Butter and lightly flour a round cake tin. Mix the coconut with the remaining flour and baking powder. Beat the butter and sugar in a mixer until fluffy. Continue to beat and add the eggs one by one. Then add alternately a bit of milk and a bit of the flour-coconut mix, continuing to beat at a slow speed.
Pour the batter into the cake tin. Bake for 1 hour at 180οC approximately. Remove from the oven and let it cool.
Prepare the syrup: boil the water with the sugar, the juice and the peel of the lemon for 5 minutes. Pour the syrup spoonful by spoonful over the ravani. Let it absorb the syrup until the next day and then upend it onto a serving dish.