Cooking Countesses: lemon raspberry cake with coconut frosting

It is a milestone birthday for our Momma this year but she explicitly told Maria we weren't allowed to throw her a party. I, however, decided to ignore that (just a little).

A few days before her birthday, I hosted family club. For those who are unfamiliar with the Pakistani social construct of club it is essentially a group of people (friends, family, couples etc) that decide to meet on a regular basis so that we can make sure we get to spend time together in person and catch up.

Since Maria arrived a few days before club I was able to enlist her help in preparing my home and our meal. She was even kind enough to make this fun banner for decoration.

The ladies arrived when the sun was bright and high for our luncheon. Ironically, our Momma was the last one to arrive due to some appliance issues that needed her attention. For the appetizers Maria prepared cheese and crackers with some honey while I baked zucchini fries and our guests sipped some homemade kiwi lemonade. Once everyone arrived we chowed down on beef peppercorn patties in a cream sauce with steamed green beans, spinach onion bread and mashed potatoes. Then Momma made us tea and Maria and I brought out the surprise birthday cake and gave her our presents.

We are pretty sure she knew the cake was coming since I had asked Maria over the night before to help me prepare but she had the grace to act surprised anyways.

The lemon cake was pretty easy to prepare and came out delightfully fluffy. And the raspberries paired wonderfully with the bright tartness of the lemons. We used this recipe for the lemon raspberry cake and made a coconut whipped cream frosting because I am still kind of intimidated by butter cream. I will definitely be making this cake again.


Coconut Whipped Cream
Ingredients:
1 can coconut milk
1/4 cup heavy whipping cream
4 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp lemon zest
1/2 tbsp lemon juice
3 tbsp sweetened coconut flakes

Directions:
Note: I used a stand mixer but this can easily be done with a whisk or immersion blender as well
1. Place the coconut milk can in the fridge overnight. This will help the water separate from the cream.
2. The next day scoop the cream out from the top of the can into a mixing bowl, make sure not to get any of the water as it will make the end result runny
3. Add the lemon juice, zest, whipping cream and sugar and using the whisk attachment on the stand mixer mix the ingredients on low til stiff peaks begin to form.
4. Using a spatula fold in the sweetened coconut flakes and ice the cake with a generous layer

~Tasneem