Baking for Nightshft- Moist Coconut Cake with Coconut Ice Frosting

This weekend was labour weekend but has been rather busy with Harry having his ballet show on both Saturday and Sunday. He was SO amazing and we really could not have been more proud, (in fact we even had tears when he first came on stage). He LOVES ballet and he and my friend Leigh's little boy, Billy, are the only two boys in his ballet academy. Billy is a bit younger than Harry so he is in a different class. Unfortunately we were not allowed to take any photo's of either him in costume or of the show but here is one of him with his makeup on before we left to go on Sunday...

Both days were really long and on the Sunday I braved doing parent help and got the 'enjoyable' job of looking after the really little ones. Boy oh boy it really was work too as they needed to be looked after constantly and kept occupied for the full 4 1/2 hours. I had to get them into costume, fed, reclothed and then make sure they were safe and happy, and as they were so exhausted by the end of the afternoon try to keep them from falling asleep. I have to say they were adorable though and a lovely bunch of little girls. Luckily I had Ang there too who was also doing parent help to help keep me sane! Anyway Harry performed beautifully, (as did his whole group), and even got to perform a very short little solo. In fact his class were so good they all won an incentive prize/ medal for doing the best on the day. Needless to say my heart swelled with pride for my clever little boy!

Anyway onto the baking post. As the weekend has been so busy there has been precious little time for any relaxation. As well as that the weekend has been absolutely stunning! So today my aim was to have a quiet day at home so both me and the boys could recharge our batteries...especially as I have to start back on 3 nightshifts. Of course we did go to the park to walk the dog as well which was lovely, but by the time we got home all Harry wanted to do was to lie on the couch and watch a movie. I, of course, took the opportunity to do some baking to take to work. I got this recipe from an AWW cookbook which I had borrowed from the library called 'Food We Love'. This recipe caught my attention immediately. Of course for the sake of this blog I had to try a piece and it really is lovely. The cake is nice and moist and the icing sets on top like coconut ice. You can't give this to anyone who can't have raw egg whites though. Excuse the rather gaudy pink colour of the icing. It was meant to be a delicate rose pink but I was a little too heavy handed with the colouring. Never mind at least it's vibrant!!!

Moist Coconut Cake with Coconut Ice Frosting

125 gm butter
1/2 tsp coconut essence
1 c caster sugar
2 eggs
1/2 c desiccated coconut
1 1/2 c self raising flour, sifted
300 gm sour cream
1/3 c milk

Frosting

2 c icing sugar
1 1/3 c desiccated coconut
2 eggs whites, lightly beaten

Oven to 180 C. Grease a 22 cm tin (I used a 23 cm), and line the base.

Beat butter, essence, sugar til light and fluffy then add in the eggs one at a time.

Stir in half the coconut, flour, sour cream and milk, then add the rest and stir until smooth.

Bake about 50 mins. Stand in the pan for 5 mins then turn out onto a rack.

Make the frosting but combining all ingredients and mixing well. Tint if you want to. Top the cold cake.