Coconut Snowman Cake

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.

Cream the butter and caster sugar together until fluffy.

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.

Sift in the remaining flour and baking powder and mix until smooth.

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