VANILLA SPONGE WITH SHREDDED COCONUT TOPPING

I have an additional reason to look forward to birthdays these days. A birthday in the family would mean yet another cake post. 

My father in law, like my father, prefers vanilla cakes to chocolate and he doesn’t like frosting on his cake much. I couldn’t bake a plain vanilla for a birthday so I decided to make a Vanilla sponge with shredded coconut topping.

consistency of batter 

finished batter 

 I DO NOT LIKE COCONUT and neither does Skip nor Husband. And yet I went ahead and baked a coconut cake for the birthday, you would wonder? Well, for all the coconut haters out there, do not skip reading this post or baking this cake. The cake is light and airy (the vanilla sponge is not the same as in my previous recipe) and the coconut topping makes the cake moist in the middle and crunchy on top and bursting with sweet coco-nutty flavour. If you want, you could skip the topping and just bake the cake but I would really, really recommend that you make the topping too.

This recipe is adapted from Ria’s Collection.  It’s called the Lazy Daisy cake (I don’t know why).

VANILLA SPONGE WITH SHREDDED COCONUT TOPPING

Ingredients:

For the sponge

Eggs – 2

Sugar – 1 cup (or slightly lesser)

Plain flour – 1 cup

Baking powder- 1 tsp

Milk – ½ cup

Butter – 1 ½ tbsp

Salt – ¼ tsp  

Vanilla extract – 1 tsp

For the Topping

Butter – 4 tbsp

Brown sugar – ½ cup (or slightly lesser)

Milk – ¼ cup

Grated coconut- 1 cup

Method:

1.      Preheat the oven to 180C. Grease the tin.

2.   For the cake- In a mixing bowl, beat the eggs until frothy. Then add sugar, and beat at high speed until the mixture is thick and lemon coloured (7-10 mins).

3.      Sift flour, baking powder and salt and stir into the egg mixture.

4.    In a saucepan, heat the milk and butter together and bring it to a boil and then immediately add to the above mixture.

5.     Beat to combine.

6.      Bake until done (in my oven, it took 25 mins), let it cool.

7.      While the cake is cooling, prepare the topping.

8.  For the topping- mix all the ingredients together in a saucepan and cook on medium heat till the butter fully melts.

9.      Poke holes in the cake and spread the topping on the cake.

10.Bake for another few minutes at 180C until the topping is golden brown and bubbling.  

11. Done.

Recipe Notes:

·     I always slightly reduce the quantity of the sugar when there’s a topping on the cake because I don’t like my bakes too sweet.

·   You may also reduce the quantity of the coconut to suit your taste but 1 cup spreads perfectly over a 9 inch cake.

·      I have used freshly grated coconut. You may use sweetened coconut in which case, I would recommend reducing the quantity of sugar that goes into the topping.

·        The recipe doesn’t call for vanilla essence but I just add it to almost all my cakes.

·        I didn’t have brown sugar at home, so I used Demerara sugar instead.

VANILLA SPONGE WITH BUTTERCREAM AND PRALINE

Ain’t the cake looking pretty? Like caramel popcorn?

And to think I almost dumped the cake and the frosting into the bin.

I am not a professional baker and I haven’t attended any baking/cake decorating classes. I have had very few mishaps while baking. I always follow instructions and use the exact measurements as shown in the recipe.  I am also a paranoid baker especially when it comes to baking for special occasions (I stand frozen in front of the oven). I realised it’s also important to tell readers what mistakes not to make and this would be the ideal post for that.

I decided to bake a cake for my father’s birthday. He is not a big fan of chocolate cakes so I decided to bake a vanilla sponge with buttercream.

I promptly scrolled through cake recipes on Ria’s Collection and decided on baking the PralineVanilla Sponge Gateau 

The sponge cake as seen in the recipe is fatless and doesn’t use any leavening agents (Baking Powder/Baking Soda). Paranoia set in and as I hadn’t baked this cake before, I decided to make the sponge cake from Rachel Allen’s Swedish Almond Cake. The recipe was shared by Shugz, one of my WhatsApp Friends. Shugz is our desi Nigella. I ought to get her to do a post for us. She bakes the most amazing (looking and tasting) cakes.

The buttercream and praline are adapted from Ria’s blog.

VANILLA SPONGE WITH BUTTERCREAM AND PRALINE

Ingredients:

For the sponge                                              

Eggs – 3 (room temperature)

Castor (powdered) sugar – 150g

Plain flour – 150 g

Baking powder- 1 ½ tsp

Milk – 3 tbsp

Butter(melted) – 75 g        

Vanilla extract – 2 tsp

For the Buttercream

Butter, softened – 75g

Icing Sugar – 140g

For the Praline

Butter – 1 tbsp

Cashew nuts – 2 tbsp

Sugar – 3 tbsp

Method:

1.      Preheat the oven to 180C/160C (fan). Grease the tin.

2.    To make the praline- Melt sugar on medium flame until it begins to brown. Add nuts and butter to it and mix well. Stir for a few minutes until the mixture turns brown. Pour onto butter paper and let it cool completely. Once cooled, crush it into tiny bits. Set aside.

3.      For the cake-Melt the butter, let it cool.

4.     Using an electric beater, whisk together the eggs and sugar for 5-7 mins, or until thick and mousse like.

5.     Sift in the flour and baking powder and gently fold. Add the vanilla essence, milk and melted butter, then fold everything until combined. Bake for 25 mins or until done.  Let the cake cool completely.

6.      For the buttercream- Mix butter and icing sugar with the beater until it is fluffy.

7.      Pipe the buttercream onto the cake and sprinkle the praline on it.

8.      Done.

Recipe Notes:

·     Do not keep the caramelised sugar on the flame for long. Sugar burns easily.  Keep stirring continuously to prevent it from burning. 

·     You may reduce the quantity of sugar in the buttercream or praline, else the whole combination gets a bit too sweet.

·     I’ve made this cake without the beater, just using a whisk/large spoon. It still turns out great.

I got back home early so I could get good pictures of the cake in natural light and started off with great aplomb. I first made the Praline and that came out great.

I was happily beating the eggs and sugar with the cake beater (unlike on a previous occasion when I used the food processor/mixie to beat the eggs and the cake fell flat L) when the bowl tilted, tipping most of the contents on the kitchen slab! (never use the food processor/mixie to beat/mix the ingredients unless the recipe specifically asks for it) I dumped the remaining egg-sugar mixture into the sink and started again!

I usually bake cakes in 8 inch tins but decided to use a smaller tin this time and I’m not sure if that’s the reason for the usually spongy cake to be slightly dense this time. The cake was delicious but I wasn’t very pleased with the way it looked and also as it was slightly flat, I couldn’t layer the cake.

Also, after I whipped the sugar and eggs into a mousse like consistency, I dumped all the remaining ingredients into the mixture instead of adding it in segments and gently folding it, as a result of which all the dry ingredients sunk to the bottom and I ended up ‘over-mixing’. Do not over-mix.

The buttercream was a DISASTER to begin with. The buttercream separated and looked curdled. It was runny and I couldn’t pipe it onto the cake. At this point of time, I looked at the flat cake and at the runny icing and contemplated buying ice cream for my father with homemade praline to go with it.

I took a deep breath, sat on the sofa, scratched my head, watched TV for a few minutes and then jumped back into the kitchen. I took out the excess butter that I’d just kept in the fridge. Added that and a little more icing sugar into the buttercream and whisked it with the beater and there it was – the perfect buttercream!

Mistakes to avoid while making Buttercream:

Butter shouldn’t be too soft

All ingredients to be at room temperature

Do not add too much liquid ( milk /vanilla extract), the buttercream may look curdled

Do not over-beat

For all the new bakers out there, hope you’ve found these tips handy. Remember, there’s always a way to salvage your cakes.