Heirloom recipes: Shane’s coconut cake

We’ve been running a series of heirloom recipes and today we’ve got one from Yuppiechef founder, Shane Dryden. Welcome to the delight of the coconut cake.

I used to eat cake this with my grandfather on his farm in Potgietersrus area (now Mokopane) and until yesterday hadn’t had it for over 30 years. It used to be baked in a wood stove and was made without mixers or any fancy Yuppiechef kitchen tools. This used to be his standard tea cake while he ploughed the fields, it was bought to him in a basket with a flask of tea. 

Ingredients
 
60g butter
½ cup sugar
1 ¼ cups flour
3 egg Yolks
Grated rind of 1 lemon
3 egg whites
½ cup castor sugar
1 tsp baking powder rounded
¼ cup condensed milk (dissolved in 2 Tsp cold water and a little milk)
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 ½ cups coconut

Method

1. Beat butter and sugar to creams and add egg yolks and rind.
 2. Add lemon rind. Then add dissolved milk alternatively with flour, add baking powder and essence.  Pour into baking pan.3. To make the topping, beat three egg whites stiffly and add castor sugar and coconut.  Spread on top of the cake mixture and then bake in moderate oven for 45 to 60 minutes.Download print-friendly recipe and check out some more heirloom recipes from the Yuppiechef staff and community.

If you’ve got an heirloom to share, send it to us on [email protected] before the end of May and stand a chance to win a Moleskine Recipe journal.