MOM'S ORANGE-COCONUT CAKE

I’m sure we all know of a recipe that never leaves our mother’s repertoire and that we’ve seen being made since years. I’m talking about the kind of recipes that your mother literally “owns” and that she could quite possibly have a copyright on (even if it’s been done by others, but you inevitably associate it to her more then any other person on earth). Well before this year ends, I want to feature a cake recipe that my mother has been cooking up in our home’s kitchen since before I was born. Indeed, my mom tells me that she had first made today’s featured orange-coconut cake when she was pregnant with me, and ever since she makes it each year around the winter season when oranges are abundant bringing in a fruity zest into the chilly days. So that basically means this is a cake that I grew up with, and that maybe explains why I ended up being such a sweet tooth! I grew up enjoying delicious fluffy bites of amazingly fragrant cake drenched with orange syrup and coated with clouds of whipped cream and grated coconut… a bundle of tastes and textures filled with irreplaceable emotional value… mothers’ recipes are truly full of magic!

Above & below: the orange syrup being soaked up by the cakeMy mother’s orange-coconut cake
(for a small 20cm diameter round cake mould)
*My mother has the habit of measuring everything in cups (and when I say cups I am being literal here- no measuring cups, but drinking cups) which would explain the recipe below.

The recipe is split into the batter and the orange syrup. The syrup should be made first:

Orange syrup:
6 oranges (juice of)
½ cup sugar
In a pot, heat the orange juice and sugar. When it starts boiling, let it do so for about 5 mins. Turn off heat and let cool.

Cake batter:
2 eggs
½ cup butter
½ cup sugar
2 oranges (peels only)
2 cups flour
½ sachet (about 5gr) baking powder

Mix eggs, butter and sugar. Add orange peels into a food processor so that the peels transform into a zest, and add this to previous mixture. Then add the flour and baking powder. Mix well and bake in th5/190C/375F oven for 30 mins. When baked, remove and poke with a fork and pour cooled syrup onto hot cake. Pour all the syrup and leave overnight- everything will be soaked in by the morning. The next day, whip up liquid cream, coat the cake with the cream and add a generous sprinkle of grated coconut. Enjoy!