Coconut for me is all about my childhood memories. My mom used to buy it as my school snack. And those lovely persian meringues which we make with coconut; in fact for me there is no other meringue taste than that! So I was trying to bake some persian coconut meringue and I ended up baking both coconut meringues and a sponge coconut cake! Well, my first meringue round was not so great so I had a bowl with three beaten egg whites and some sugar and coconut powder. As I don't like to waste any ingredients or food, I came up with this lovely sponge cake which is so simple to prepare and heavenly delicious! You can also turn this into a perfect and beautiful birthday cake with a simple white frosting and fresh red fruits on top. Enjoy x

Serves 8-10 people

Ingredients:

195 g fine white sugar
100 g Iranian desiccated coconut
3 egg whites
230 g room temperature butter
6 yolks
230 g self rising flour
1/2 baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
milk

Method:

It's very important that the butter is at room temperature.
Preheat the oven to 140°C/275°F/gas 1.
In a stand mixer or with the hand mixer beat the whites until foamy, add small amounts of sugar and beat on low point until you add all the sugar, then add the whole desiccated coconut and mix until everything come together. The mixture should be loose and very firmed.
Clean the mixture and add the butter, beat it until is soft and a little bit fluffy then add the yolks one by one until you have a smooth mixture, add the coconut mixture into the batter and mix all together until smooth.
Add the self rising flour and baking powder, and mix until everything come together, do not over mix because the cake is going to end up hard and not fluffy and sponge. Add vanilla extract and some milk (about 1/3 cup). Add more milk if the batter is very hard. Don't worry if the batter is very sticky and it's not moving easily.
Greece a 28cm cake tin and line it with parchment paper. Place the batter into the cake tin and move the batter all around the tin using a wooden spoon, tap the tin cake on the counter 2-3 times to let the air bubbles on the top pop.
Bake the cake on lowest part of the oven at 140°C/275°F/gas 1 for 30-40 minutes or until it's cooked through and then in middle of the oven, on 180°C/350°F/gas 4 until golden brown on top.
Leave to cool in the tin for 10-15 minutes. Then remove form the tin and let it cool completely before serving.