Let's talk about this cake for a minute. The process for making it is a bit different than any other cake recipe I've used. Also it asks for cream of coconut, which I didn't know was a thing. The result is a light, fluffy, very moist and flavorful cake. I highly recommend it. I actually now keep cream of coconut on hand specifically so I can make this cake when the urge hits without having to plan extremely in advance.
First of all, let me preface this recipe by telling you it's from The New Best Recipe (a cookbook by the Test Kitchen) which means two things: 1) guaranteed to be good, and 2) pretty much guaranteed to be a bit of an involved process. The first thing it asks you to do is mix your dry ingredients, and then add your butter one tablespoon at a time with the mixer running. At first it will look like this:
But keep mixing until it looks like this:
It should be kind of like sand, with little bits no bigger than peas. Then you add your wets (don't worry, I'll put the recipe at the bottom) and I also added red food coloring, just because.
When everything is nicely mixed, divide it evenly between two (greased and wax papered!) cake pans and bake.
Okay, The New Best Recipe called for a very involved coconut buttercream and I was like, "First of all, that's a lot of coconut, and second of all, that is too many steps." I like my frosting to be simple and delish. So I made a simple cream cheese buttercream (the butter improves the texture).
Have I talked to you about crumb coats before? A crumb coat is where you put on all the filling between the layers, and then you put a very thin coat of frosting to cover the entire outside, and you stick it in the fridge for 15 minutes. If you're in a hurry, this obviously won't work, but it really does make it easier to frost and eliminates the worry about getting cake crumbs on the outside of your frosting. It looks like this:
Okay, so your crumb coat is all set. Now frost this puppy for real. I'm a little OCD about this kind of thing, but you don't need to worry about making it too pretty. It will be covered.
Oh, my newfound trick for frosting is to put it on a lazy susan and then I can just go all the way around without stopping.
Okay so once your cake is all frosted, you cover the whole outside with your toasted coconut. Protip: set some of it aside so it stays whole and pretty. You kind of have to smush it on to the side, but you're going to want some nice full curls for the top.
If you're a normal person, congratulations! You're done! If you're obsessed with dinosaur sprinkles like I am, you should probably put some on your cake. You can pretend that your dinosaurs live in a coconut jungle if you want.
And voila! You're done.
(I recommend smallish pieces because this cake is kind of intense.)
RECIPES
Coconut Cake (from The New Best Recipe)
- 2 1/4 c cake flour, sifted. If you don't keep cake flour on hand, you can add 1 T of cornstarch per cup (minus 1 T) of allpurpose flour
- 1 egg + 5 egg whites
- 3/4 c cream of coconut
- 1/4 c water
- 1 t coconut extract (I used imitation coconut and it was still good)
- 1 t vanilla
- 1 c sugar
- 1 T baking powder
- 3/4 t salt (but be sure to reduce this if you use salted butter)
- 12 T unsalted butter (1 1/2 sticks) cut into 12 pieces (Butter should be softened but still firm)
- Grease 2 9-in cake pans and preheat to 325.
- Mix your dries (including sugar) in a big bowl
- With a mixer on the lowest speed, add the butter 1 T at a time, then beat until the mixture resembles coarse meal, with butter bits no larger than small peas.
- Beat eggs with a fork to combine. Add the cream of coconut, water, coconut extract, and vanilla and beat with a fork till combined.
- Add 1 c of the egg mixture to flour/butter mixture. Mix at medium-high till light and fluffy (~45 sec). With mixer still running, slowly add remaining liquid. Stop the mixer and scrape sides down. Beat at medium high till combined (~15 sec).
- Divide batter between cake pans.
- Bake ~30 min. The recipe said till deep golden brown, but my cakes stayed fairly white even when they were clearly done. It took pretty much 30 min on the nose for me.
While cakes are cooling, toast 2 c of sweetened shredded coconut about 15-20 min until a mix of white and golden brown flakes (don't overtoast!).
Cream Cheese Buttercream (from Inez's head)
- 2 packages cc
- 1 1/2 c UNSALTED butter (I accidentally used salted the first time I made this and you could tell)
- 1 t vanilla
- 1 T cream
- powdered sugar to taste (not sure how much I added, maybe 1 c or so?)
- Cream butter. Add cc and beat until smooth.
- Add vanilla and cream, beat.
- Gradually add powdered sugar until it tastes amazing.
