Ok, so way, way in the past (January 19 to be precise) I made a cake for Stephen (the dearest)’s birthday. I will now share with you my cake-y wisdom.
It was my first time making a coconut cake, and I wanted to do it right. I went through a few of my favorite recipe haunts and found one that seemed plausible at Epicurious.com - the Coconut Layer Cake (reprinted here).
Ingredients
2 3/4 cups all purpose flour (I substituted cake flour at the rate of 1 cup plus 2 tbls per cup of all purpose)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 3/4 cups sugar
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup canned sweetened cream of coconut (such as Coco Lépez)* (The brand I found was Karumba)
4 large eggs, separated
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup buttermilk
Pinch of salt
Cream Cheese Frosting (see below)
4 cups sweetened shredded coconut
Preparation
At Shubox Cafe, this dessert is known as Awesome Coconut Cake, aptly
named by one of the cafe’s best customers. To make this recipe, you’ll
need to buy one 15-ounce can of sweetened cream of coconut. Some of it
is used in the cake; be sure to save the rest for the Cream Cheese Frosting.
Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter and flour two 9-inch-diameter cake pans
with 2-inch-high sides. Whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda and 1/2
teaspoon salt in medium bowl to blend. Using electric mixer, beat
sugar, butter and sweetened cream of coconut in large bowl until
fluffy. Beat in egg yolks and vanilla extract. On low speed, beat in
dry ingredients and then buttermilk, each just until blended.
Using clean dry beaters, beat egg whites with pinch of salt in another
large bowl until stiff but not dry. Fold beaten egg whites into batter.
Divide cake batter between prepared pans. Bake cakes until tester
inserted into center comes out clean, about 45 minutes. Cool cakes in
pans on rack 10 minutes. Run small sharp knife around pan sides to
loosen cakes. Turn cakes out onto racks and cool completely.
Place 1 cake layer on cake plate. Spread 1 cup Cream Cheese Frosting
over cake layer. Sprinkle 1 cup sweetened shredded coconut over. Top
with second cake layer. Spread remaining frosting over top and sides of
cake. Sprinkle remaining coconut over cake, gently pressing into sides
to adhere. (Coconut Layer Cake can be prepared up to 1 day ahead. Cover
with plastic wrap and refrigerate. Let stand at room temperature 2
hours before serving.)
*Canned sweetened cream of coconut is available in the liquor section of most supermarkets nationwide.
This is the result:
Of course, this wasn’t as simple as I thought - many steps, and I think I might have beaten the egg whites a bit too stiff. The final cake was dense, but not too dense. I did have one more hurdle - frosting.
Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients
2 8-ounce packages Philadelphia-brand cream cheese, room temperature (I used reduced fat)
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, room temperature
2 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup canned sweetened cream of coconut (such as Coco Lépez)*
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Preparation
Beat cream cheese in medium bowl until fluffy. Add butter and beat to
blend. Add sugar, sweetened cream of coconut and vanilla extract and
beat until well blended.
*Canned sweetened cream of coconut is available in the liquor section of most supermarkets nationwide.
And the final result:
In all, a decent cake - but probably not one I’d repeat. Way too much work for the result. But the birthday boy did like it!
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