Saturday, October 30, 2010

Coconut Layer Cake

Posted by - Nancy

I know what your thinking, this was already a challenge on Have the Cake. And you would be correct, however, I was not a member yet when that challenge was issued so I never made the coconut cake. When I told my husband what this month's challenge was, we had just watched an episode of America's Test Kitchen where they made Coconut cake, and he casually mentioned how coconut cake was a layer cake. And let's just say that I know the way to my mans heart is with a slice of coconut cake.

So I printed the recipe from the website and I was intrigued since they suggest using coconut cream (Coco Lopez) to add a real coco-nutty flavor. Of course, I procrastinated and realized I had better bake my cake tonight in order to finish on time. So this afternoon I set out to bake up my cakes.

Ready...set...mix

The recipe went together easy enough. I was a bit surprised to see that basically you make a biscuit dough by beating the butter into the dry ingredients, then add the wet works. But it all came together and baked up. One thing I was not counting on though was that the oven in our still fairly new apartment is not level, so my cakes baked up a bit crooked. I was nervous about leveling them since I tried to do that before and it didn't turn out so well. However, I took a deep breath, went slow and came out with mostly level cakes. I was also a bit nervous about splitting my cakes, but watching Alton Brown do it many, many times and seeing them score them first on America's Test Kitchen paid off, and I had two beautifully split cakes, for four layers total.

Layers!

Now it was time to frost. My husband requested a simple cream cheese frosting, so after a trip to the grocery store for some cream cheese, I threw together a basic frosting and was ready to frost. I was a bit worried about not having enough frosting, so I went thin on the inner layers. I had plenty though and after a coating of toasted coconut, I had a layer cake.

Coconut Cake

So how is it?

Want some?

Delicious!
A Slice

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love, love coconut cake. That cake looks awesome. My mouth is watering. Looks moist and delicious. Well done!!!!

Anonymous said...

Thank you. My husband actually said it's the best cake I've made. Cake flour makes all the difference.

Bakericious said...

I love coconut cake, this looks great!