Are tamarillo’s the Brussel sprout of the fruit world? You either love them or hate them. I’m a lover and cooking them – stewing, baking etc – mellows their flavour beautifully. This cake is a good keeper but served warm with ice cream, cream, custard or yoghurt (or heck, all of them!) it is just magical. 

225g (about 1 ½ cups) self-raising flour 


1 cup caster or raw sugar + extra for topping 
1 ¼ cups desiccated coconut 
125g butter, melted 
2 large eggs, lightly beaten 
½ cup milk or yoghurt 


4-5 ripe tamarillos, halved and flesh scooped 
Ice cream, whipped cream, custard or yoghurt to serve 


Preheat oven 180C and grease a 20cm round cake tin. Line with baking paper.
Combine flour, sugar and coconut in a medium bowl. In another bowl, lightly whisk together the melted butter, eggs and milk (or yoghurt) until combined. Pour this into the dry ingredients and mix until combined.
Scrape the cake batter into the tin.
Chop or slice each of the tamarillo halves into 2-3 smaller pieces/slices. Scatter these over the batter, pushing some into it and leaving others on top. Sprinkle with extra 2 tablespoons sugar.
Bake for about 1 hour or until skewer comes out clean.
Cool for 10 minutes on a wire rack before turning out to cool completely.
Serve with ice cream, cream etc.

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