CAKE: Lemon and Coconut

From The Essential Baking Cookbook

This is fantastically easy, uses common pantry items, has proven to be fail safe, and keeps well for a few days. If you need a cake in a hurry, this is a great one to keep in your repertoire.

1 1/2 cups self-raising flour
1/2 cup desiccated coconut
1 tbsp grated lemon rind
1 cup caster sugar
125g unsalted butter, melted
2 eggs
1 cup milk

Coconut Icing

1 1/2 cups icing sugar, sifted
1 cup desiccated coconut
1/2 tsp grated lemon rind
1/4 cup lemon juice

Preheat the oven to a moderate 180 deg C. Line a grease a deep 20cm round cake tin and line with baking paper.

Combine sifted flour, coconut, lemon rind, sugar, butter, eggs and milk and mix until smooth. Pour into a tin and smooth the surface. Bake for 40 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean when inserted into the centre of the cake.

Leave in the tin for 5 minutes before turning out onto a cake rack to cool.

For the icing, combine icing sugar and coconut in a bowl, then add the lemon rind, and enough juice to make a stiff but spreadable icing. Spread over the cold cake. (Take care not to add too much lemon juice - a runny icing with the coconut is much less attractive on the cake).

VARIATIONS:

* Use as cupcakes - works just as well. Be sure to adjust cooking time for smaller quantities so as not to overcook.

* I have just made this with a layer of lemon curd and fresh passion fruit baked into the cake (put half the mix into the tin, spead with a layer of curd/passionfruit mix, and top with remainder of the mixture). I also substituted some of the lemon juice in the icing for passionfruit juice (strain out the seeds) and some water in order to make the lemon flavour less dominant and to allow the passionfruit flavour to come through. Adjust to your personal taste but try not to make either the curd mix, or the icing too runny.