Did you ever want to change your Christian name? I did, and I have. The name most people know me by (Jenny) is not the name on my birth certificate. But I’m not telling you what my real name is, because that way ridicule lies. When people find out, there is generally a bit of leg pulling, until they forget all about it again.

jane

I have always been a bit jealous of my sister’s name – Marsha – as I always thought it was very exotic. I still do in fact. Another name I think is exotic and would rather like for my very own is Viveca. I’d never heard of it until I saw Vera Miles play a character called Viveca in an episode of Columbo.

vera1

She’s such a magnificent actress, and it was such a great character that I thought, ooooooh, Viveca. What a great name! If I get a lady dog when I retire, perhaps I will name it Viveca? Can you imagine me shouting at it across the park? VIVICAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

Then suddenly out of the blue, Viveca Lindfors cropped up on one of my birthday present playing cards:

Vivica

and then, when I found out that Coconut Cake was one of the NEW categories for the Muswell Hill Horticultural Society Spring Show Cookery Classes and I spotted that she had a favourite recipe for one, I was ON IT.

One of the pitfalls to watch out for when transcribing recipes for the blog, is missing out a step in the method. So it was with this recipe. It wasn’t clear when to add the egg whites to the mixture. Before, or after the flour? I went with the latter, which I now think was wrong. No matter. I still got a first!

 14832933300_dec14c24a6_z

I’m not sure it warranted it to be honest. The outside of the sponge was a bit crispy for my liking.   The filling was delicious though. Here’s a better photo before it melted in the heat.

 14832850499_24ffbfe87f_z

I might try it again adding the egg white earlier, if I do I’ll write up the recipe with the new method. Or I may just try a few of the ace looking recipes in this book instead.

15019769675_cd6e87f258_z

I recently found this gorgeous thing in my shoe cupboard… This is the joyful kind of thing that happens when you are a bona fide hoarder like me, living in a rented 1930s flat with a VAST amount of cupboards. Surprise! In amongst the thousands of pairs of shoes I can no longer walk in, is a lovely 1950s coconut cookbook!

14833129250_5c8ac9faa2_z

It reminded me how much I like coconut, and how much I would like to make a smorgasbord of coconut delicacies like this from the shoe cupboard cookbook sometime…

NB – this post was written a LOOOOOOOOOOONG time ago, but I lost the cookery book for about 4 months so couldn’t get the photos I wanted to include. I found it again recently, when I was looking for something else entirely (this happens a lot as I am so untidy) so I am very happy to be able to get the Viveca Lidfors’ Coconut Cake post off my “to-do” list at last! Whoopee! 

Heeeeere’s Viveca!

viveca lindfors use

 

Monthly movie star menus direct to your inbox

You have Successfully Subscribed!