coconut feijoa cake

Here’s the recipe for the exquisite cake I enjoyed recently at Hinterland Feijoas… it was perfectly wonderful and Sally knows the secret of baking with feijoas – chop the feijoas a bit on the chunky side so the fruit retains its unique flavour and the feijoa-ness just bursts across your taste buds. If you mash the fruit or cut it too fine, then the other flavours (like the coconut) can take over. It depends what you prefer, of course, but we’re all about the feijoa here.

The source of this cake is credited to New Zealand cook and face of the TV show ‘Food in a Minute’ Allyson Gofton, who received it from her friend Shirley.

COCONUT FEIJOA CAKE

Makes 1 cake

Ingredients

• 150g butter
• 1½ cups caster sugar
• 4 eggs, separated
• 2 cups desiccated coconut
• 2 cups self raising flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 cup milk
• 1 cup peeled and chopped feijoas

Method

1. Beat the butter and sugar together until light in colour and creamy in texture. Beat in the egg yolks.
2. Fold in the coconut and sifted dry ingredients with the milk and fruit.
3. Beat the egg whites until stiff and fold into the cake mixture.
4. Turn into a well-greased and lined 23 or 25cm cake tin.
5. Bake at 180ºC for 1 hour or until a cake skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before turning out.
6. Dust with icing sugar before serving or cover with a lemon icing prepared from icing sugar, grated lemon rind and lemon juice.