Pineapple and Coconut Sandcastle Cake

I can never resist new baking equipment and when I saw this sandcastle cake mould from Lakeland, priced at just £7.99, I had to buy it as I knew it would be perfect for summer.

I thought about what flavours I associated with the beach, and decided that fish and chips wouldn't really work in a cake - so summery cocktails were the next best thing. Pineapple and coconut reminds me of cocktails, exotic fruit and even coconut-scented sun tan lotion, so I decided to incorporate these flavours into the cake.

Pineapple and Coconut Sandcastle Cake - an original recipe by Caroline Makes

 You need:

Cake Release spray for greasing the mould

200g butter, softened

200g caster sugar

4 eggs

1 cup pineapple juice

Juice and pineapple from a 227g tin of pineapple rings

275g self raising flour

50g dessicated coconut

for the buttercream

50g butter, softened

100g icing sugar

to decorate:
25g candy melts in any colour (optional)
Cocktail sticks, paper and glue to make flags (optional)
100g golden caster sugar (optional)

I used the Lakeland sandcastle silicone mould for this cake. To decorate, I used the Lakeland seashell silicone icing mould (£6.99) though you could also use Belgian chocolate seashells.

Preheat the oven to 150C. Spray the sandcastle mould with Cake Release or similar.

In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar with an electric mixer then mix in the eggs.

Add the pineapple juice and mix again.

Finely chop the tinned pineapple and add the pineapple and juice from the tin to the cake mixture. Fold in gently.

Fold in the flour and dessicated coconut and make sure all the ingredients are combined.

Stand the sandcastle mould in a large roasting tin and pour the cake mixture into the mould. Bake in the preheated oven for 1 hour.

 Allow to cool in the mould and then turn out onto a cooling rack.

Meanwhile prepare the decorations. To decorate, I used the Lakeland seashell silicone icing mould.

Melt some candy melts - you will only need about 25g - in the microwave or according to pack instructions. You can use any colour but I used a mixture of blue and white. With a teaspoon, spoon a small amount of the melted candy melts into the seashell moulds and place in the fridge for an hour to set. You could use chocolate instead of candy melts, or use ready made Belgian chocolate seashells.

 For the buttercream, cream the softened butter and icing sugar in a bowl. Spoon or pipe the buttercream onto the turrets of the sandcastle, reserving a little to stick the icing seashells onto the cake.

Make flags by cutting out a diamond shape from a piece of coloured paper and folding in half around a cocktail stick. Use a little glue to secure.

Place the cake on a cake board and decorate the sandcastle with flags and seashells. Sprinkle golden caster sugar around the cake to ressemble sand. You can really taste the coconut and the pineapple in this cake and it's perfect for summer.

I'm sending this to the Alphabakes challenge, which I am hosting this month, as the letter I have chosen is P.