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Image of a cut piece of coconut syrup cake

Coconut syrup cake

Course Dessert
Cuisine Cypriot, Greek
Keyword coconut, syrup
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 50 minutes
Resting time 1 hour
Servings 12 servings
Author Eleni Georges

Ingredients

Coconut cake

  • ¾ cup sugar, 160g
  • 4 large eggs, at room temperature
  • 1 tsp vanilla bean paste, or vanilla extract
  • ½ cup full fat milk, 125mL
  • ½ cup vegetable oil, 125mL, or any other neutral oil
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 2 cups self-raising flour, 300g
  • 1 ¼ cups shredded coconut, 100g, extra for garnish

Syrup

  • 3 ½ cups water, 875mL
  • 2 ¼ cups sugar, 480g
  • 1 tsp lemon zest or 1 large lemon peel
  • 1 tbs rosewater

Instructions

Syrup

  1. Make the syrup ahead of time so that it can chill. Simply stir all the ingredients in a pot except the rosewater. Bring the contents to a boil and then simmer for 10min. Take the pot off the heat, stir in the rosewater, pour the syrup in a heatproof jug and place it in the fridge to cool down.

Coconut cake

  1. Preheat the oven to 170°C, fan forced. To make the cake whisk the sugar, eggs and vanilla paste together for 2min on a medium speed. The ingredients should be well combined and the eggs would have a lighter colour. Slowly add the milk and oil while whisking.

  2. Combine the baking powder with the self-raising flour. Beat it in the mixture in parts, not all at once. Finally fold in the shredded coconut. Pour the batter in a small rectangular deep baking dish (mine measured 28cmx23cm) and bake for 35-40min on the middle rack. The cake should be golden brown and a skewer pierced in the middle should come out clean.

  3. Pour the cold syrup all over the hot cake evenly and garnish with some shredded coconut. You may toast the coconut if you wish for a difference in colour and texture. Allow it to cool down in the baking dish and then cut it. You may keep the coconut syrup cake in the fridge for up to 5 days.