Baking with Sam! I like making little sweets for Samantha. I don’t mind that she has a little sugar now and then, especially if it’s something I’ve made at home and I know exactly what went into it.
This coconut tea cake is a great example. Sure, it has sugar and butter, but also unsweetened coconut milk and shredded unsweetened coconut. She loves it!
Coconut Tea Cake
By Dorie Greenspan in Baking: From My Home to Yours.
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
Pinch of salt
1 cup canned unsweetened coconut milk, mixed well
1/2 stick (4 tablespoons) butter, cut into 4 pieces
4 large eggs
2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 teaspoons dark rum (optional)
3/4 cup shredded coconut
Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350. Butter a 9- or 10-inch (10 to 12 cup) Kugelhopf or Bundt pan, or use an unbuttered silicon pan. Don’t place the pan on a baking sheet. You want the oven’s heat to circulate through the inner tube.
Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together.
Pour the coconut milk in a small saucepan, add the butter and heat until the milk is hot and the butter melted. Remove from the heat but keep warm.
Working with a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat the eggs and sugar at medium-high speed until pale, thick and almost doubled in volume, about 3 minutes. Beat in the vanilla and the rum, if you’re using it. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the dry ingredients, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed and stopping just when the flour disappears.
Keeping the mixer on low, add the coconut, mixing only until it is well blended, then steadily add the hot milk and butter. When the mixture is smooth, stop mixing and give the batter a couple of turns with a rubber spatula, just to make sure the ingredients that may have fallen to the bottom of the bowl are incorporated. Pour the batter into the pan and give the pan a few shakes to even the batter.
Bake for 60 to 65 minutes (though mine was done in 45), or until the cake is golden brown and a thin knife inserted deep into the center comes out clean. Transfer the cake to a rack and cool for 10 minutes before ummolding onto the rack to cool to room temperature.
Makes 10 servings.
