Coconut and Yuzu Cake

This is a very simple cake, with only two ingredients for flavour, but sometimes that's all we need. It can get tiresome trying to decide if we can identify every different flavour element suggested by the name of a dish, not to mention other ingredients added to enhance a dish, but not mentioned by name.

This cake was made to use up about 20mls of Yuzu juice leftover after making the frosting for this Green Tea Cake; it was just enough to give a subtle citrus flavour to the cake without dominating the coconut. The beauty of Yuzu is that although it is obviously a citrus flavour, it's not easy to define any more accurately than that - it's lemony, but not as sour, is perhaps the nearest description. A sweet grapefruit might be nearer the mark, although grapefruit isn't a strong flavour and I've never used it in baking. However you describe it, it hit the right note here, adding just enough of a zing to lift the cake from just being a coconut cake.

I went back to a basic cake recipe I've been using for almost 40 years. It makes a plain cake which is denser than a sponge cake and is a good carrier for either just added flavours or solid ingredients such as dried fruit or chopped chocolate. As the fat is rubbed into the flour, it is quick to make too - from weighing the ingredients to getting the cake into the oven is only a matter of a few minutes.

Rub 150g butter (at room temperature) into 250g SR flour, then mix in 150g caster sugar and 80g desiccated coconut. Make a well in the centre of the ingredients and add 3 eggs and 20mls yuzu juice;  mix well, adding enough milk to give a soft dropping consistency. Transfer to a 7"(18cm) diameter round tin or a 2lb loaf tin, level the top, and bake at 180C for around 75 minutes, until a test probe comes out clean.

I left the cake undecorated, but a drizzle of glacé icing and a few shreds of toasted coconut strips would be good for a smarter occasion.