Coconut Fingers Celebration Cake

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The wait is finally here! It’s the Great British Bake Off Final!!

The past 10 weeks has been one sticky sweet rollercoaster ride for the bakers in the tent. And through all the ups and downs, the rises and raw dough bottoms we have all been there cheering them along.  

We wanted to reach into our tv’s and give kim-Joy a hug in Danish week when the judges critic bought her to tears. We were right there with giggly tears of joy, alongside Briony (pretty much every time the camera panned her way).  Chortled at the sweet naivety of Rahul’s expressions and deadpan stare. And smiled along with the sassiness of Ruby’s quick wit.

Week after week the bakers delivered a cake shaped cornucopia of delicious bakes that would fill any amuteuer home baker with pride.  

We might not have had the high pressure of being in the Bake Off tent, or the stress of being eliminated, but here in the Saint Cooks kitchen we definitely had a rollercoaster ride of our own.  

The past 10 weeks have been a great fun and we have enjoyed the challenge to make something delicious with a St Helenian twist each week.  We made St Helenian Tomato Paste flavoured bread shaped as living Island legend, Jonathan the Tortoise in Bread week. Celebrated St Helenian Coffee liqueur in Cake week and St Helenian Curry puffs in Spice week.  And a three layered homage to the Islands most famous resident, Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte for French Patisserie week.

It wasn’t always easy and our interpretation of the weekly themes meant that some weeks artistic licence had to be called upon. As in Biscuit week when we made a 3D sculpture of High Knoll Fort out of coconut flavoured shortbread.  The upside down cake we made of the Island’s unofficial national flower the Aurm Lily in Vegan week. Or Hertzoggies tarts in Pastry week.

But overall we still managed to celebrate and showcase St Helenian flavours, recipes and ingredients throughout.  Like in our Mackerel filled fish pastries for Danish week.

Or a celebration of fruits and flavours in our Emerald Isle Trifle for Dessert week.

But all those bakes over the past nine weeks were just a warm up for the finialle and this week we have made our biggest, bestest and boldest bake in our showstopper finial.  

We have taken the jewel in St Helenian baking, the humble coconut finger, and made it the star of our three tier celebration cake.  Complete with sugar paste decorations of Jonathan the Tortoise, Arum lilies, Tuna fish and the St Helena Wirebird. Our most adventurous design to date the end product surpassed our expectations and we are so proud of how it all turned out.

We’re excited to see what the three finalists, Ruby, Rahul and Kim-Joy bake in the finial tonight.

Thanks to everybody who supported our videos these past 10 week, liked, shared and were inspired to try St Helenian cooking.

We’ll be back soon with more bakes soon

EJ

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Here’s how you make it:

How to make coconut fingers

10 oz / 283 g Plain Flour
8 oz / 225 g Sugar
8 oz / 225 g Margarine or Butter
4 Eggs
Vanilla essence
2 teaspoons (tsp) Baking powder
9 oz / 250 g Icing sugar
18 oz / 500 g Desiccated Coconut
Red food colouring
Vanilla essence

Making the Cake base

1. Cream the sugar and butter/margarine in a bowl until soft and light in colour.
2. Add the eggs one at a time, and one tablespoon (Tbsp) of sifted flour to the mixture.
3. Add a few drops of the vanilla essence to the mixture.  Mix well.
4. Add the remaining sifted flour and the baking powder.  Mix well. (Or use an electric whisk).
5. Line the baking tray with bakery parchment.
6. Place mixture into a flat cake tin and bake in a moderate oven at 350F / 180c / Gas 4 for 20-25 minutes.

Making the Coconut Fingers

1. Make sure that the cake is completely cooled from baking.  Otherwise the icing will melt during decoration.
2. Cut the cake into fingers about 10-12 cm long by 3-5 cm wide.
3. Using a medium/large bowl, mix the icing sugar with water to make the icing mixture.  Start with a few drops of water, adding more as you mix, until it has the consistency of a runny sauce.
4. Add a few drops of the food colouring to the icing sugar mixture.  Mix it well.
5. Add the Coconut to a medium/large bowl. (Note: Depending on the amount of cake fingers you have, might need to create more icing, or coconut.  Mix as required).
6. Dip the fingers into the icing sugar bowl, making sure to cover all the sides with icing.
7. Then roll the fingers in the coconut bowl.
8. Leave to set on a plate.

Makes about 30 Fingers. (Depends on the size you cut them)

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