Banana and Coconut Three Milk Cake

Ramadan is around the corner and this gave me a good excuse to try this luscious looking banana and coconut three milk cake to take along when visiting family for Iftar. This was my first time making this type of cake and decide to try Donna Hay’s version from one of her magazines, “fresh, fast and simple”. It’s not complicated and is pretty straight forward to make but needs time to absorb the milks, so you could prepare it the day before.

I followed her recipe almost to a tee, but as I had no self-raising flour, used all-purpose flour and added some baking powder. My springfrom cake tin was slightly bigger but that didn’t pose a problem. It’s a well used cake tin and not shiny new, so lined the sides and base with non-stick baking parchment.

My only concern was when soaking the cake while in the tin, the milk liquid seeping through the bottom of the tin would have an aftertaste. And as a back up, reserved half a cup of the milk liquid. As I had thought, the milk liquid collected (more came through than expected) from underneath the tin had an aftertaste so I discarded this. After removing the cake from the tin and placing it on a rimmed serving plate, poured over the reserved milk liquid then topped with the whipped cream. You might want to keep this in mind if your tins are not spanking new. Or maybe you are meant to discard the milk that leaks through?

In my opinion the two cups of single cream for the topping seemed excessive so I reduced the amount and used whipping cream instead. The coconut flakes were shop bought and the dried marigold blossoms were an afterthought and add a little more color to the topping.

Baked, sliced and photographed the tasters were waiting, but the cake didn’t get the big thumbs up I had hopped for. There are many versions of three milk cakes and we decided one made without banana would be preferred. Although we weren’t bowled over by this banana and coconut three milk cake you might like to try it or it could be your inspiration (and mine) to try another version. But it does make a pretty picture.