Fairtrade Fortnight lives on - Chocolate Coconut Cake

views the best pictures

You remember I got all that lovely stuff from the Fairtrade Foundation a week or so ago to mark Fairtrade Fortnight? I made a rather lovely (if I do say so myself) Green Tea, Cardamon and Vanilla cake, and you've heard no more about it. Well, be it by accident or design that I didn't post again during Fairtrade Fortnight, I do think that we need to remember that buying Fairtrade isn't just about a fortnight a year - it's about an ongoing commitment to what's in your shopping basket, so I don't feel that it's too bad that I am posting this after Fairtrade Fortnight has finished - more that I'm reminding you that you can buy Fairtrade produce all year round.

Anyway, lecture over, and on to cake. In my goodies from the Fairtrade Foundation, I got some rather luxurious looking drinking chocolate:

This is described as "Smooth, rich and creamy... 40 percent pure cocoa from the Dominican Republic. A generous 40 percent cocoa makes this a truly luxurious and delicious drinking chocolate. The expert growers at Conacado co-operative, San Cristobal, in the Dominican Republic, have generations of experience caring for their cocoa pods and are passionate about growing premium quality cocoa." Sounds good to me.


I decided to use it to make a tray bake cake. I used a recipe from The Pink Whisk blog as my starting point, and adapted freely. As I was using drinking chocolate rather than cocoa, I reduced the caster sugar, and added in dessicated coconut (Fairtrade) which I felt drawn to - I've always been a fan of Bounty chocolate bars. I also keep meaning to make the intriguingly named 'Choc-o-ruff' which is another chocolate/coconut recipe passed on to me by a friend which came from her Granny. I will post it, I promise, but not today...

Instead of frosting my cake, I used a chocolate syrup drizzled over. If I make this again, I will only make half the syrup as it made the cake a little too moist - but still scrummy.

Chocolate Coconut Cake

110g unsalted butter
2 heaped tablespoons Fairtrade drinking chocolate
120ml boiling water
100g caster sugar
90g dessicated coconut
130g plain flour
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
60ml milk
1 medium egg

for the syrup:

1 tsp Fairtrade cocoa powder
125ml water
100g caster sugar

Grease & line a 20cm square cake tin.

Stir the sugar, coconut, flour and bicarb together in a bowl.

Put the butter, drinking choc and boiling water into a large-ish pan (you'll add in the rest of the ingredients in a bit) on a medium heat to melt the butter, then bubble for 30 seconds or so. Mix in the dry ingredients, followed by the milk and the egg, then scrape the mixture into the prepared tin and bake for 20 minutes or so.

Make the syrup by boiling up the cocoa, water and caster sugar for 5 mins or so till reduced and syrupy, then poke some holes in the cake with a skewer and drizzle the syrup over the cake.

How easy is that? Very, I tell you. And very delicious. A little soggy due to the excess drizzle, but I'm sure we'll be able to force it down.