Coconut Snowman Cake
I hope everyone has had the happiest of festive periods and
done lots of Christmas baking. Before you all go on the New Year health kick, I
thought I’d share my most recent endeavour. Being a massive baking nerd, I
organised a Christmas Bake Off at work to raise money for Crisis – helping give
homeless people somewhere to stay over the holidays. Not only was it a really
great cause, but it was an excuse to make a ridiculous cake…
Ingredients
12oz butter
12oz caster sugar
6 Eggs
15oz self-raising
flour
1 ½ tsp baking powder
6oz desiccated
coconut (plus extra for decorating)
4-6oz evaporated milk
Pinch of vanilla bean
paste
For the decoration
Butter
Icing sugar
Desiccated coconut
Coconut essence
Jam
Royal icing
Preheat the oven to 150⁰C/Gas Mark 5 and grease a
medium-sized pudding basin and small hemisphere pan.
Lightly whisk the eggs with the vanilla bean paste. Add a
little at a time with a small spoonful of flour, mixing as you go, until all of
the egg has been added in.
Stir in the desiccated coconut and evaporated milk, a little
less for a wet mixture or a little more for a dry one.
Fill the pudding basin ¾ full and the hemisphere pan,
keeping some mixture back for a second hemisphere pan.
Bake until cooked through and spongy to the touch. The basin
will take at least an hour and a half/two hours and the hemisphere pans about
an hour each. Cool the sponges on a wire rack.
To make the butter icing, cream butter and icing sugar
together and add a very small drop of coconut essence. Cover the basin in
icing, and use the jam and a long cocktail stick through the top of the two
hemisphere pans to make the snowman shape. Cover the head entirely in icing,
then press desiccated coconut all over and use a fork to fluff it up and create
the texture.
Roll out some royal icing to make a scarf and carrot nose and use chocolate
buttons for eyes…and there you have yourself a ridiculous (but tasty) snowman.
Happy baking everyone x