Coconut & Chocolate Cake

Or Bounty Cake, as my brother called it, as the combination of coconut and milk chocolate immediately reminded him of the famous chocolate bar that used to be very popular in the eighties. This cake is next to impossible to get wrong as the high quantity of coconut ensures it stays very moist, therefore you can bake it for a party or a special occasion with the minimum effort and the maximum outcome!

INGREDIENTS

• 175 gr of caster sugar
• 175 gr of dessicated coconut
• 175 gr of butter, softened and cut in small cubes
• 225 gr of plain flour
• One tablespoon of baking powder
• 3 medium eggs
• 200 gr of good quality milk chocolate (don't ruin your cake by using "fake", processed, cheap milk chocolate), chopped in small cubes

Preheat the oven at 170° C. Take a loose bottom baking tin and line it with baking parchment (the process is explained here), not forgetting to grease the sides of the tin with some butter.

Place the coconut in a bowl and pour about 150 ml of boiling water all over it. Leave it to soak and soften. In the meantime, using an electric whisk, cream the butter and sugar together, until they resemble vanilla ice-cream. Add the eggs, then slowly incorporate the soaked coconut, flour and baking powder, adding it a little at the time and beating well each addition into the mixture. Finally, using a spatula, stir in the chopped milk chocolate.

Pour the batter into the tin, transfer it to the hot oven and bake for 50 minutes to 1 hour, or until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean. Leave it to cool completely before serving it dusted with icing sugar (you can also add some sugar flowers as decoration if you like, as I did).