I just can't resist...

...when N asks me in that oh-so-sweet-and-pathetic I've-just-had-a-tooth-removed voice "can we have cake?" It comes with the puppy dog eyes too. Awww. So yes, today all my healthy eat-less-cake intentions went out the window and I made more cake. Oops.

To be fair we didn't go out for the indulgent dinner we intended last night so we were at least slightly justified in having a treat this weekend.

N loves mango and we had an over ripe one sitting in the fruit bowl along with a three week old coconut. So I decided to combine the two and make a mango cake topped with lime glace icing and fresh grated coconut. Then, knowing I'd have coconut left over and in a few weeks we have friends coming for dinner, I used the leftovers to make some rough macaroons. I'm not sure if the macaroons will actually hold together, but we shall see.

As you can see from the photo I had a little helper with the coconut! (armed with his hammer and bradawl - key coconut hacking tools!)




Here are the recipes. I actually halved the cake one since there are only two of us, plus I made it in a loaf tin which worked really well. I then glazed it with lime glace icing (100g icing sugar and 3 Tbsp lime juice) and topped with grated coconut.

With the macaroons I just added a bit more coconut and made smaller portions. I am going to freeze them until they're needed, and will drizzle dark chocolate over them.

Mango cake:

170g mango puree – flesh of 1 large mango (just whiz in a blender)
280g caster sugar
250g butter
4 eggs
275g self raising flour

Preheat the oven to 175C. Grease an 8inch/20cm deep round cake tin and line the base with greaseproof paper.

Cream and butter and sugar together until lift and fluffy. Add the eggs, beating well between each one.
Stir in the mango puree. Fold the flour in using a large spoon or spatula until no clumps remain.
Pour the batter into the cake tin and bake for 1hour 25 minutes. (After the first 40 minutes, cover the cake with foil to prevent it from over browning and bake for a further 45 minutes.)




Macaroons (from Abel and Cole)

1 egg white
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon caster sugar
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
optional: 1/8 teaspoon almond extract
1 large handful grated coconut

Preheat oven to 150°C, 300°F, gas mark 2. Butter and flour a baking sheet, knocking off excess flour. Stir everything together all except the coconut and mix until it’s all combined. Then stir in the coconut. Divide into fourths, and drop in 4 mounds onto baking sheet. Bake until tops are golden, about 15 minutes.




P.S. Okay, it might look impressive, but as predicted the macaroons fell apart when I tried to lift them off the tray after they'd cooled. Grr. I have decided to freeze the cooked coconut anyway and later will drop it in melted dark chocolate and make chocolate coconut macaroons instead that will hopefully hold together once the chocolate has set again.