I finally decided it was time to buy a big girl camera. I asked my friend for a recommendation and 9 hours later I had entered in my debit card details and delivery address.
I spent four days clicking refresh on my email and track and trace. It sounds ridiculous but I was so excited that I felt sick. I watched hours of YouTube videos on how to use it before it even arrived. Finally the morning came, I bounded down to the mailroom at work and productivity was reassigned from supply chain to figuring out how the hell to turn the damn thing on.
While my Dad would have read the manual I turned to YouTube and watched an hour long educational tutorial on my model of camera instead. I love technology. I love the internet. It baffles me how people would have acquired such knowledge back in the day. Obviously they would have had time to read manuals since the rest of their day wasn’t filled with mindless facebooking, instagramming or other miscellaneous internet usage.
But anyway I had my new baby but nowhere to go. I needed to take photos. I needed somewhere to take photos. I needed to take photos of cake. Turns out it was a colleagues birthday that weekend and they had a garden. So bam instantly a reason to make cake and a location to shoot said cake. How very convenient. So Sophie M and I descended upon said colleagues house equipped with cake, asparagus rolls, scones and all things tea party-esque under the guise that we were in fact really nice people and that we were just not using his garden for selfish purposes. Said colleague also hates the word awesome, hates emoticons and has a particular love of dreary and depressing poetry. We were delighted to throw him such a bright and floral tea party because we knew he couldn’t say he hated it because we were being nice and throwing him a party. So much cringe. So much great. Such an uneven distribution of full stops. Apologies.
I made this raspberry and coconut cake from a recipe my Mum gave me. She I believe got it from her friend Sue. Exact origins beyond that are unknown but regardless it is delicious. We make it with rice flour even though none of us are gluten intolerant. I think the rice gives it a nicer texture but also gives the edge just that extra bit of crunch which I quite like. If you have a hatred against all thing gf (I myself am reluctant) then use regular flour (#glutentolerant)
I usually make a lemon blueberry cake as my go-to chocolate alternative. I am stoked to add this to my arsenal which is just as summery and fresh. You could definitely make this with blueberries instead, or any kind of small berry for that matter except strawberries. Strawberries just want to be difficult by being too juicy.
Raspberry and Coconut Cake
Makes a 2 layer 15cm cake
For the cakes
175g butter softened
1 cup sugar
Zest of 1 lemon
3 eggs
1 ½ cups ground almond
½ cup long thread coconut
½ cup rice flour (or normal flour)
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
1 cup raspberries (frozen will do just fine)
¼ cup extra threaded coconut
For the icing
200g cream cheese, softened
40g butter, softened
650g icing sugar (a little more if you want a stiff and pipable icing)
Juice of 1 lemon
To decorate
Whole raspberries
Threaded coconut
Freeze dried raspberries
Almonds or almond slices
Edible flowers
Lemon rind
Preheat the oven to 150 degrees and grease and line two 15cm tins with baking paper.
Cream together the butter, sugar and lemon rind until pale and fluff. Beat in the eggs one at a time and give the mixture a mighty good beat so that it becomes airy and voluminous. Fold in the ground almond and coconut then sieve in the rice flour and baking powder and fold that on too.
Divide the batter between the two tins, it works out to be about 300g in each tin. Sprinkle the raspberries over the tops followed by a light sprinkling of that extra coconut. Bake for 35-40 minutes until golden and a skewer comes out clean. Remove from the oven and leave to cool fully in the tins.
To make the icing, beat together the cream cheese and the butter until smooth. Gradually beat in the icing sugar and lemon juice until all is added. Beat on high so that it becomes fluffy and smooth. Add more lemon juice to make a runnier and more spreadable icing or more icing sugar if you want it stiffer to be able to pipe it on.
Sandwich the two cakes together with cream cheese icing. Spread some more over the top and swirl around until you reach the desired effect. Top with the toppings of your choice.
Enjoy! x