Ottolenghi’s Louise cake with plum & coconut
This recipe for Louise cake with plum and coconut comes from Yotam Ottolenghi and Helen Goh’s incredible new cookbook called ‘Sweet’. This book ‘speaks’ to me in every way and not only because I published a book with the exact same name in 2015 – and obviously, I think it’s a perfect name for a book with this subject matter, but I adore baking and dessert-making.
This book, like all of Ottolenghi’s previous books – including the ones he collaborated with other people on are amongst my favourite of all time and is the ones that constantly inspire me. Flipping through the pages of ‘Sweet’ I wanted to make every single recipe.
Ingredients:
125g butter at room temperature (I always use salted even though the recipe calls for unsalted)
100g caster sugar
Finely grated zest of 1 lemon (1tsp)
3 large egg yolks
125g plain flour
1 ½ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
20g desiccated coconut
80ml milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
5 dark red plums, ripe but firm (about 450g)
Meringue
60g flaked almonds
140g egg whites (I used 4 ½ egg whites but it all depends on the size of your eggs)
1/8th tsp salt
185g caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp white wine vinegar
1 tsp cornflour