Charleston Coconut Bliss Cake - Melbourne Cake Club

Last Thursday night, the Melbourne Cake Club met at Bad Frankie in Fitzroy.  November's theme was Cocktail Cakes, inspired by the spring racing carnival.

My cake was a Charleston Coconut Bliss Cake.  It doesn't look very exciting, but it tasted great.  Think coconut liqueur sponge, filled with rum spiked mango and topped with coconut sprinkled icing.  The recipe was from Bootleg Bakery by Kiki Bee.

Half the fun of the Cake Club is how everyone interprets the theme.  Nicole made a mud cake in the shape of a cocktail:

Kara made an orange cake filled with cointreau custard and topped with marmalade, with chocolate sauce on the side: 

Dalya made a pina colada cake, studded with pineapple and smothered with caramel:

We dressed up for the occasion too with fascinators.  Here's Dalya and Nicole:

and Kara and I:

Bad Frankie has an awesome cocktail list, so I went for Mrs Ffrench's Apple Pie No 2 - brandy, cinnamon, myrtle, eucalyptus and apple juice:

This is what the cakes looked like inside:

It was a fun evening with some truly delicious cakes.

To make your own Charleston Coconut Bliss Cake, you will need:

100g dessicated coconut
100ml coconut liqueur
150g butter
100g sugar
3 beaten eggs
150g self-raising flour
1 teaspoon baking powder


2 ripe mangoes
juice of one lemon
juice of one lime
50ml rum

300g icing sugar
dessicated coconut for sprinkling


Preheat your oven to 190 degrees Celsius.  Grease and line 2 x 18cm round cake tins.

Put the dessicated coconut and  coconut liqueur in a bowl and stir to combine.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, mix the butter and sugar with the paddle attachment until light and creamy.   Add the beaten egg a little at a time, beating well between each addition.  

Sift the flour and baking powder together and fold through the butter mixture.  Finally, fold in the coconut mixture. 

Divide the mixture evenly between the two prepared tins and bake for 25-30 minutes or until done. Unmould the cakes after 5 minutes out of the oven and cool them on a wire rack.

To make the mango filling, remove the flesh from the mangoes.  Thinly slice the flesh of one mango and set aside.  Puree the flesh of the other mango and combine in a bowl with the rum, lemon juice and lime juice.  Spread the puree over the top of one of the cakes, arrange the mango slices on top of the puree, then top with the other cake.

For the icing, sift the icing sugar  in a bowl and combine with just enough cold water to make a thick paste.  Spread the icing over the top of the cake and sprinkle with coconut.