Baking binge?
Yeah, pretty much!
I can't seem to stop, but I'm doing it with a purpose.
I promise!
Our fruit bowl has been overflowing with oranges.
So what do I do?
Find recipes using oranges.
I have been trying to use new recipes, ones I've never tried before.
So I skipped over my usual orange cake.
And I found a recipe in my big book of baking.
It was called Coconut Bars.
But considering the orange juice and rind, I decided to rename it.
The last recipe I used from this book was not so great.
The taste was fantastic, but the quantities were all wrong.
I was hesitant...
But I mixed, and it looked good...
I baked...
It smelled fantastic.
I changed the icing recipe to not have an egg white in it, and voila!
It was so soft, and crumbly when I finally pulled it from the tin. After only 15mins of cooling time it was more cake-like than anything. I wondered... Was this another success but failure?
I let it cool completely, and returned to taste test...
It cooled into a dense, moist, delicious slice.
Yes, it was a slice.
A really good one!
The taste is fresh with a subtle orange flavour and chewy coconut, while the icing offers a burst of delicious citrus flavour.
I will mark this one down as a favourite!
Coconut & Orange Slice
Ingredients:
125g unsalted butter, softened
225g caster sugar
2 eggs, beaten, at room temperature
Finely grated rind of 1 orange
3 tbspn fresh orange juice
150mL sour cream
140g self-raising flour
85g desiccated coconut
Frosting:
1 egg white
200g icing sugar
85g desiccated coconut
Fresh orange juice, about 1 tbspn
(With the frosting I made, I mixed half icing sugar, half coconut in a bowl and added orange juice until I reached the right consistency)
Method:
Preheat oven to 180*C. Grease a 23cm square cake tin and line the base with baking paper.
Cream together the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy, then gradually beat in the eggs.
Stir in the orange rind, orange juice, and sour cream.
Fold in the flour and coconut evenly using a metal spoon.
Spoon the mixture into the prepared tin and level the surface.
Bake in the preheated oven for 35-40mins, or until risen and firm to the touch.
Leave to cool for 10 minutes in the tin, then turn out and finish cooling on a wire rack.
Frosting:
Lightly beat the egg white, just enough to break it up, and stir in the icing sugar and desiccated coconut, adding enough orange juice to mix to a thick paste. Spread over the top of the cake, leave to set before slicing into bars.
