It’s Easter Time! And don’t we know it! There are chocolate eggs, bunnies, footballs, bilby’s and even chocolate babies (freaky!) in stores everywhere right now! But what if you want to create something yourself this Easter? What if you want something a little different…. Never fear, Sweetcheeks is here with a totally awesome Easter Recipe! I’m sharing with you my favourite coconut ice – Easter style, baby! Let’s get into it …
What You Need:
• 3 1/3 cups of Pure icing sugar
• 4 1/4 cups of Desiccated Coconut
• 1 tin of sweetened condensed milk (395ml)
• Gel Food colouring (your choice of colour/s) Wilton or Americolor are both available widely from cake decorating shops or online (if all else fails, ebay has everything you could ever want for absolutely anything!)
• And of course a LARGE bowl
• Spatula or wooden spoon if you’re old school (and I love that about you!)
•A cake tin or baking dish of some sort, and use baking paper to line it.
Easter Recipe Method:
We start by sifting our pure icing sugar into the large bowl – TRUST me on the ‘large’ do not try this in your cereal bowl!
Then we pop all the desiccated coconut on top of that
Then mix with your spatula/wooden spoon (see? SUPER easy!)
Tip in the condensed milk (use your spatula to get aaaall that sweet goodness out)
And mix together with your spatula or super cool retro wooden spoon
Keep mixing, and mixing and mixing, you’ll feel like it’s too dry – but it’s not! I promise…. Once it looks like the picture below – you can switch to your hands, yep get messy, get in there, and knead it like you would a cookie or bread dough.
Now we’re going to cut our coconut ice in half and colour one half of it. Traditionally, coconut ice is white and pink, but today, we’re using yellow (don’t ask me why, but when I think of a colour for easter, it’s yellow – maybe little chicks?) You only need 2 drops of this gel food colouring, and then knead it until the colour is evenly distributed.
Press your yellow coconut ice layer into your lined tin, then use a smaller tin or anything else flat, to flatten it out.
Repeat with your white layer on top
And – pop it in the fridge for 1 hour.
Once you remove your coconut ice from the fridge, you can easily lift it up with your baking paper lining – then with a hot knife (run it under hot water then make sure you dry the water off) cut your coconut ice into squares or rectangles – whichever you’d prefer – viola!
Now – if you’re like me and like to experiment a little, you can roll out the coconut ice like cookie dough – cut out easter egg shapes, and looky here what you can make! These are so cute wrapped up in cellophane for little Easter gifts for friends, family, teachers, colleagues, the love of your life, or your postman! Anyone and everyone will love these sweet treats and the fact that you made them yourself – You’re Welcome xx
Danielle is a third generation baker/decorator based in Melbourne’s South East.
Creating cakes, cookies (which are shipped Australia wide) and other desserts from Weddings, Birthdays, Christenings, corporate functions and beyond. Her clients include Tiffany & Co, Dior, Salvatore Ferragamo, French Connection and more. To see more of Danielle’s work head to www.sweetcheeks.com.au, or www.instagram.com/sweetcheekscookiesandcakes.