’ll be there drooling on the first night x
Baino: Ooh, it would be good for breakfast too, no doubt!
Cortes: Me too. Yes give it a try. Dying to see how other people get on with this one.
However…
Not
Helping
My
Diet
(The bag of Maltesers and large measure of Bailey’s last night did not help either).
Looks absolutely dee-lish EM.
http://englishmum.com/2008/04/12/cheese-bread-wedges/
Impossible to eat just the one, especially hot out of the oven!!
Jenn: Oops, sorry. Ooh, Maltesers and Bailey’s though – that sounds like a combo made in heaven. Would make a lovely cheesecake… x
We have a deal in our house, Mrs M cook during the week, I do it at the week-ends, so I need some help…
All brown Rise, pasta etc, fresh veg, salads that kinda thing …fish etc
http://englishmum.com/2007/12/26/baked-salmon-parcels/
and Hubby’s chilli couscous is awesome:
http://englishmum.com/2008/06/21/hubbys-evil-chilli-couscous/
Ooh, or Tamarind chicken noodles (you can make it into a nice hot and sour soup too):
http://englishmum.com/2007/10/01/tamarind-chicken-noodles/
I’ll work on some more for you x
Come on, I need some inspriation .. I need Gordon Ramsey in my kitchen (but I do have a little soft spot for him …. A little gay I know !)
Luckily for me, neither of my dogs like chocolate because the kind I eat could kill them if they stole it. I love the dark sort – Lindt 70%, Green and Blacks 70%, or the Maya Gold! YUM!!
OK, I admit it. I love milk chocolate too. And cake. And I quite like coconut. I am NOT writing down this recipe. Uh-uh.
Nope. Not. Writing. It. Down.
*Slaps own wrist*
Aw man, and Maya Gold… droooooollllll x
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