I wanted to say happy Friday everyone, but I can’t pretend, the devastating fires that are burning day and night aren't heartbreaking and I never thought I would want it to pour on a summer’s day.
My heart goes out to all the people affected by the fire and to all the amazing firefighters/heroes I salute you, you are doing an amazing job.
On a happier note next week I will be going on holidays to Cambodia and Vietnam, for my stepson’s wedding. Johannes (in my opinion) will make a fantastic husband and any girl would be lucky to have him. It will be a traditional Vietnamese wedding as his fiancé Danielle is Vietnamese born. She is the most gorgeous, smart and adorable young woman and we’re soooo happy to have her an official member of the family.
I am really looking forward to having some time off, but I will still be posting while I’m away as I have cooked lots of things that I still haven’t posted yet. I don’t know much about Vietnamese cuisine so maybe I will bring back a recipe or two. But for now, here is the Berry, Lime and coconut cake recipe. For my bread-making experience, I wanted to make two cakes which would be very different from each other because I didn’t know the people who were coming. I was hoping to be safe by making a chocolate tart (most people like chocolate) and a nice bundt cake to go with tea. Judging from the dent that was put in the raspberry cake it appeared that it was a good choice for the afternoon. I know that I thought it was pretty good because my partner and I polished off the leftovers (6 weeks of sugar-free diet down the drain in one fell swoop). I hope you enjoy this as much as we did.
Ingredients
2 limes
185 g butter, softened
4 eggs
1 cup plain flour, sifted
1/2 cup self-raising flour, sifted
1/2 cup desiccated coconut
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 cup thickened cream
2 tablespoons of vanilla sugar (you can use plain sugar)
1 punnet of fresh raspberries (or any other berry you fancy)
170g coconut yoghurt (I used chobani yoghurt)
1 cup mixed frozen berries (I used raspberries) Note: Don’t defrost berries but add them to the cake batter straight out of the freezer, otherwise the can stain the batter
Method
Preheat the oven to 160c and grease a small bundt pan (24cm)with about 30g melted butter.
Finely grate the two limes and reserve 3 teaspoons Juice 1 lime and reserve 2 tablespoons of juice. With an electric beater, beat the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Beat in one egg at a time. (If the mixture looks curdled after you add the eggs, it’s okay).
Stir in flours, desiccated coconut, buttermilk, frozen berries, 3 teaspoons of reserved rind and the juice. Spoon mixture into a pan and smooth surface.
Bake for 50min or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Allow cake to cool down for 10 minutes and remove from tin, by turning it upside down onto a wire rack to cool down.
Whip thickened cream with vanilla sugar, until firm, and fold in coconut yoghurt. I used a piping bag to decorate the cake, but you can just dollop the cake with the cream or serve it with cream. I placed raspberries in the centre of the cake but you can just throw them on top of the cream.
Love,
Nava.
PS - I love hearing from you! Let me know how it went and feel free to spread the word/passion/love, the more the merrier!
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