Week-end. Sleepy eyed morning, sun-bathed cafe.
Being a dilettante, flaneur, lady of leisure.
A wake-up-in-the-morning-and-jump-in-the-car day trip to Mittagong and Bowral. Where we ooh over antiques (a Indo-Persian chain mail helmet? Yes please), eat an intriguing tart (shiraz-poached pears and proschiutto, suspended in a barely-set, brie-enriched custard), and have a cheerful coffee:
(The coffee was in the Bradman Museum, aka Cricket International Hall of Fame. Yes, Mr Gander is a cricket fan. Yes, we bought a souvenir cricket ball. Yes, I still want that Indo-Persian chain mail helmet.)
A tropical thunderstorm on the drive back! While we wound our way down to that pretty little dam on the Nepean River, across a bridge that fits one car at a time, and up the other side.
That evening, making a promise to bake a layer birthday cake, while maybe mildly under the influence of the prettiest Pimms cocktail I’ve ever seen. Spending Sunday making and eating a coconut-mango cake (recipe below), before remembering the Pimms-enriched promise about a birthday cake. Dang.
Finally sneaking into Angie’s Fiesta Friday bash for the last of the Baileys-laced thandai. But this time, I know better than to make rash promises of baking birthday cakes.
The week ahead:
Planning a wine tasting for the team at work (wanted: understated yet fabulous canapes that perfectly match the rather decent wines, eeep).
Deadlines. Double eeep.
Eating this:
And these:
Coconut mango bundt-lettes
This comes from one of the first fail-safe recipes I found. The original is a coconut and raspberry loaf, a sweet, lighthearted, happy, any-time bake. Can a loaf or cake be happy? Yes, if it’s full of shredded coconuts and coconut cream and brightened by puddles of raspberries. This time, I had one of the last of summer mangoes, and a jar of kaya jam, and this somewhat experimental bake was born.
These cakes also made really good cake truffles.
Ingredients
1 3/4 cups desiccated coconut
1 cups coconut cream and half cup kaya jam (or use 1.5 cups coconut cream)
2/3 cup caster sugar (if only using coconut cream, use 1 cup sugar)
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
1 2/3 cups self-raising flour
2/3 cup diced fresh mangoes (or sub 1 cup frozen raspberries)
Method
1. Combine coconut, coconut cream and kaya in a large bowl. Cover and stand for 30 minutes.
2. Preheat oven to 170°C / 340°F. If using loaf pan, Line base and sides of a loaf pan with baking paper, allowing some overhang at both long ends so the loaf can be lifted out after baking. If using a mini-bundt pan, generously butter the pan.
3. Using a spatula, stir sugar, egg and vanilla into coconut mixture. Sift flour over coconut mixture. Gently stir until combined. Fold in mango (or raspberries).
4. For loaf: spoon mixture into prepared pan. Bake for 1 hour 10 minutes to 1 hour 15 minutes. For mini-bundts: use a teaspoon, spoon mixture into bundt pans. Bake for about 20 minutes. Note: test the cake and remove from the oven when a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean (my oven is a bit unreliable at the moment, so please test the cake a little while before the end of baking times).
5. Cool in pan for 5-10 minutes, remove to a wire rack to cool completely. Dust with icing sugar or drizzle with your favourite glaze.
Tagged: baking, Bowral, coconut, coconut mango cake, dilettante, Fiesta Friday, kaya, mango, mini-bundt, Novice Gardener, Ode to weekend, road trip
these look great!
Thank you!
[…] Saucy Gander […]
Oh how I’d love to be “a dilettante, flaneur, lady of leisure” all the time! Learned a new word this Sunday morning (kaya). And don’t those little cakes look delicious?
Yep, these three words sum up Saturday so well. Every weekend should be like that, and with cake.
Such lovely little cakes… so nice to have discovered your blog. Thanks Fiesta Friday!
Thank you! Isn’t Fiesta Friday great, I’m still visiting everyone this week, also loving discovering lots of great blogs! 😀
Now I want a pretty coffee, just like that, with “enjoy” on it and pretty little cakes. You’re dangerous to have around, Saucy! But we like you so much we’re keeping you! 🙂
Aww shucks, thanks Angie! Your parties are dangerous, but we like them so much we keep turning up! 😛
Bund-lettes. The name is as cute as they look.
Thanks, Sally, I’m glad the experimental baking worked out.
For a Dilettante, Saucy you made a beautiful Ode to le week-end 🙂
Thanks Linda! It’s because I’m a dilettante that I had time to write an Ode to le weekend! 😀
Great post. Love the content, love the images – especially love the first one.
Thank you! That was taken on the phone, I was glad it worked out.
omg these look soooo good! I so want to try making these. I am not familiar with kaya but looks like coconut cream would be a substitute? thanks for bring this to Fiesta Friday! 🙂
Hi Indu, you can just increase the amount of coconut cream and sugar if you can’t find kaya. I used kaya because I liked the pandan flavour (pandan is used to flavour and colour some kaya), but it was quite subtle so just using coconut cream will still give a good result. The baking times may vary if the batter is more liquid.
Hope that helps? 🙂
yes it sure does. thanks so much!
Lovely…the whole post was beautiful eye candy 🙂
Thank you, I always like visiting your blog, so appreciate your comment! 🙂
Can you just move to America and live on my street so I can come over and taste your food all the time and boost your self-esteem by telling you how fabulous it is? Because I think that would be a solid arrangement. 😉
Haha, deal! But only if I get to play with Maggie too. 🙂
Oh, she would LOVE that. She’s ALWAYS up for making a new friend 😉
How cute are these oil treats!? And I love the sound of that tart that you ate too!
Lorraine, the tart was gorgeous, I want to make it at home!
I love the idea of a bundt-lette! So cute!
Thanks! 🙂
I love anything with coconut and mango!! Yum!
Aren’t they the best? Actually kaya has to be right up there too. Mmm kaya. 😛
Sounds like a fabulous weekend Saucy, ahead of a tough week! The bundt-lettes sound amazing… such beautiful flavours… plus a little glaze over any kind of cake and I’m sold! Hope the wine tasting/canape evening goes well for you – I’d love to be there! 🙂
I’ll try to get some photos of the wine tasting, or at least do a write up. I’m excited about the event!
I’ve always believed my bundt-lette tin has the power to transform even the most humble cake batter into something extraordinary. Love the mango and coconut combination. Your bundt-lettes are so pretty.
Yes, It’s a really versatile tin, the cakes are so pretty and perfect bite sized things. Magical powers indeed!
They are so cute! I love mango, I’ve never tried to use it in dessert, you gave me a great idea!
Mango is great to accompany creamy and sweet things, have you tried Thai sweet sticky rice with mango? Though a good ripe mango is delicious just by itself! 🙂
love me a mini bundt! These are sooo cute.
Thanks! There’s something about mini cakes, isn’t there.
They look great, though a bit exotic for small-town England (I suspect kaya jam would be impossible to source). BTW, you’re a flâneuse not a flâneur!
And that would be why I did badly at high school French!
Actually, I was wondering why I’ve only read about flãneurs (ie the male variety), and remembered the surrealists were mainly a male crowd, bah patriarchy (kidding!)
These look very “happy”. So cute!
Yum yum! I just got a new bundt cake pan. Adding this to my list of cakes to bake in it 🙂
This looks like a very interesting recipe and tempting with all the coconut! 🙂
oh goodness, all so lovely. And fun to read 🙂 Love that you are a “dilettante, flaneur, lady of leisure.” Yay!
They look delicious! And who doesn’t love the weekend, I completely agree 🙂
Those look heavenly!
All I can say is, YUM!
Those bundt-lettes look so good! And it sounds like you had a wonderful, leisurely weekend!
Loved your intro to your weekend including the Pimm’s and chain mail helmet. Actually, I really love that stuff. Not just because of studying metalwork. Anyway, kaya jam is a new one for me. And I want one of those littl’ cakes! Don’t care if it’s studded or puddled with mango or raspberries. In fact, I’ll have both. 🙂
What cute desserts!
These look awesome!
Thank you! 🙂