Ingredients

Coconut Cake Filling:

250g Fresh or fine desiccated coconut

470ml water

200g granulated sugar

200g semolina (dry roasted)

110g ground almonds

4 egg yolks

2 cardamoms pods (ground)

1 tsp vanilla essence

Pastry Case and lattice:

125g margarine (chilled, cubed)

200g plain flour

1 tbsp icing sugar

1 egg yolk

2 tsp cold water

Cooking Steps

Step 1:  Cook the Coconut Filling

  1. In a saucepan, bring the water and sugar to a boil, stirring continuously until the sugar dissolves and the syrup becomes slightly sticky.

  2. Reduce the heat to low, and stir in the coconut and cook until all the syrup is fully absorbed. Remove from the heat.

Step 2: Toast the Semolina

  1. In a separate frying pan, dry roast the semolina over low heat, stirring constantly until light golden brown.

  2. Stir the toasted semolina into the warm coconut mixture and set aside to cool completely.

Step 3

  1. When the coconut-semolina mixture has cooled to room temperature, stir in the ground almonds, ground cardamoms, and beated egg yolks.

  2. Cover and leave to rest for 4-5 hrs (or overnight in the fridge) to allow the semolina to soften and absorb the flavours.The next morning, remove the cake mixture from the fridge and return to room temperature before baking. Check the mixtures consistency and if too thick and dry add a little milk and mix. Finally stir in the vanilla essence.

Step 4:  Prepare the Shortrust Pastry

  1. Sieve the flour and icing sugar into a mixing bowl.

  2. Rub in the cold margarine or butter using your fingertips until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.

  3. Add the egg yolk and cold water,  gently mixing until a firm dough forms.

  4. On a lightly floured surface, roll out two-thirds of the dough and use it to line a deep 23cm loose-bottomed cake tin. Reserve the remaining third of the dough for the latice.

  5. Place the lined tin in the fridge to chill for 15 minutes.

Step 5:  Bake the Cake

  1. Preheat your oven to 160C / Gas Mark 3 (140C fan)

  2. Remove the filling from the fridge and bring it to room temperature.  If the texture feels to stiff or dry, stir in a small splash of milk.  Fold in the vanilla essence.

  3. Spoon the filling evenly into the chilled pastry case.

  4. Roll out the reserved pastry, cut into thin strips, and arrange them over the filling in a crosshatch lattice pattern.

  5. Bake for 40 to 60 minutes, or until golden on top and skewer inserted into the center comes out clean.

  6. Allow tthe cake to cool completely in the tin before transferring it to an airtight container.