Coconut fingers are a traditional celebration cake. It would be unthinkable to for any St Helenian celebration and there not be any coconut fingers. Usually iced in pink, they are a sponge cake covered in coconut.
Every family has their own family recipe or their own twist on making them. Its a messy business to make, with the general method being to dip the whole sponge into the coloured icing before rolling them in the coconut. Below is a basic recipe to make about 18 coconut fingers…
Coconut Fingers
Ingredients
6 oz self raising flour
6 oz caster sugar
6 oz margarine or butter
3 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla flavouring
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder.
Icing
8 oz icing sugar
pink or green food colouring
hot water
1 small pack desiccated coconut preferably fine. (But medium will do)
Make the Cake:
Preheat the Oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Grease and baseline a 8 inch square baking tin. (You may need to double the ingredients if you are using a larger tin).
Whisk all the ingredients together in a large bowl until pale and creamy and there are no traces of sugar. Pour into the prepared tin, and bake on the middle shelf for approximately 25 to 30 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean.
Remove the cake from the oven and leave to cool in the tin for 10 mins.
Remove from the tin and cool completely.
To decorate:
Cut the cake half and then cut each half into strips (9 fingers from each half).
Pour the coconut onto a plate. Place the icing sugar and a small amount of food colouring in a bowl and add hot water by the tablespoon and stir until the icing is of a thick glossy consistency. Add more water if it is too thick to dip and cover the cake fingers.
Dip all sides of a cake finger into the icing, then roll in the coconut. Set aside for the icing to dry. Repeat with the remaining cake.