Coconut Syrup Cake

Name: Coconut syrup cake
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 50 min
Total time: 1 h
Yield: 12
Cuisine: Mediterranean
Ingredients: 875mL water, 3 ½ cups; 480g caster sugar, 2 ¼ cups; 1 tsp lemon zest or 1 large lemon peel; 1 tbs rosewater; 160g caster sugar, ¾ cup; 1 tsp vanilla bean paste; 4 large eggs, at room temperature; 125mL full fat milk, ½ cup; 125mL vegetable oil or any other neutral oil, ½ cup; 1 tsp baking powder; 300g self-raising flour, 2 cups; 100g shredded coconut, 1 ¼ cups, extra for garnish

A popular dessert within the Greek and Cypriot community, this coconut syrup cake (κέικ ινδοκάρυδο) will sure be enjoyed. It has a light, sponge like texture drenched in a sweet aromatic syrup. The following recipe is a slight variation to the one given to me by my stepmum Eva, one of her select favourites.

The ingredients needed

The cake is really easy to make itself and uses mostly staple ingredients such as sugar, milk, oil, eggs. I used shredded coconut instead of desiccated as I like the added texture when you take a bite, however you may substitute it with the latter.

Image of the syrup being poured over the coconut cake

The syrup to use

As the name suggests, coconut syrup cake, you need to make a sweet syrup to pour all over the cake. There are numerous sweets in the Greek cuisine that require a syrup e.g. diples, melomakarona, baklava and more. Very common aromatics used are lemon peels, orange peels, rosewater, cinnamon quails and cloves. Depending on the flavours you like and the type of dessert you are creating you adjust the combinations.

For the coconut syrup cake, the syrup is aromatic but not heavy in flavour. As the cake itself is not spiced we don’t tend to add cinnamon or cloves in the syrup. Simply adding a lemon peel and some rosewater is all that it needs.

Whenever you make a dessert that requires a syrup you need to cool it down first. A cold syrup on a hot cake will be absorbed quicker and more efficiently. Hence it’s important to make the syrup first to allow it to chill in the fridge for at least 2 hours. On the other hand you may also have a cooled cake with a hot syrup to pour over it. As long as one of the elements is cold and the other hot.

For more sweet creations, traditional and non, check out this link!