This recipe is a new twist on a family tradition. This version of the cake was light and a little on the dry side (but by no means unpleasantly dry) with a delightful slightly caramelized outer edge. A cake like this one made frequent appearances at Easters during my childhood. One year, the Easter bunny sampled the cake and patched it back together with green coconut. When I made it this year, Zoie Dog helped herself to a sample when I left the cake too close to the edge of the counter at my sweetie pie’s parent’s house. (I’m not used to having dogs around any more.) Lemon frosting and green coconut to the rescue once again! This cake is great for any special springtime occasion, and when a less fussy dessert is desired, make the icing thinner and drizzle over the cake instead of making nests. For an even more simple dessert, instead of icing, powdered sugar may also be used for decoration.
Ingredients
Cake
1 ½ cup sugar
2/3 cup vegetable oil
1 can coconut milk (about 14 oz)
1/2 C lemon juice (Juice from 3 -4 lemons or use pure lemon juice that’s not from concentrate)
2 teaspoons vanilla
3 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
Icing
¼ cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon lemon juice +more as needed
Nests:
¼ cup Flaked or shredded coconut (I prefer unsweetened)
A couple drops natural food dye
12 or so Vegan jelly beans
Instructions
Coat your Bundt pan with oil and set aside. Preheat oven to 350°F.
Combine the following ingredients in a large bowl: sugar, oil, coconut milk, lemon juice and vanilla. Mix until smooth. Add flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Mix until combined. Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for one hour or until cake passes toothpick test. Leave the cake in a pan and cool on a rack or on a bottle. When completely cool, run a knife between cake and pan to loosen, place plate on pan, and invert. Give pan a few taps to release onto plate and remove pan.
Decorations
Put coconut into a small bag. Add a drop of food coloring and shake to mix, adding food coloring drop by drop and shaking between additions until coconut is desired shade of green.
To make icing: add lemon juice to powdered sugar in small bowl. Whisk into a paste so that no chunks remain. Add more lemon juice as needed to make a thick paste. This will act as glue.
Once cake has cooled completely, add a dab of icing and sprinkle the coconut “grass” over the icing, pressing in with a spoon so it sticks. Add another dab of frosting to the coconut nests and add jelly beans—I like to have three per nest.
You can make thinner icing and drizzle this over the cake or simply sprinkle with powdered sugar.
