This is one of the very first cakes I made when I started baking. I felt so proud of myself when it turned out a success, I told anyone who would listen about this cake I’d baked.

It’s the kind of simple and quick cake that can be easily cobbled together for afternoon tea or snack.

It was the custard powder that initially drew me to this cake; it reminded me of a dessert my mom used to make – warm and creamy custard sauce poured over tender slices of pound cake, it was decadent and perfectly sweet.

She was the reason why I kept buying tins of Bird’s Custard Powder even though I had no clue what to do with it.
She’d talked about the dessert years before she started making it for us; it always led to stories of how she learned to bake as a child from the Sisters at St. Agnes.

That dessert usually led to more stories of her childhood, back then I could never imagine my mom as a child, so I hung on to those stories like they were fantasies, and now that I’m older, her childhood seem even more fascinating.

Maybe we’ll make this custard cake with whipped coconut cream this Sunday for tea, sit around the table and coax more interesting tales out of her… while we try and spoil her.

This is a wonderful little cake, modest and excellent on its own, but the whipped coconut frosting makes it a delightful dessert, much like how I remember my mom’s cake and custard sauce.
It’s a dense cake, also moist and not too sweet with a subtle richness that goes well with tea.

[Tweet “A deliciously lovely and simple custard cake; moist and dense, and wonderful with tea!. #vegan “]