Coconut Cake With Lemon Icing

This is my favourite cake to make for birthday celebrations. All the ingredients are usually in the pantry, so it can be whipped up on a whim. The icing tastes like traditional coconut ice and the cake is light and fluffy — a beautiful combination.

COCONUT CAKE WITH LEMON ICING RECIPE
Serves 10

125g butter
¾ cup caster sugar
2 eggs
½ tsp coconut essence
½ cup desiccated coconut
1 ½ cups self-raising flour
Zest of 1 lemon
250g sour cream
¼ cup milk

Coconut Ice
2 egg whites
2 cups icing sugar
1 ½ cups shredded coconut
Drop of food colouring

1. Preheat an oven to 170C. Grease and line a 23cm cake tin.

2. Cream the butter and sugar until light in colour. Add the eggs and coconut essence beating through.

3. Gently stir through the coconut, flour, zest, sour cream and milk until well combined. Pour the batter into the tin and place into the oven for 1 hour. Cover with tin foil after 30 minutes to prevent browning. Remove and cool in the tin.

4. For the coconut icing, lightly whisk the egg white with a fork. Sift in the icing sugar, add the coconut and a dot or two of colouring. Remove the cake from the tin and top with the icing.