Coconut Meringue Cake

I was fortunate to have a 3 week hiatus between my previous and new jobs.  The unusual luxury of time has permitted me to kick off this blog, and also permitted me for midweek afternoon bakes.  After a leisurely London day featuring lunch in South Ken with my Dad, I returned to my kitchen a couple of weeks ago now ready to bake a cake for dessert that evening.  This recipe caught my eye as I love coconut (and cake) and have the American sweetened coconut to use up.  This turned out to be the toughest interpretation yet, as the quantities in the transcribed recipe were just plain wrong unfortunately.  It resulted in one batch thrown out, which the Aberdonian in me is loathe to do, and some google-consultation.  The first final product was tasty, but not ideal, so I had 2 more attempts (over a course of days you understand!) and I'm pretty pleased with the final result.  I'll describe the 3 variations below, but first, the final recipe:

The recipe with the actual amounts used, and Chrissie's quantities in brackets for info:
100g Butter(1 tablespoonful)
70g Sugar (1 tablespoonful)
135g Self-raising flour (1 teacupful flour + 1 teaspoon baking powder)
2 egg yolks (same)
Meringue:
3 egg whites (2 egg whites)
70g caster sugar (3/4 cup)
1 cup shredded coconut (same)
100ml milk (this was my addition)

Instructions:
- Grease a round cake tin (I used 8 inch) and preheat the oven to 175 degrees celcius.
- Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy
- Add egg yolks and 100ml milk and beat only long enough until all are well mixed
- Sift in the flour and fold in with a metal spoon
- Spoon the mixture into the greased cake tin and smooth out until evenly spread
- In a clean and dry bowl, whisk the egg whites until they are beginning to form soft peaks
- Add the caster sugar and continue to whisk until stiff peaks form and the mixture can be held upside down - it should be a glossy consistency
- Fold in the coconut until mixed - try and avoid having to stir for very long
- Spoon the meringue mix onto the cake mixture and again spread until even across the cake
- Bake for 35 minutes in the pre-heated oven - cake is ready when a cocktail stick comes out clean

I found a recipe on allrecipes.com for a coconut meringue cake which seemed similar, so that became my guide for the quantities, although I didn't exactly follow that one either.  

In the end, this is undoubtedly my favourite recipe to date, the resulting cake was delicious and interesting, and very moist and sweet (once the consistencies are correct!)

The original instructions:

Beat butter and sugar, add beaten yolks
Add flour and B.P.
Beat whites stiffly, add sugar and coconut
Put mixture in greased tin with meringue on top
Cook till set 1/2 - 3/4 hour

Sponge

I am a keen baker, and have over the years been perfecting my own sponge recipe which is prepared most frequently as cupcakes.  I'm interested in perfecting the ideal sponge and my own version is a traditional mix which starts with a creamed butter and caster sugar mix.  When I saw a sponge recipe in Chrissie's notebook which followed a method of whisked eggs first mixed with the caster sugar, I was curious to try it to see whether it should impact my own sponge recipe.  This is a fairly common method followed by many as it offers a light and fluffy sponge....let's see.

As with many others in Chrissie's repertoire, the instructions were limited, the recipe written as follows:

Fellow baker, Pamela
Abernethy

Sponge

4 eggs, separated

4oz self-raising flour

2 oz cornflour

4 oz caster sugar

Vanilla

1/2 oz of butter

4 tablespoons of boiling water

Beat egg whites stiffly

Whisk in sugar till glossy

Whisk in yolks 1 by 1

Fold in flours

Melt butter in water and add

Bake in 2 tins for 20 minutes

My mother, Pamela Abernethy, provided a helping hand in this cooking experiment.  One of the basic, yet crucial techniques for any baker is the whisking of the egg whites.  For anyone who is unfamilar, my mother has provided her top tips:

We were nervous to add the melted butter in case it did remove the air from the batter, but a quick stir in prior to transferring to our pre-greased tins did the trick.  We used two 8" tins, however with hindsight 7" would have been preferable.  We baked at approximately 325 degrees farenheit (using an Aga so temperatures are never guaranteed).  Again, would have preferred a hotter oven - perhaps 350 degrees.  Due to the heat of the oven, the cake did not develop a particularly deep golden colour, so we perhaps over baked it.  I wouldn't expect this cake to take much colour, nor did it rise a great deal.  I would suggest baking for 15 minutes and testing it after that point to see if it's ready.

The results were good, a very light sponge and quite a structured sponge, maintaining its shape.  I imagine this method would be effective for a more formal celebration cake such as a wedding cake.  In memory of Chrissie, we sandwiched the sponge with a raspberry jam and whipped cream filling and dusted with icing sugar.  It went down very well!