Sugar Cake

“Sugar Cake is a delightfully simple, addictive-free recipe. This is my low-sugar version for those of you who want to cut down on the sweet stuff.

Ingredients

1 grated coconut

2oz Demerara sugar

8oz water

1 cinnamon stick or teaspoon of grated nutmeg

1 / 2 teaspoon of vanilla extract

1 teaspoon freshly grated ginger

Method

First take a hammer (not a cutlass!) and break open the hard shell of the coconut. Remember to hold it over a bowl so that you can catch the coconut water as it trickles through the shell. Set the coconut water to one side and grate the flesh of the coconut, coarsely or finely according to your preference. Lightly toast the grated coconut by turning it over and over in a pan on a low heat so that it doesn’t burn. Set to one side.

Pour 8 fluid ounces of water into a pan; add 3 ounces of sugar and stir over a low heat until the sugar dissolves. Add the grated ginger, one cinnamon stick or grated nutmeg and half a teaspoon of vanilla extract. Stir the sugar water until the mixture reduces into a thick silky syrup. Remove the cinnamon stick. Add the grated coconut and stir over a low heat until is completely covered with the syrup. Keep stirring for 2-3 minutes and then turn off the heat.

On greaseproof paper spoon out mounds of Sugar Cake and allow to set. Drink the coconut water.”

-Sugar, Sugar by Lainy Malkani