Golden Rough

I had what can only be described as an epic craving for a golden rough – that delightful disc of milk chocolate and coconut. No such luck. I feared it wasn't meant to be – they exist on Ebay in boxes of 100s yes but at any of my local food stores, no.

So I took it upon myself to make a dessert that would quell any current and future needs for all things chocolate and coconut. This is it and you are going to want to get face deep in it immediately. It's a hedonistic mix of coconut chocolate and buttermilk cake, vanilla and chocolate ice cream and coconut macarons. It will see my coconut chocolate fix (and yours) into the next millennium.

Obviously you are going to have more cake than what is needed but when is too much cake EVER a problem? Exactly. My thoughts also. You're welcome.

This also works just as well if you create your own 'mix ins' combining everything into a crunchy, cakey chilled mix to eat at warp speed causing cold headaches and the need to lie down immediately on the couch under the fan post consumption. The only way summer desserts should be consumed.

Ingredients

Chocolate coconut buttermilk cake

130g butter

225g brown sugar

75g caster sugar

2 eggs

225g plan flour

75g dutch cocoa powder

2 teaspoons bicarbonate soda

pinch of salt

300ml buttermilk

1 vanilla bean, seeds scraped

1 x 250g block of coconut milk chocolate, broken into chunks

coconut macarons (about 2 per serve)

Vanilla ice cream

Chocolate ice cream

Method

Preheat the oven to 180C.

Line a 20cm round cake tin with baking paper and set aside.

Beat the butter and sugars until pale and creamy. Add the eggs slowly, beating well after each egg is added. Sift the flour, cocoa and bicarbonate soda and salt in a bowl. Stir to combine before adding to the butter mixture, alternating with the buttermilk and vanilla seeds. With each addition, beat until the ingredients are mixed but be careful not to over mix. Gently fold through the chunks of coconut chocolate then pour into the cake tin and bake for 30 – 35 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. Leave to cool in the tin before turning out onto a wire rack to col completely.

Cut the cake and crumble about a quarter of it into a bowl. You want about ¼ cup of cake crumbs per serve so cut the cake according to the number of serves you require. Reserve, covered, until ready to serve.

To serve, place the cake crumb in the base of serving glasses. Top with a scoop of vanilla and chocolate ice cream, a few more cake crumbs and then one or two coconut macarons. Continue layering until you can't fit anymore in. Serve immediately.