By The leaves turned this week. Anchorage gets one good week of yellow — birch and aspen, the gold light that lasts about six days. I walked the coastal trail on my day off and the trail was full of people doing the same thing — Alaskans collectively photographing the gold week, the once-a-year sacrament. I took a photo and put it on the blog. I wrote: "We will pay for this in February." The comments laughed. Alaskans understand the layaway plan.
I called Tita Nening on Saturday. We talked for thirty minutes. She is seventy-four. She lives in Iloilo City. She has known me only through Lourdes's reports for thirty-four years. She told me, in her formal but warm English, that whenever I came, the house would be open and the kitchen would be ready. "Pag dating mo, magluluto tayo." When you arrive, we will cook. The future tense was a promise. The promise was a cooking. The cooking was the why. The why is why I am going.
The Iloilo Fund is at twenty-eight hundred dollars. The trip will cost about five thousand. I am at fifty-six percent. The math is not fast. The math is also moving.
I made bibingka on Sunday — out of season again, the body wanting pandan. The bibingka has, in my kitchen, become a year-round comfort food rather than a seasonal one. I ate it with coffee while the September light slanted through the window. The smell of pandan is the smell of patience.
Pete asked me Friday how the hum was. I said, "Louder." He said, "What are you going to do about it." I said, "I don't know. Maybe MSN coursework. Eventually." He said, "Eventually is the word that hides decades." I laughed. I told him I would think about it.
Bibingka starts and ends with coconut, and on a Sunday when the pandan was doing its quiet work and Tita Nening’s words were still sitting warm in my chest — magluluto tayo, we will cook — I wanted something that carried that same softness into a flavor I could share here, one that doesn’t require a specialty pantry. This blueberry coconut cake with lemon sauce is the bridge I landed on: the coconut holds the comfort, the lemon cuts through like September light through a west-facing window, and the whole thing bakes slowly, which felt exactly right for a week about patience and fifty-six percent and the word eventually.
Blueberry Coconut Cake with Lemon Sauce
Prep Time: 20 min | Cook Time: 45 min | Total Time: 1 hr 5 min | Servings: 10
Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 3 large eggs, room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon coconut extract
- 3/4 cup full-fat coconut milk
- 1/4 cup sour cream
- 1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries (if frozen, do not thaw)
- 3/4 cup sweetened shredded coconut
- For the Lemon Sauce:
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- 1/2 cup water
- 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice (about 2 lemons)
- 1 teaspoon lemon zest
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- Pinch of salt
Instructions
- Preheat and prepare. Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C). Grease a 9-inch round cake pan and line the bottom with parchment paper. Lightly flour the sides.
- Mix dry ingredients. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
- Cream butter and sugar. In a large bowl, beat the softened butter and sugar together with a hand or stand mixer on medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 3–4 minutes.
- Add eggs and extracts. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Mix in the vanilla and coconut extracts.
- Combine wet and dry. Whisk the coconut milk and sour cream together in a small bowl. Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture in three additions, alternating with the coconut milk mixture, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients. Mix until just combined — do not overmix.
- Fold in blueberries and coconut. Gently fold in the shredded coconut. Then fold in the blueberries, tossing them first in 1 tablespoon of flour to help prevent sinking.
- Bake. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top. Bake for 40–45 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean and the top is golden. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack.
- Make the lemon sauce. While the cake cools, whisk together sugar and cornstarch in a small saucepan. Stir in the water and lemon juice over medium heat, whisking constantly until the mixture thickens and just begins to bubble, about 4–5 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in the lemon zest, butter, and salt until smooth.
- Serve. Slice the cake and spoon warm lemon sauce generously over each piece. The sauce can be made ahead and rewarmed gently on the stovetop.
Nutrition (per serving)
Calories: 390 | Protein: 5g | Fat: 20g | Carbs: 50g | Fiber: 2g | Sodium: 190mg