Aussie Lemon Coconut Slice Cake

5 from 1 vote

Aussie Lemon Coconut Slice Cake

Recipe video above. This is a lovely buttery lemon coconut cake topped with lemon icing and coconut, made for cutting into bars or squares and eating with hands. The icing crusts over, so it’s perfect for lunchboxes, gifting and transporting. And it keeps incredibly well - fresh for a week!

You'll need one very large lemon or two regular lemons. You can leave out the coconut if you want, to make plain lemon. Gluten-free - See Note 3

Prep Time20

Cook Time30

Cooling1

Course: Sweet Baking

Cuisine: Western

Keyword: lemon coconut slice, lemon coconut slice cake, lemon slice cake

Servings:

Calories: 218cal

Author: Nagi

Ingredients

Dry:

1 cup plain flour / all-purpose flour (Note 3 for gluten-free)
3/4 cup desiccated coconut , unsweetened (Note 1)
1 tsp baking powder (make sure yours is still active)
1/8 tsp cooking salt / kosher salt

Wet:

125g / 8 tbsp unsalted butter , softened (Note 2)
3/4 cup white sugar , caster/superfine or regular/granulated
2 large eggs , at room temperature (~50-55g/2 oz)
1 tbsp lemon zest
2 tbsp lemon juice , at room temperature
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup milk , full fat, at room temperature

Lemon Icing:

2 cups soft icing sugar / powdered sugar , sifted
7 - 8 tsp lemon juice , BE CAREFUL! Goes from perfect to runny with the teeniest amount too much!
2 tbsp desiccated coconut , for sprinkling

Cups - Metric

Instructions

ABBREVIATED RECIPE:

Whisk Dry, set aside. Cream butter and sugar, beat in eggs one at a time. Beat in vanilla, zest and juice. On low, beat in 1/3 flour then 1/2 milk, repeat, finishing with flour. Finish mixing by hand. Bake in 20cm/8" lined pan 30 min at 180°C/350°F (160°C fan). Cool upside down, spread with icing, sprinkle with coconut.

FULL RECIPE:

Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F (160°C fan-forced). Grease and line a 20cm/8" pan with paper.
Dry ingredients - Whisk the Dry ingredients in a medium bowl. Set aside.
Cream butter - Using a handheld electric beater, cream the butter and sugar in a separate bowl until it is smooth and fluffy, about 2 minutes (don't use a stand mixer, there is insufficient volume).
Eggs, lemon and vanilla - Beat in the eggs one at a time until smooth. Then add the vanilla, zest and lemon juice and beat just until combined. It will look a little curdled at this stage, that's ok, it comes together in the next steps.
Alternate flour and milk - Add 1/3 of the flour and beat on low until mostly mixed in. Add half the milk and beat just until incorporated. Repeat with another 1/3 of the flour, the remaining milk, then the remaining flour, mixing only briefly after each addition. Stop beating as soon as the flour disappears, then finish mixing by hand with a rubber spatula, making sure all the flour is mixed in. The batter should be like softly whipped cream - not runny, but not thick like peanut butter, with little lumps from the coconut.
Bake - Scrape batter into the cake pan and smooth the surface. Bake 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean.
Cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then cool upside down on a rack - we will ice the base as it's nice and flat. Fully cool before icing.
Spread with the Lemon Icing then sprinkle with coconut while wet. Let the icing set for 1 hour before slicing to serve!

Lemon icing:

Preserver! Put the icing sugar and lemon juice in a large bowl and use a rubber spatula to mix, using a smearing motion to combine until the glaze becomes a thick spreadable consistency like peanut butter (rather than the runny drippy kind). Be patient, it takes time to mix and assertive smearing to combine just a bit of lemon with lots of icing sugar! Only add extra lemon juice 1/2 teaspoon at a time if needed - this will go from too thick to runny very easily!

Notes

1. Desiccated coconut - The finely shredded sort that looks like panko breadcrumbs. Not flakes (too big), not powder (too fine).

2. Butter quantity - 125g butter is not exactly 1 US stick (8 tbsp, 113g), but because American cups are also slightly smaller than the rest of the world, the proportions work out closely enough that 1 stick is fine for US readers.

3. Gluten-free - Works great using gluten-free flour, just substitute then follow recipe as written. See FAQ above for tasting notes and more information!

Storage - Stays fresh for 7 days, thanks to the coconut! Keep iced cake in an airtight container in a cool dry pantry, or the fridge if it's hot where you are (bring to room temperature before eating). The cake will freeze fine though the icing will get a bit wet when thawed, I think.

Nutrition per slice, assuming 16 slices.

Nutrition