Meyer lemon and coconut cake

In Argentina we have dinner around 9-10 pm, pretty late when compared to American standards. By mid afternoon (5-6 pm) we usually have coffee (or tea, or mate) with "something"- toasts, biscuits, cakes or delicious pastries that we can buy in any neighborhood bakery.

Far from home, I had to develop some baking skills to continue our "coffee/mate/tea time" tradition. I am doing pretty well with cakes, muffins and scones...but pastries are still out of my league.

The other day a lemon caught our attention at the grocery store (pictured between an orange-orange and a lemon-lemon)

It turned out to be a Meyer lemon. We bought 2, tried them and confirmed they taste like a cross between lemon and mandarin.

We decided to use them in a cake. I looked for "Meyer lemon cake" recipes , but I found most of them a little to heavy on butter. So I decided to go for experimentation...and here is the recipe of my cake!

Meyer lemon and coconut cake

1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
¼ cup whole-wheat flour
1 ½ tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
½ cup shredded coconut (unsweetened!)
grated peel of 1 Meyer lemon
4 oz (1 stick) melted butter
¾ cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
¼ cup Meyer lemon juice (should be enough with 1 lemon)
¾ cup milk

Preheat oven at 350F. Grease and flour-dust a loaf pan.
In a bowl combine all-purpose flour, whole-wheat flour, baking powder, baking soda, coconut and grated peel.
In another bowl combine melted butter and sugar. Stir in the eggs (previously beaten), vanilla extract, lemon juice and milk.
Add dry ingredients into wet and gently stir with a wooden spoon.
Pour the batter into the greased and flour-dusted pan and bake for about 40 min (or until a wooden pick inserted in to the center comes out clean).
Cool in pan for 10 minutes and then turn out onto a wire rack.

Enjoy with tea, coffee... or mate!