MANDARIN, PASSIONFRUIT & COCONUT BUNDT CAKE
SERVES 12 / PREPARATION 15 MINUTES / COOKING 25 MINUTES
One afternoon, a friend of mine, Makira, dropped off a box of mandarins that she had picked off her friend’s mama’s tree. With these mandarins, I created a coconut bundt cake that is light and spongy and can be made with anything seasonal or fruit from your backyard. The glaze can be made with whatever fruit you have – simply cook down any fruit with coconut milk and sugar and reduce to a syrup. 1 cup butter or oil
3 eggs
1 cup sugar
1½ cups self-raising flour
¼ teaspoon baking soda
½ cup fresh coconut, grated (use desiccated
coconut if fresh is not available)
Heat the oven to 170℃ fan bake. Grease a 25cm bundt tin with butter.
Cream the butter/oil, eggs and sugar. Add the flour, baking soda and coconut and fold until well mixed. Bake for 25 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean and the cake is soft to touch and springs back when lightly pressed. Let the cake sit for 10 minutes before turning it out onto a plate. Use a fork to make holes in the cake and pour the syrup over while the cake is still warm, reserving a little syrup for serving. This goes well served with coconut cream and a little more syrup.
PASSIONFRUIT SYRUP zest and juice of 2 limes ¼ cup sugar
½ cup coconut milk zest and juice of 3 mandarins ½ cup passionfruit syrup
Combine all the ingredients in a pan. Bring to the boil and simmer to reduce it to a syrupy consistency.
VAKALOLO IS ONE DISH THAT YOU WON’T FIND ON THE MENU. “IT’S MY FAVOURITE,” SAYS BERTRAND, “BUT IT’S SO SPECIAL, SO TRADITIONAL AND NOSTALGIC FOR ME, THAT I DON’T WANT TO SELL IT.”