Coconut Layer Cake

Looks ain't everything. Initially inspired by a coconut cake in Nika Hazelton's American Home Cooking, my version has gone through many changes over the years. It is extra good with freshly grated coconut. However, made with a bag of sweetened coconut, or the nice new unsweetened frozen stuff, it is quite a production, (and very good). So if you are not up for attacking a big hairy rock, and peeling and grating your fingers off, then don't do it that way. This will be more than enough fuss without that- and I have set the whole long business out, so don't be holding your breath. The custard filling was, by the way, a later addition. The idea of using the custard to flavor the buttercream came from The Cake Book by Tish Boyle. In its current state, this recipe is a pretty close adaptation of hers.

I have never before made this cake in cold weather-I think of it as a Fourth of July or Labor Day picnic sort of thing. Simultaneously luxurious and plain, it looks the hokey part on a picnic table covered with a checked cloth, surrounded by platters of fried chicken or barbeque, pickles, coleslaw and baked beans, and the like. And I was going to make it this summer, and post a picture, because it is a classic bit of americana. I just didn't get to it. But then, I volunteered to do a birthday cake this Friday night, so here it is. Out of season, in all its trashy yet subtle splendor.

Nothing snooty about this cake. But how can it be tacky, when it is all shades of white? Like the garden of some insanely refined aesthete, it glows quietly in the moonlight. Nonetheless, it has a deceptive look of cake mix and Cool Whip. Its trailer park aura cannot be denied. Serve it with ice cream (dark chocolate is wildly good with it) or with berries, or plain. It will surprise people when they taste it, which is fun. And if you like coconut, you are sure to like it.

Once, I filled the cake and frosted it thinly with a dark chocolate ganache before covering it with the buttercream and coconut. This was good, but gilding the lily really. I love chocolate and coconut together, but this oversized reversed Mounds bar was not my favorite. Better to let the coconut cake speak for itself, and add the chocolate with some ice cream, if you're longing for it. Up to you.

It is made with quite a bit of butter, 6 egg whites, cake flour, vanilla, and a mixture of canned coconut milk and whole milk. The custardy filling has a base of coconut infused milk. It uses up 4 of the remaining egg yolks, and has , like the flavoring syrup, a bit of rum. The icing is a very simple butter cream, with about half a cup of the custard mixed in, and there's plenty of coconut pressed all around. Some might find this a lot of bother for a cake that looks like a 12 year old's first shot at a box of Duncan Hines, but , to repeat myself, looks ain't everything.

I forgot to take a picture of the whole cake, but you can probably tell from the leftover slice, complete with hole from a birthday candle, that it is not especially elegant looking. Made with the two 9" layers divided into 4 thin ones, it would be eligible for display under a glass dome atop the counter of a classic diner. But if you go that route, make half again the recipe for the filling and for the buttercream. I think my two layer one is more the family reunion model. This is what you need for the 2 layer version:

Ingredients for Cake, Filling, and Frosting
Cake flour 3 1/2 cups
baking powder 1 tbsp
salt 1 tsp
Whole milk 2 1/3 cups
canned coconut milk 2/3 cup
Coconut, peeled and grated 2-3 cups
egg yolks 4
egg whites 6
sugar 2 1/2 cups
cornstarch 2 tbsps
rum 3 tbsp
butter 5 sticks (20 oz), softened
powdered sugar 1/2 cup
vanilla 3 tsps

Make the cake

Preheat oven to 350F, and grease and flour two 9" cake pans. Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt and set aside. Mix 2/3 cup whole milk and the canned coconut milk together well, and set aside. In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat 1 1/2 cups of sugar and two sticks of butter until light colored and smooth. Add the egg whites, one at a time, beating until well combined. Scrape down sides from time to time, with a rubber spatula. Add 2 tsps vanilla. Alternately add the milk and flour mixes, about 1/3 of each at a time, mixing and scraping down until well blended. Divide batter between the 2 pans, and bake on a centre rack until the cake bounces a bit in the middle- about 25 minutes. Cool on rack for 10 minutes, remove from pans, and continue to cool on rack.

While the cake bakes, make a bit of rum syrup and soak some coconut

For the syrup, mix 1/2 cup water and 1/2 cup sugar with 2 tbsps rum. Bring to a bowl, mixing sugar til dissolved. Cool.

In a little pan, mix 1 1/2 cups milk and a cup of coconut. Heat until milk is warm, and turn off heat. Let it all sit for an hour. Now your cake should be cooled. Brush the bottom part of each cake layer with plenty of rum syrup.

Make custard

Strain the coconut milk, retaining the milk, and discarding the coconut. (Press hard on the coconut, to get as much milk out as possible.) In a 4 cup pyrex cup, mix the egg yolks and 1/4 cup sugar and the cornstarch until sooth. Keep by the stove. Heat the strained milk until simmering. Quickly mix a little of the hot milk into the egg yolks in the cup, and then pour the yolk/milk mix back into the hot milk. Heat until it begins to thicken up, whisking vigorously. Turn off the heat and continue whisking. Scrape it into the pyrex cup, and whisk some more, until it is cooled to lukewarm, and thick and smooth. Spread half of the cooled custard on one layer of your cake, which you have set on the serving plate. Put narrow strips of parchment all around the bottom of the cake, just tucked under the edge of the cake, to protect the plate from the mess to come. Set second layer on top of first.

Make Icing

In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat 3 sticks of butter, the powdered sugar, the last tbsp of rum, remaining custard, a tsp of vanilla and a pinch of salt, until smooth.

Frost the cake

Once the cake is frosted, press generous handsful of coconut into sides of cake, and sprinkle over top. Go crazy, skimpiness will not be rewarded. Clean up the platter, and refrigerate for a couple of hours to set up nicely.

And that's the whole deal. Pretty is as pretty does, or something like that. Please let me know if I have made proof-reading mistakes-I feel I must have, this is so long, and typing it up has made me woozy eyed.

Comments

[june]

Really, you take the cake, some pun intended. What a labour of sweet and sticky love. Hope the birthday person was suitable impressed, though possibly unable to speak! That's just how birthday cakes should be.

[Lynn D.]

A slice of your cake looks like just the ticket to have with the tea I'm drinking right now. One of my mother's aunts was famous for her lamb cake--a coconut cake made in the shape of a lamb (from a mold or cut up somehow I don't recall). We always favored lemon filling with our coconut cake and that is very good indeed. My mother also made an incredible lemon angel pie--a meringue crust with lemon filling, then whipped cream and coconut. Of course we always used the sweetened stuff; I'll have to give the frozen a try. I make a very plain but delicious coconut tea bread that is tasty toasted

[Bakerina]

Merciful graciousness. That is *cake*. I would love to make something like that for a nice foodie potluck, just to see if people will make those cake-mix-and-Cool-Whip assumptions, and then see all doubt melt away as soon as they take a bite. :)

[Ivonne]

You've inspired me! I've been craving coconut cake for awhile and I too have Tish's book, so I will have to give this a try.

Well done, Lindy!

[Luisa]

That cake looks so gorgeous. And I'm grateful to you for the recipe because since Coconut Cake lost out to German Chocolate Cake for my birthday last year, Coconut is definitely going to be on the menu for this year. I can't wait to try this out!

[Julie]

Fun to have a cake that masquerades as one kind of cake but so clearly is the real buttercream-and-all deal underneath it all.

I just ordered a used copy of The Cake Book last week. I'm looking forward to receiving it.

[lobstersquad]

wow, some cake. I love the custard, may have to make that on its own. great.

[Melissa]

WOW.....that looks oh-so good. Wish you lived closer...I'd stop in for some coffee and cake!

[Baking Soda]

Oh that looks devine! I made a coconut cake once, but the amount of butter in the frosting was eh..let's say a bit much for our Dutch tastes. I do love the way it looks and the cake underneath. (Lemon filling sounds great too). Here's a link to the post (in dutch, but there is a picture!)

http://bakemyday.blogspot.com/2006/01/queen-of-coconut-cakes.html

[sher]

I so admire this cake you made. I feel almost weak from longing. :) I grew up in the South where coconut cake is an art and this is one of the best I've seen. And that's without even tasting it!

[Mona]

Hey, I just tried this. Indeed a labor of coconut love. And the custard is most definitely the best part. Mmm. But you forgot to include the tablespoon of rum to add to it in the detailed directions (thought it's in the intro paragraphs). I missed it as I wasn't paying enough attention. Still quite tasty - I've never made my own coconut infused milk, just had always used canned coconut milk. It definitely made quite a difference - thank you!

[lindy]

Thanks Mona-I fixed the recipe.

[Rebecca]

My birthday cake growing up was always a coconut layer cake, with a butter cake and 7-minute frosting heavily sprinkled with coconut. This one sounds even better. Now if only I can get someone to make it for me come February I'll be a very happy birthday girl...

[Pamela]

This cake sounds DIVINE, and I am going to make it. Being Canadian, I do not make the connection between this luscious looking thing and the whole kitschy Fourth-of-July / cake mix / Cool Whip experience. For me, Coconut Cake is redolent of a British tea table - perhaps set out on the porch of a big plantation house in the West Indies, with rattan ceiling fans rotating slowly overhead. Put that layer cake on a pedestal stand, decorate with fresh flowers, and you will see that it looks as beautiful as it tastes!

[Lynn]

Went searching for a coconut cake recipe and this looks exactly like what I'm looking for...However..surely the frosting isn't correct. 3 sticks of butter to 1/2 cup of confecitoner's sugar????

Please let me hear back as I am eager to make this cake, but will not risk all those expensive ingrediants until I know for certain on the correct measurements for the frosting. Thanks!

[Mary Ann]

I have been looking for a coconut recipe that I made in the 1970's and this sounds pretty close from what I can remember. I'm all for doing the fresh grating etc. because that was part of the reason this cake stood out.

The original recipe I used was from one of the popular magazines of that era and was included in a grouping of the 10 or 16 best cake recipes.

There are plenty of recipes with modern ingredients, but I want the cake flour and all the good coconut in mine.

Back in the 70's I remember spending two days to get this cake done.