Feijoa and coconut cake

I’m helping judge a wee mini competition to reward all those on Facebook who have “liked” the Taste Farmers Markets New Zealand Awards page. Basically, the best recipe submitted to us (just “like” us and post on the wall) will win one of our prize pool of NZ cookbooks on offer – which you can also get into the draw to win by voting for your favourite farmers market (before May 1st). One of the recipes submitted by the lovely Bianca Richardson is this mouthwatering feijoa and coconut cake. I happened to have all the ingredients on hand, and have been on a coconut binge recently, so away I went. The result was spectacular.

For extra creaminess (not that the cake really needed it, but I was feeling particularly gratuitous), I made a sweet coconut cream drizzle. Ooo, the combination of nutty buttery toasted coconut encasing the cake, and the creamy drizzle, with fluffy moist cake and little bites of tangy feijoa…phew. Even the “bits” of coconut didn’t bother me, they were fine in amongst the deliciousness. The one thing I will note is that I wish the feijoas didn’t discolour and lose some of their famous zesty flavour. Once cooled, this was a lot more dense feeling, but unlike a lot of butter-only based cakes, it was still moist and wonderful. I’m looking forward to trying other fruits with this as well, any ideas? I’d like to try little mandarin or orange segments, but I’m worried they’ll be too wet. Passionfruit curd would be to die for in this cake as well. Pineapple would be great too, like a pina colada cake, but of course you can’t get those locally in New Zealand!

The original recipe was huge – even halving it produced a decently thick 8″ round cake! I think this is a great size, because considering how addictive this cake is, you don’t want to have too much of it just lying around. On the other hand, this cake won’t be everyone’s favourite (Will wished I’d left out the feijoas so he could eat them fresh, and he wanted the coconut flavour unadultered), so if it turns out it’s not your thing, it’ll be gone in no time. It’s also relatively healthy for a cake – plenty of fruit and coconut, not too much butter.

Feijoa coconut cake

makes 1 round 8″ cake

Recipe from Bianca Richardson, who obtained it from a friend of a friend. If you want to claim it please email me and I’ll credit you!

• 75g softened butter
• 3/4c caster sugar
• 2 eggs, separated
• 1c dessicated coconut
• 1c plain flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• pinch salt
• 1/4c milk (I used 3/4 water and 1/4 cream)
• 1/4c sour cream
• 3/4c (about 170g) feijoa flesh, scooped out and roughly chopped in the measuring cup so you don’t lose too much liquid

Preheat oven to 150C (300F), arranging a rack in the centre. Heavily grease your springform cake tin, then sprinkle with coconut and flour to prevent sticking.

Beat butter and sugar until pale, then beat in yolks one at a time, for a minute after each addition.* The mixture should not keep trying to separate before the next step. Add the coconut, and sift over the flour, baking powder and salt. Fold through and when it’s about half done fold the milk and sour cream through as well. Set aside.

In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until they form soft peaks. Fold through the yolky batter until mostly incorporated (a whisper of egg white is ok), then fold through the feijoa.

Pop in the oven and let bake 50 minutes to an hour, until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out moist but clean. Cool until warm to the touch, then turn out (you shouldn’t have to scrape the edge with a knife).

*I actually screwed up and popped a whole egg in to begin with, but separated out the second one and it turned out fine.

Coconut drizzle

• 200ml coconut cream (shake the can first!)
• 1 Tbs caster sugar

On medium low heat, bring the mixture to a bare simmer, until the sugar dissolves, and stir with a whisk constantly to break up any lumps in the cream. Drizzle over cake while warm if possible, and store covered in the fridge for later use.