"Friends, Romans, countrymen ....."

Unbelievably, hundreds and hundreds of people have asked me for the recipe for the coconut ice made by my own fair hand at the weekend. Well, I say hundreds, it’s more sort of, 5 ….. but the number is irrelevant. What matters is that people thought it was very tasty, albeit people with a very sweet tooth. Here you go.

300 grams desiccated coconut.
300 grams icing sugar - sifted (this is quite good fun - well, I thought it was fun but I only get out very occasionally!!)
405 gram can of condensed milk
4 to 5 drops of vanilla extract
2 to 3 drops of red food colouring.

Mix all the ingredients together EXCEPT the colouring. When it is well mixed, put half into a container/tray that will give you about a half inch covering of the white mixture and press flat with a spoon.

Add the colouring to remaining mixture and mix well until it is all pink.

Note: I put the 3 drops of red colouring in and thought, "that aint never gonna be enough" and added more without even stirring it in. Wrong! ONLY put the 3 drops in - it WILL be enough and it will make the finished product pale pink (lovely) instead of dark pink (not so lovely).

Cover the white mixture with the pink mixture and press flat with spoon.

The recipe said "refrigerate for at least 5 hours. Ideally overnight to give a crumbly texture".

The next morning, remove from fridge, sample the coconut ice repeatedly until you feel slightly sick, divide the remainder into two boxes, take one to work for colleagues and present the other as a gift for a loved one, thus scoring brownie points.

The end