• Preheat the oven to 170 degrees C. Butter the bottom and sides of a 6 or 7 inch pan. Sprinkle some flour on it.
• In a medium-size bowl, using an electric beater, beat together the butter and sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.
• Add the lemon juice, vanilla extract, and egg. Beat until combined.
• In a separate small bowl, whisk together the flour, salt and baking soda. Add one-third of the flour mixture to the wet ingredients, and beat until just combined. Add 2 tablespoons of the buttermilk. Add another third of the flour mixture, beat, and then add the remaining 2 tablespoons of buttermilk. Finally, beat in the last of the flour mixture.
• Pour the mixture into the prepared pan. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes.
• Test the center with a toothpick before removing from the oven, toothpick should come out clean. The cake will be pulling away from the sides of the pan.
Lemon Buttercream Frosting:
• ½ to 1 Tbsp Milk to achieve desired consistency of the buttercream
• In a big bowl, with an electric beater, beat butter and half of the sugar on medium-high speed until and fluffy and pale in colour.
• Occasionally throughout entire mixing process and scrape down the sides of bowl with a spatula.
• Mix in the remaining sugar then blend in lemon juice, vanilla essence and lemon essence. Whip the mixture until very fluffy, about 4 - 5 minutes longer.
• Add milk if desired to achieve spreadable consistency.
Assembling the cake:
• Cut the cake into 2 halves with a serrated knife.
• Place the bottom layer on a cake board.
• Spread a generous layer of the lemon buttercream onto the bottom layer of the cake and make it fairly even.
• Spread about half a cup (or more if u desire) of the raspberry filling/jam/compote on top of the buttercream layer.
• You can even use strawberry or blueberry filling, it will go perfectly with this cake.
• Place the other half layer on top and then crumb coat the cake with a thin layer of the butter cream.
• Refrigerate the cake until the icing is firm for about 30 minutes and later apply more buttercream if the cake needs some more covering and smooth it with a spatula. It does not have to be a perfect looking layer of frosting as it will be covered with the dessicated coconut later.
• Sprinkle the coconut over the top of the cake and coat the sides of the cake with your hand gently. I used about 1.5 cups for this cake to be covered generously.
• Optionally, garnish with fresh raspberries and mint leaves.
Recipe by Naive Cook Cooks at https://www.naivecookcooks.com/lemon-raspberry-coconut-cake/