This week on Tuesdays with Dorie, Carmen of Carmen Cooks singled out Coconut Tea Cake on pages 194 and 195 of Dorie Greenspan’s book  Baking: From My Home to Yours .  Dorie wasn’t kidding when she said “dry”.  But we found it to be good “dry” — which meant we liked it!!!  I made one of the variations listed on the book:  ORANGE COCONUT TEA CAKE.  I used more orange zest (from 2 oranges) and less sugar (1 cup instead of 2).  I also added the juice of half an orange (instead of a quarter of an orange) with the coconut milk and butter.  The shredded coconut made for some interesting texture and the coconut milk was mild in my opinion.  Here’s my tweaked version:

ORANGE COCONUT TEA CAKE

Ingredients:

• 2 cups flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 4 eggs, room temperature
• 1/2 stick butter
• 1 cup coconut milk
• juice of half an orange
• zest of 2 oranges
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup shredded coconut, sweetened oy unsweetened

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Sift flour, baking powder and salt.  Set aside.
2. In a bowl, combine sugar and orange zest, rubbing to get essence of the orange zest into the sugar.  Heat coconut milk, butter and orange juice in a saucepan over medium heat.  Stir until butter is melted and then remove from heat. Keep warm.
3. In an electric mixer using a whisk, beat eggs and sugar mixture until light and fluffy, approximately 3 – 4 minutes.  Reduce speed and slowly add coconut milk mixture and vanilla extract.  Continue beating until incorporated.  Add flour mixture and beat until just combined.  Stir a couple of times with a spatula to incorporate  whatever flour is left at the bottom of bowl.
4. Prepare a bundt pan by greasing inside with butter. Or you can use a silicone pan.  Pour mixture, tap to remove bubbles and bake in the over (do not use cookie sheet or pan, place bundt pan directly on rack) for 1 hour or until golden brown and cake tester comes out clean. Cool in a rack for 10 minutes before removing from pan and letting cool at room temperature.

Notes: Can be kept at room temperature wrapped in plastic for 4 days according to Dorie.

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