Maracoona cakes

The real name of this cake is the Macaroon Cake, but as a little girl, I really struggled getting the C and R in the right spot, and always called it MaRaCoona cake instead, and well, it stuck! This recipe is my another of my Grans. There were some very scary gastronomical experiences in my Gran's kitchen, in which one had to guess just how far in advance the item was made, but never with cakes! This cake was always made fresh on the day we were arriving in Byron Bay, so that the sponge part of the cake was still warm, and the coconut meringue topping was crisp on the outside.

I served these baby-maracoona cakes at Meghan's baby shower on the weekend. I had a slight failure in the kitchen the previous day and had to come up with a quick back up plan, and knew that these wouldn't let me down and would restore a little cooking confidence in me. The flour in the UK is much heavier than in Australia, so even with added baking powder it was a little more dense than I am used to, but, my "make it work" moment did still work and faith has been restored.