Danish Dream Cake ( coconut caramel cake)

This traditional tea time cake from Denmark has a light vanilla cake topped with a sweet chewy caramelised coconut layer

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Ingredients

For the cake

190 grams or 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
180 ml or 3/4 cup whole milk
112 grams or 1/2 cup unsalted butter
3 eggs at room temperature
150 grams or 3/4 cup granulated or castor sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the topping

75 grams or 1/3 cup unsalted butter
100 grams or 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons milk
100 grams or 1 cup dessicated coconut

Instructions

Preheat your oven to 180 C / 350 F
Butter and flour a 8 inch square cake pan . You can line the bottom with parchment (optional)
In a bowl , whisk together flour , baking powder and salt. Keep aside.
In a saucepan , heat together butter and milk until butter melts . Keep this warm until needed
In a large bowl , beat together the eggs , sugar and vanilla
Beat well until mixture is tripled in volume and is light and fluffy.
Beat or fold in the flour mixture at low speed until all the flour is mixed in. Scrape the sides and bottom of bowl to make sure.
Beat in the hot milk-butter mixture until smooth. This will take only a few seconds
Pour batter immediately into prepared pan and bake for 20 to 25 minutes until top is set , springs back when pressed and maybe even lightly browned
As the cake bakes, make the topping.
In a saucepan , heat together brown sugar , milk and butter until melted and bubbling .
Take off heat and stir in the coconut.
Once the cake has baked for 20 to 25 mins , take out from oven and increase the temperature to 200 c / 400 F.
Spread the topping on the cake as evenly as possible
Return to oven and bake for 10 minutes until the top is well browned
Cool in pan for 10 minutes and gently remove .
Cool completely on wire rack

Video

Notes

This cake stays good in an airtight container for 2 to 3 days .You can also refrigerate and bring to room temperature before eating.

Make sure you dont over fill the pan - do keep enough space for the cake rising and a thin layer of topping

My measuring cup is 240 ml.

If you dont want to use eggs , you can just use your favourite vanilla eggless cake recipe and top with the coconut mixture as in the recipe

This is a very mildly sweet cake and you can increase the sugar in the cake batter to about a cup if you want ( i have used 3/4 cup)

Also we prefer a ratio of more cake to topping but you can double the topping for a thicker crumb and a more indulgent cake !

If you increase the sugar in the topping , you will have an easier to spread topping. Mine was more of a crumble and i spread it on in bits and pieces!