Vanilla coconut cake with buttercream icing

I haven't been that well lately, and so when I finally had a bit of energy back, I decided it was worth celebrating with cake. However I'm thinking it's the cake itself that needs celebrating - it's that good! I've tried many recipes using coconut flour before - there are some great ones over at What Katie Ate and The Paleo Mom - and I've been tinkering for a while with getting one right for me. They can be quite dense, dry and … well, coconutty. I'm all for coconut, but sometimes you can get too much of a good thing. However I think I've finally hit the cake jackpot - and judging by how quickly it's being eaten, I'm thinking the family does too. Aside that the fact that it tastes SO good, it's a little powerhouse party of protein, nutrients and good fats, with lots of eggs, butter and coconut - great for keeping little tummies full through the day. I've yet to freeze it to see how it survives being defrosted (it's being devoured too fast) but word on the street is that it's been 'awesome' for school lunches, even though the icing has been melting a little. It's best served at room temperature so if you're going to keep it in the fridge (which might be a good idea with the buttercream icing), let it sit for a while before dishing up. It would be a great base recipe to introduce alternate flavours or simply try changing up the icing - lemon and cream cheese would be delish as would fresh cream and berries, or maybe a simple syrup of rice malt and orange zest drizzled over would be lovely too. But I must admit, the chocolate buttercream icing is pretty amaaaazing (and it's technically only two ingredients!). I suspect this one will end up in heavy rotation.

CAKE INGREDIENTS

8 eggs
1 cup coconut flour
¼ cup tapioca flour
½ cup butter (room temperature)
½ cup coconut oil
1 cup rice malt syrup
2tb vanilla extract
½tp baking powder

METHOD

Preheat oven to 180ºC.
Beat the eggs until fluffy.
Incorporate butter, oil, rice malt syrup and vanilla and beat again.
Mix/sift the coconut and tapioca flour with the baking powder in a separate bowl, then fold into the egg mixture.
Pour into a cake tin (I used a round silicon one) and bake for 35 minutes.
Cool then ice.

BUTTERCREAM ICING

150 grams butter
150 grams dark chocolate

Gently melt butter and chocolate together on a very low heat (microwave works too).
Pour into a bowl and place in the freezer for 10-15 minutes, stirring once or twice as it sets (not too hard, you still want to be able to stir it). Alternatively you could put it in the fridge for an hour or so.
Beat well until it goes pale and creamy, then spread what you haven't eaten out of the bowl onto the cake. (Good luck with that.)