# Sri Lankan Coconut Cake with Jaggery

**Description:** Sri Lankan coconut cake is a dense, sticky bake of fresh coconut cooked with jaggery, spiced and studded with cashews, sultanas and ginger preserve.
**Prep Time:** 30m | **Cook Time:** 1h 20m | **Servings:** 12 pieces

## Ingredients
* 1 Fresh coconut, scraped
* Thick coconut milk squeezed from the scraped coconut
* 250 g Jaggery, grated or chopped
* 100 g Sugar
* 250 g All-purpose flour
* 1 tsp Baking powder
* 1/2 tsp Salt
* 1/2 tsp Ground cinnamon
* 1/4 tsp Ground cloves
* 1/4 tsp Ground cardamom
* 1 cup Coconut milk
* 100 g Cashews, chopped
* 50 g Sultanas
* 50-60 g Ginger preserve, chopped
* 2 tbsp Chutney
* 30 g Butter, softened (plus extra for the pan)

## Instructions
1. **Squeeze the Thick Milk**: Squeeze the scraped coconut by hand to extract the thick first milk. Keep the milk and the squeezed coconut separately.
2. **Cook Coconut with Jaggery**: Put the squeezed coconut in a heavy pan with the jaggery, 100 g sugar and the thick coconut milk, and mix well.
3. **Simmer to a Sticky Mixture**: Cook on a low flame, stirring constantly so it does not burn, until the jaggery and sugar melt and the mixture turns thick and sticky. Take it off the heat and let it cool completely.
4. **Preheat and Line the Pan**: Preheat the oven to 160°C (320°F). Line the baking pan with baking (oil) paper and butter the paper.
5. **Sift in the Dry Ingredients**: Sift the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, cloves and cardamom straight into the cooled coconut mixture.
6. **Add the Coconut Milk**: Pour in 1 cup coconut milk and mix well by hand until no dry flour remains.
7. **Fold in the Fruit and Nuts**: Add the cashews, sultanas, ginger preserve and chutney, and mix until evenly spread through the mixture.
8. **Mix in the Butter**: Add the softened butter last and mix well. Mix by hand only, not with an electric mixer. The mixture should be sticky but drier than a normal cake batter, not pourable.
9. **Bake**: Spread the mixture into the lined pan, level the top and bake at 160°C for about 1 hour, until firm and a skewer in the center comes out clean.
10. **Cool and Cut**: Let the cake cool in the pan before lifting it out and cutting it into pieces.

## Notes / Tips
* Keep the flame low while cooking the coconut and jaggery and keep stirring; jaggery scorches easily and turns bitter.
* Let the coconut mixture cool fully before adding the flour so the baking powder doesn't start working early.
* Mix by hand: a mixer overworks this thick, sticky mixture and makes the cake tough.
* Ginger preserve can be 50 g for a gentle warmth or 60 g for a stronger ginger flavor.
* Ovens vary, so start checking with a skewer at about 50 minutes. If the top browns too fast, loosely cover it with foil.
* Store the cooled cake in an airtight container at room temperature for a few days.

## Tags
#SriLankan #CoconutCake #Jaggery #Cake #Baking #Dessert #Vegetarian