Saffron Coconut Cake from Sugar ‘n Spice with Yudhika Sujanani

I simply love to bake and this is a recipe from my collection! Layers of light saffron tinted sponge cake, sandwiched with thick buttery coconut frosting and topped with toasted coconut shavings…this cake is exotic and the perfect dessert after a feast!

Like most of the recipes in my little black book, I owe this one to a fortunate kitchen miscalculation. I intended on making a plain vanilla sponge and much to my horror, I ran out of full cream milk. Rob insists on buying low-fat milk…I am more the ‘love fat’ kind of shopper! I guess that what happens when you leave the shopping to the HB! Note to cake fans….Low fat milk just won’t do…full cream works best!

I thought that coconut milk would be a good substitute and then add a little saffron to spice things up. A rather fortunate mishap, I would say….the make do cake turned into a real winner. It was moist with the gentle fragrance of coconut and the frosting takes this cake to a whole new level of luxuriousness!

This recipe is from Season Two of Sugar ‘n Spice which we shot during my kid’s school holidays…we had to get creative with trying to find things to keep them busy!

My beautiful daughter, Tanvi – the lovely Ochre Assistant for the day!

Saffron coconut cake

Ingredients
Few strands of saffron
400ml coconut milk
360g cake flour
300g sugar
22,5ml baking powder
125g soft Spar butter
3 large eggs
5ml vanilla essence

Here’s how:
Heat the strands of saffron in a dry pan for a few seconds.
Pour in 100ml of the coconut milk and bring to the boil.
Leave the strands to infuse with the coconut milk for a few minutes and then leave to cool completely.
Sift the dry ingredients into a mixing bowl Add the sugar, baking powder and salt.
Add the butter and beat on low with a paddle attachment until the mixture has a sandy consistency.
Pour in the coconut milk, saffron infusion, eggs and vanilla essence.
Beat well and scrape down the sides of the bowl to ensure the ingredients are well combined.
Divide the mixture between 3 x 20cm greased and lined cake tins.
Bake at 170 degrees celsius for 20 – 22 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean when the cake is tested.
Turn the cakes out on a wire rack and leave to cool.

Coconut Frosting

250g soft Spar butter
500g Spar icing sugar
75ml coconut milk
Drop of vanilla essence
Toasted coconut shavings, to garnish

Place the butter in a mixing bowl and beat well.
Once the butter is light in colour, gradually add the icing sugar.
Continue beating until the icing is fluffy.
Gradually pour in the coconut milk and vanilla essence.
Continue beating until the icing is very pale in colour.
To assemble:
Sandwich the cakes together with the icing.
Ice the sides and top of the cake using a palette knife.
Place the cake in the refrigerator for a few minutes to firm up.
Garnish the cake with toasted coconut shavings.

Yudhika’s tips:

If you are not a lover of coconut…simply use the 400ml full cream milk in the cake batter and then fresh cream instead of coconut milk in the frosting.