Coconut Cream Cake with Coconut Buttercream Recipe

Coconut Layer cakes



1 C cold unsalted butter, diced

2 C sugar

4 eggs

2 tsp pure vanilla extract

3/4 tsp salt

1 Tblsp. baking powder

3 C sifted cake flour

1 1/4 C coconut milk



Preheat oven to 350. Grease 2 9" pans and line the bottoms with parchment paper, grease the paper and sides, set aside.

Place the butter and sugar in the bowl of mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, and beat on high speed, scraping down the sides of the bowl often, until light and fluffy, about 5 min. With the mixer on low speed, add the eggs, one at a time, scraping down the sides and mixing well after each addition. Add the vanilla extract and mix well, again scraping the sides of the bowl. Combine the salt and baking powder with the flour. Add about half of the dry ingredients to the batter, beat on low speed until well blended, and then add about half of the coconut milk and beat well. Add the remaining dry ingredients followed by the remaining coconut milk, beating well after each addition.

Divide the batter between the two pans and bake until the cake springs back when touched lightly in the center, 25 to 30 min. Let cool for 15, then remove from pan and let cool completely.



Coconut Syrup



1 1/2 C water

1 T granulated sugar

3/4 C sweetened flaked coconut



Bring water and sugar to boil. Stir in the coconut, remove from the heat and let sit for at least 30 min and up to 4 hrs. Strain the liquid into a clean saucepan, bring to a boil and let cook until the mixture is slightly reduced, about 5 min. Let cool.



Coconut Pastry Cream Filling



1 3/4 C coconut milk

1 vanilla bean, split in half lengthwise

4 egg yolks

1/2 C sugar

1/4 C cornstarch

2 tsp pure vanilla extract

1 1/2 C sweetened shredded and toasted coconut



spread coconut on baking sheet heated to 325 degrees. Bake 8-10 min. stirring once. Turn off the oven and let it sit in the oven until very dry and crunchy, about 15 min longer.



Place the the coconut milk in a heavy saucepan over med heat and bring just to a boil. Meanwhile, whisk together the yolks, sugar and cornstarch in a large bowl. Slowly whisk about half of the hot coconut milk into the egg mixture to temper it, or bring it up the the same temperature. Whisk in the remaining coconut milk nd add the vanilla seeds. Pour the mixture back into the saucepan and again cook over medium heat, stirring constantly with a plastic spatula, until it just comes to a boil and is very thick. If it starts to clump up, whisk briskly. Transfer the pastry cream to a large bowl, add the vanilla extract, and mix well. Set a piece of plastic wrap on the surface of the pastry cream so that it doesn't form a skin, and refrigerate until well chilled, at least 2 hrs.



Coconut Buttercream



3 sticks unsalted butter, softened

2/3 C confectioners sugar

1/2 C of the coconut pastry cream

pinch of fine sea salt



Beat the butter and sugar in a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment until light and fluffy, about 4 minutes. Add the coconut pastry cream and salt and beat until combined and smooth.



To Assemble:

Toast your 2 C natural or sweetend flaked coconut for the outside of your cake. 325 degrees for 8-10 min, stirring once.

Using a long serrated knife, slice each cake layer horizontally into 2 layers. Reserve 1 of the flat bottom layers for the top of the cake. Place another layer on a cardboard round with cut side up and brush with some of the coconut syrup. Spread 1/3 of coconut pastry cream over layer, leaving 1/2 inch border. Repeat with with other layers. Frost the sides and top of cake with the buttercream. Pat the coconut onto the sides of the cake and sprinkle the remaining coconut on the top of the cake. Store in the refrigerator but bring out 1 hr before serving.

The Soule's Birthday Cake

I felt really bad last summer when the followers voted on what my next cake would be and coconut cake lost by one vote. I really wanted to experiment with a couple of recipes. So my daughter, Whitney and her husband, Matt, have birthdays a week apart and requested this cake. (It is not possible to have a birthday in our family and not have a cake, not done, period!)

Several people mentioned that Bobby Flay had a great coconut cake recipe, but I also heard that the cake layers did not rise much. I have had great success with cakes from Caprial's Desserts cookbook, so I decided to make her cake layer recipe and coconut pastry cream filling and Bobby Flay's coconut syrup and coconut buttercream frosting recipe. You can see that there are going to be a lot of steps to this one! Believe me when Isay it is gonna be worth it!!

Because the bday dinner is on Friday night and I am back working I decide to make the layers on Tuesday night and put them in the freezer. This recipe has coconut milk in it. Fantastic for texture and taste! Make sure you buy Thai coconut milk, not the stuff you put in pina colodas. Although that is a good idea to sip a pina coloda while baking this. I could tell the minute I took it from the oven it was going to be perfect for splitting into 4 layers, got to have 4 layers for all the filling.

On Wed I made the coconut cream filling. Make sure you toast the coconut in the oven. Watch carefully! Put plastic wrap on the surface of the filling and refrigerate.

On Thurs I made the coconut syrup and the buttercream. You mix some of the filling into the buttercream frosting and it is soooo good!! I split the layers, brushed them with the syrup, filled and frosted! Fabulous! For decorating, I bought the big pieces of coconut (not flaked) in the bulk aisle at New Seasons, toasted it and pressed it onto the sides and top. You can use the regular, but I think it's prettier on the outside of the cake! We served it with french vanilla ice cream.

I heard comments at the table about how this was their favorite cakequeen concoction so far! Maybe they will comment for themselves! For me, it was worth the work, and I agree, may be the best tasting so far. And, for me to say that about a cake that has no chocolate in it, is a big deal. Recipe coming up.

Banana Cake with Caramel Frosting Disaster

What?? You say, disaster? You say, hey, that doesn't look like caramel frosting in the picture! So true, fans, it is chocolate ganache frosting! Let me start from the beginning! First, I made the banana layer cakes from a recipe I chose on foodnetwork.com. Not really happy with the height of the layers, so made 2 more layers. I could have made the layers in 8" pans so they would have been taller, but the recipe called for 9" pans. This is a risk you take when you choose a recipe you haven't made before. Ok, so on to the disappointing frosting. This recipe I found in the most recent Food and Wine. It was featured with a white butter cake, and they called it Caramel Icing. The picture looked great, and I thought it would be yummy with the banana cake. The recipe is pretty elaborate, kind of like making a caramel sauce, cook the white sugar and corn syrup til amber colored, add whole milk, cook til 235 degress on candy thermometer, stir in butter, vanilla and cream. I was really concentrating and following the directions exactly! At this point you are supposed to strain the icing into the bowl of the stand mixer and let it cool 15min. Then beat it at medium speed for 15 min. I started getting worried now because it is too runny, although the recipe says, "pour" over cake layers. Not happy. I make the decision to throw out (too distraught to eat it) this batch and try again! Here goes, I was careful to bring the temperature to 235. (oh yeah, forgot to add that I rushed to Kitchen Kaboodle and bought a new candy thermometer thinking mine was old and not working). I think at the beating at 15 min stage I was almost hyperventilating. Nothing much happening AGAIN!! Ok, then I put it in the frig. It set up a little so I poured it on each layer thinking maybe it would thicken in the frig. NOT! Called husband, who is on his way back from Duck football, begged him to stop and get chocolate to make chocolate ganache. (it's 8:45 pm)
So there ya go, I had to be creative and think of a frosting that would go with banana, pecans and caramel sauce. I love cream cheese frosting, but too sweet with the caramel, right?
The caramel soaked into the cake and was very moist, but not at all a frosting! Maybe some of the dinner guests will comment about their thoughts! I am not going to post the recipes because I think we can find a much better banana cake and I intend to figure out what is wrong with the caramel frosting recipe before you guys tackle it! So all in all, it was a learning experience, very frustrating and I definitely had to be creative!!
I'll be baking again soon, this time it's Coconut Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting for my son in laws birthday on Sept. 19th. I'm crossing my fingers!
P.S. Never Give Up is Cakequeen Motto :)

Special Cake for a Special Lady: Mom's Cake

Hi everyone! Wow, after vacation, babysitting, no computer, I am finally ready to move on to the next cake! Sorry it took so long! Many birthdays coming up this month so I have had requests galore! My mother, who is a baker spectacular herself and my inspiration, will celebrate her bday this Sunday. Who better to have her special dinner than cakequeen! She ask for a banana cake so after much research I have created my own version! It is called Banana Layer Cake with Caramel Frosting! Kind of like Bananas Foster, that buttery brown sugar flaming dessert served over ice cream! I will be baking on Satuday. Wish me luck!