RIA'S TOASTED COCONUT MARSHMALLOW CREAM CAKE

RIA AMBER TESIA'S TOASTED COCONUT MARSHMALLOW CREAM CAKE

Utensils:

• 8x3inch round cake tin
• Hand mixer or Fixed mixer such as KitcenAid or KMix
• Balloon whisk
• Greaseproof paper (I use re-useable parchment)

Ingredients:

Sponge

• 210g self-raising flour
• 40g coconut flour
• 250g room temperature butter
• 250g caster sugar
• 4 medium eggs
• ¾ tsp vanilla extract
• ½ tsp baking powder
• 10 tbsp milk (add milk in incremental tablespoons to achieve batter of thick, dropping consistency. Full-fat milk is recommended, however I have tried with soya milk and that works fine too.)
• 12 tbsp raspberry conserve

Frosting

• 5 tbsp flour
• 225g toasted marshmallow flavoured icing sugar (I used the Sugar & Crumbs’ version)
• 240ml full-fat milk
• 225g room temperature butter
• 100g coconut flakes

Method:

Frosting:

1. Mix flour and icing sugar together. Pour milk into a saucepan, heat over a medium heat and pour the flour-sugar mix into the milk.
2. Grab your balloon whisk and whisk continuously until simmering. Do not boil; once a simmer has been reached, look out for the texture to change, from liquid to a thick custard consistency. The transition from liquid to thick custard should take around four minutes.
3. Pour hot mixture into a bowl, put clingfilm on the top to avoid a skin forming and shove in the fridge. (Note: the flour base has to cool until it’s like Samuel L Jackson i.e. totally chilled, to avoid melting the butter.)
4. Beat butter until pale and fluffy, gradually adding the cool flour base until the mixture feels light and airy in texture.

Cake:

1. Grease tin and line with parchment.
2. Preheat oven 160° fan.
3. Beat the heck out of the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy, which should take around four minutes. (If you’ve had a bad day at the office and just want to punch someone, right now is a good time to take out your frustrations. Told you that baking was therapeutic.)
4. Lightly break the eggs into a bowl, adding vanilla extract.
5. Add the vanilla-eggs slowly to the butter-sugar mixture.
6. Sift both flours and baking powder together from height to incorporate the most air, and gently fold into the butter-sugar-egg mixture.
7. Check that the batter is soft enough to drop from a spoon in circa three seconds. If too thick, add milk until you get the right consistency. Note: coconut flour absorbs a lot of liquid, so more liquid than just eggs are needed to make this a lighter sponge.
8. Pour half the batter into the tin. Place tablespoons of conserve onto the sponge.
9. Pour the remaining half of the batter on top, covering the conserve dollops and bake for 25-30 minutes, or until golden brown.
10. Whilst the cake is baking, get a saucepan with a large surface area (I used my chappati tava, which is ginormous) and place on a medium heat.
11. Tip the raw coconut flakes and heat until the tips turn golden brown. Do not leave unattended as the flakes are very delicate and will easily burn.
12. Once the cake and coconut flakes are completely cooled, ice with the frosting. Don’t worry about making it look too neat, as the flakes will cover any glaring errors.
13. Grab a fork, cut a generous wedge, but a “Do Not Disturb” sign up, and enjoy.

Tips:

• Do ahead: make the frosting the day before to save time, as chilling the flour base can take up to three hours. The final frosting will keep for four days in the fridge and can also be frozen. To defrost, leave in your fridge overnight, then whip for a few seconds so that it returns to its original state.
• Do ahead: toast the coconut flakes the day before too. The edges can be very fine and will retain heat for some time. The flakes need to be totally cool before making contact with the iced cake to avoid the melting buttercream. 

Visit Ria's website for more inspiration and recipe ideas RIAAMBERTESIA.COM

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