Coconut Cake with Mango Curd

And with the blink of an eye, Christmas is over.

The lead up to Christmas this year was quicker than ever before, and suddenly, Christmas Day and Boxing Day happened too.

Christmas this year was at my brother and sister in laws house, and it was a jam packed affair with about 22 people in the house. Trying to stay out of the torrential rain. We had a makeshift outdoor area though:

My brothers wife put on a most delicious lunch. Baked vegetables, turkey, ham, chicken, bread, gravy.......deeeeeelicious.

For dessert, my sister always brings vanilla ice cream that she adds a whole bunch of delicious chocolates in to (crunchies, m&ms, malteasers, turkish delight etc) - I told her there was too much turkish delight in this years one, but other than that it was tops!

My contribution was a coconut cake with mango curd (apologies for the poor photos - I'm not going to lie, I'd had a few bottles of wine by this stage):

And I also did a bowl of watermelon, cherries, and strawberries dipped in milk & white chocolate:



It was a delicious affair - and I managed to take the left overs to our celebration on Boxing Day with the boyfriend's family. So much food. I now feel sufficiently fat.....bring on the new year!

Also, check out this little chubba - my nephew Peter, celebrating his first Christmas. SO CUTE:

Hope everyone had a lovely Christmas!

Coconut Cake with Mango Curd via Hungry Rabbit

1 large egg
5 large egg whites
3/4 cup cream of coconut
1/4 cup water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon coconut extract
2-1/4 cups cake flour (9 ounces), sifted
3/4 cup granulated sugar (5-3/4 ounces)
1 tablespoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon table salt
12 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 12 pieces, softened, but still cool
2 cups unsweetened coconut flakes (about 8 ounces) (I cheated though and bought pre toasted coconut cause I'm a rebel like that. So feel free to take the easy option!)
1. Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat oven to 325 degrees. Grease two 9-inch round cake pans and dust with flour. (I used 12 inch cake pans, and I made a double batch of cake to feed our army of people)

2. Beat egg whites and whole egg in large measuring cup with fork to combine. Add cream of coconut, water, vanilla, and coconut extract and beat with fork until thoroughly combined.

3. Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in bowl of standing mixer fitted with paddle attachment. Mix on lowest speed to combine. With mixer still running on lowest speed, add butter 1 piece at a time, until mixture resembles coarse meal, with butter bits no larger than small peas, about 2 minutes.

4. With mixer still running, add 1 cup liquid. Increase speed to medium-high and beat until light and fluffy, about 45 seconds. Add remaining 1 cup liquid in steady stream (this should take about 15 seconds). Stop mixer and scrape down bowl with rubber spatula, then beat at medium-high speed to combine, about 15 seconds.

5. Divide batter between cake pans and level with offset spatula. Bake until deep golden brown, cakes pull away from sides of pans, and toothpick inserted into center of cakes comes out clean, about 25-30 minutes (rotate cakes after about 20 minutes). Do not turn off oven.

6. Cool in pans on wire racks about 10 minutes, then loosen cakes from sides of pans with paring knife, invert cakes onto racks and then re-invert; cool to room temperature.

7. While cakes are cooling, spread coconut flakes on rimmed baking sheet; toast in oven until are a mix of golden brown and white, about 15 minutes, stirring once or twice. Cool to room temperature.

Mango Curd


2 fresh mangoes, pureed
1/3 cup sugar
3 tablespoons fresh lime/lemon juice
Pinch of salt
4 large egg yolks
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

1. Combine mango puree, sugar, lime juice, salt and yolks in a medium-size bowl. Set bowl over saucepan of simmering water (do not allow bottom of bowl to touch water); whisk puree until thickened and thermometer registers 170°F., about 12-15 minutes.

2. Remove bowl from simmering water and whisk in butter 1 piece at a time until fully incorporated. Strain mixture through a sieve into a container; place pa piece of plastic wrap directly on top of mango curd. Cover and refrigerate for at least 4 hours or overnight.

I used Whisk Kid swiss meringue buttercream to frost. It was deeeeelicious!

Bakers Block

I think I'm having bakers block - does that exist? If not, it does now.

Much like writers not being able to think of anything to write, I can't think of anything to bake. Well, I mean I can, but stuff that I haven't baked before. Things that I haven't baked, but that my plain taste boyfriend will eat.

I baked some brownies last night. I've been struggling with brownies. I want the perfect recipe. I remember making some brownies a while ago that were really really good from the Masterchef magazine, but boyfriend said that they were 'too rich'. Blasphemy! No such thing!

The brownies I baked last night have real potential to be amazing. The recipe proclaimed them to be 'the best brownies ever'. I'm sometimes hesitant with recipes claiming to be 'best ever'. Anyone can say something is the best ever. I could say this blog is the best ever. That doesn't make it so.

Anyway, the batter looked delicious, I have bought expensive chocolate to use to give it the best chance possible. I poured it in to my brownie pan. This is when I hesitated. The pan sure did look full. Almost to the brim. Hmmm. I put it in the oven and hoped for the best.

Cue burnt edges, but a pretty good centre. I think it might have something to do with the oven at my boyfriends (my?) house too. I'm not used to cooking in it, and I seem to be ruining a lot of things lately which isn't like me. Anway, the brownies are ok, but could be better.

I don't want to post a photo because they're uuuuugly.

Now I'm looking for inspiration for other things - I'm going to leave brownies and come back to them later down the track. I have a billion things bookmarked on foodgawker, but just can't decide.

Mini apples pies with sour cream? Nahhh we're coming in to summer.
Home made pizza dough? We had pizza for lunch on Saturday.
White cupcakes with almond buttercream? I've done cupcakes to death really.
Two bite nutella cookies? Delcious, but not very involved.
Cake pops? A great idea, except candy melts are as rare as hens teeth in Australia.
Coconut cake? Hmm....coconut cake.....I'm going through a 'coconut is the most amazeballs flavour on the face of the earth and anyone who thinks otherwise is a jerk' phase. Maybe we'll see coconut cake on the blog next......I have a funny story about coconut cake to accompany it. I think we have a winner.