Coconut, almond & blueberry cake

March 13, 2022

   

Three years ago, I baked a housewarming cake for our friends Simon and Noni. We had such a nice time delivering and sharing the cake and meeting their new puppy that I suggested the same again when they moved this month. The cycle is a teeny bit further and the puppy is now enormous. I chose a coconut, almond and blueberry cake from Goh & Ottolenghi's Sweet for morning tea.

This cake uses melted butter and doesn't need an electric mixer so it's easy to stir together (and therefore it's no bother to your neighbours if you happen to have slept weirdly and commenced prep at 5:40am). It has the distinct moist crumb of a cake based on almond meal plus extra flavour from desiccated coconut; there's a little plain flour in there too, so it's not actually gluten-free. The butter caramelises the crust, it's all shot through with bright blueberries, and the cake is crowned with toasty almond flakes. 

It is an excellent cake that's feels a bit fancy but is actually very unfussy. I'm sure it could be veganised  and/or de-glutened with your favourite butter, egg and flour replacements. (That said, we've also got a great lemon and blueberry loaf recipe just sitting here being vegan from the get-go.)

   

Coconut, almond & blueberry cake

(very slightly adapted from Helen Goh & Yotam Ottolenghi's Sweet)

spray oil

180g almond meal

60g desiccated coconut

250g caster sugar

70g plain flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

4 eggs

200g butter, melted, at room temperature

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

zest of 2 lemons

200g fresh blueberries

2 tablespoons flaked almonds

Preheat an oven to 180°C. Line a springform cake tin with baking paper and lightly spray it with oil.

In a large mixing bowl, stir together the almond meal, coconut, sugar, flour, baking powder and salt.

In a medium mixing bowl, lightly beat together the eggs. Gradually whisk in the melted butter, then the vanilla and lemon zest. Pour this mixture into the large mixing bowl of dry ingredients and mix until almost combined. Fold in 150g of the blueberries until the cake batter is fully combined.

Pour the cake batter into the tin, lightly smoothing over the top. Sprinkle over the remaining blueberries and the flaked almonds. Bake the cake for 50-55 minutes, until a skewer comes out clean.

Give the cake plenty of time to rest before removing it from the tin and serving - the original recipe recommends 30 minutes, and mine was still warm and soft in the middle after a couple of hours resting and being cycled to its destination!