NOQU VITI (MY FIJI)
SERVES 12 / PREPARATION 25 MINUTES / COOKING 35 MINUTES
Noqu Viti is a dense coconut cake, sandwiched with a rich coconut-caramel sauce and cream cheese butter icing – just taste the island! It’s my most popular cake and I still find it resonates with my upbringing (when translated Noqu Viti means ‘my Fiji’).
4 eggs
1 cup coconut milk
½ cup canola or soya oil 2 tablespoons vanilla essence 3 cups sugar
4 cups self-raising flour 1 teaspoon salt
½ cup grated coconut
½ cup coconut cream
2 cups hot water toasted coconut, to decorate
Heat the oven to 160℃ fan bake. Grease three 20cm cake tins.
Put the eggs, milk, oil, vanilla essence and sugar in a bowl and beat until light and fluffy, about 7 minutes on high speed. Sift together the flour and salt, then fold into the egg mixture. Once combined, add the grated coconut, coconut cream and hot water until incorporated.
Divide between the prepared cake tins and bake for 35 minutes or until cooked. They are ready when a skewer comes out clean or the cake is soft to touch and springs back when lightly pressed. Cool in the tin for 10 minutes before turning onto a wire rack.
CREAM CHEESE BUTTER ICING
250g cream cheese
2 cups icing sugar
2 tablespoons vanilla essence 250g butter, softened, cut in small cubes
Beat the cream cheese, icing sugar and vanilla essence until smooth and fluffy. Add the butter gradually beating until incorporated. Do not over mix.
COCONUT-CARAMEL SAUCE 100g brown sugar 200ml coconut cream
Melt the sugar in a heavy saucepan until it reaches smoking point. Add the coconut cream. Allow to cool completely before using, as the coconut sauce thickens over time. This sauce can be done ahead of time.
To assemble, spread one cake with one-third of the butter icing and drizzle one-third of the caramel in the centre. Carefully stack the second cake on top and spread with a further one-third of the icing and caramel sauce. Top with the final cake, cover with the remaining icing and garnish with toasted coconut and caramel sauce.