Coconut cake with blueberries

A moist and juicy coconut cake with blueberries and a delicate coconut flavour. A lovely seasonal fruit cake that works beautifully with many different fruits; I’ve also baked it with plums and apples. Highly recommended.

Ingredients for the coconut and blueberry cake:

• 125 g butter
• 125 g caster sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon lemon extract (or a few drops of lemon flavouring, or finely grated lemon zest)
• 200 g plain flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 75 g desiccated coconut
• 125 g Greek yoghurt or sour cream
• 450 g blueberries

All the ingredients should be at room temperature.

Place the butter and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer and beat until very pale and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition until combined. Add the lemon extract and mix briefly. Sift the flour and baking powder directly into the mixture. Add the desiccated coconut and Greek yoghurt/sour cream, then briefly fold together with a spatula, just until combined.

Line the base of a 25 cm springform tin with baking paper. Transfer the batter to the tin and level the surface. Scatter the blueberries over the batter, gently pressing them into the mixture.

Bake the coconut cake with blueberries at 160°C for about 40 minutes, or longer if necessary, until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Remove from the oven and drizzle with the coconut icing. Leave to set, then slice and serve.

Ingredients for the coconut icing:

• 1 cup icing sugar
• 3 tablespoons coconut liqueur (or lemon juice/water)

Place all the ingredients in a bowl and mix with the back of a spoon until smooth. If the icing is too thin, add more icing sugar; if too thick, add a little more coconut liqueur.

Enjoy!