The Teaspoon: Chocolate & Coconut Loaf

by Diana

When I chose ceramics as my specialty creative medium during my BA in fine arts, I never imagined that many years later, the closest I would get to the kiln experience would be through my kitchen oven. Back then, I fell in love with the magical alchemy and uncertainty of the process. Learning to be patient cost me several broken pieces and a few tears. It was a painful but therapeutic process -as it tends to be.

I remembered discussing with my tutors the so many similitudes between ceramic practice and baking. The later would always be somehow more replicable and accessible but, to me, the transformative quality of ingredients through careful measurement and specific procedures and their choice-less submission to elevated temperatures would forever remind me of my now forgotten ceramist side. This neglected persona emerges on those counted ocasions though, when the outcome of my kitchen experiments turn into textured, volumed and proportioned shapes worthy of brief contemplation, remindding me that it's my choice to see the world throgh the lens of art, either using clay and brushes or relying on flour and baking powder.

Ps. The lack of ‘interior’ images is not just me conceptualising the cake as a sculpture but it was another office birthday intended cake so giving it sliced was going to compromise the lack popularity I have already achieved.

Ingredients

60 g unsalted butter (room temperature)

190 g plain flour

50 g unsweetened cocoa powder

1 teaspoon sea salt

3⁄4 teaspoon baking powder

100 g coconut oil, room temperature

300 g granulated sugar

3 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

160 ml buttermilk (or 160 ml milk + 1 teaspoon white vinegar)

50 g unsweetened coconut flakes

Method

Preheat oven to 160C/325F.

Line a regular loaf tray with parchment paper.

Combine all dry ingredients: flour, baking powder, cocoa and salt. Set aside.

In a bowl, use an electric mixer to mix oil, butter and sugar until pale and fluffy (about 3-4 min). Incorporate the vanilla and the eggs slowly and continue beating until the mixture is doubled in volume (4-5 minutes).

Carefully add the combined dry ingredients along with the buttermilk (or substitute). Pour the batter into the lined tin and sprinkle generously with the coconut.

Bake in preheated oven for about 45 min or until until a tester inserted into the center comes out clean.

Allow to cool down completely before slicing. Enjoy!

Adapted from bonappetit