Tropical Coconut Cake

Today we're making a Coconut cake filled with pineapple curd

I guess I have to clean my kitchen....

My recipe that I chicken scratched on paper.. I hate writing recipes down.. I really hate it.. I usually just list the ingredients and then forget the instructions by the time I get around to make it.

One of my favorite cakes to make.. but it takes a lot of time.. whip this beat that.. stop and scream at the kids… bake this… cook that.. take the starter of all fights and make them take a nap.. toast this… fight with the said napper and burn that. But at the end of the day after it is all constructed and in the fridge waiting to be devoured  I  am happy..

I usually feel the same way after company cleaning my house.. but never do it because… well.. it takes all day.

A long drawn out post… waaayyyy too many pictures.. but I figure I suffered making this cake so you all might as well too..  

Lets get our ingredients

Separate the egg yolks and whites

Whip the egg whites slide into a bowl and set aside..

Cream your butter and sugar..

Add egg yolks

Mix the flour, sugar and baking powder in large bowl

Add 1/3 to butter/sugar/egg mix

Add 1/3 of your milk… mix

(continue with flour and milk until done)

After you have all that done add the egg whites and gently fold in.

Pour evenly into three prepared pans…

Bake.

Meanwhile  pineapple sugar and cornstarch into a pan

Egg yolks ( I think there was a incident in the living room causing me not to be able to capture the adding of the adding of this and dumping of that... but we can still look at the contrast of the cobalt blue and the sunshine yellow... )

Pineapple custard.. keep your fingers and spoons OUT OF IT!

Sorry.. force of habit.

Melt white chocolate and cream

Mix sour cream and butter ( by the way we're making the frosting)

Add chocolate..

Confectioners sugar... ohhh another picture I missed...

Once your cake rounds have cooled off set up your station.. it makes a difference if your counters are free of anything but what your using.. and be prepared to get coconut everywhere.. and to sweep afterwards. Have your cakes, icing, curd and a towel for wiping down anything..

Place first round down.. Add curd..

Place second round on… don’t be afraid to make it level.. you don’t want to smash down so hard that curd goes flying out but move around your cake rounds to make a flat surface..

Oh and repeat with the rest of the curd and last cake round..

Now we’re ready to frost this sucker!!

Now lets put the coconut on… this is where it gets really messy.. I am sure there is some professional way to do this but I just grab a hand full and smash it on the side.. I do that about twice around.. once the coconut is on the side I usually get eye level and make sure the sides of the cake is nice and straight.. well as straight as they can be.. and using my hands I smooth down the sides of the cake..

Give up halfway through and send a kid to the corner.

TADA!!

I have white chocolate chips.. not a block.. so no curls for me today.. instead I grated them in the food processor and then sprinkled on top.. doesn’t look as pretty as the curls but everyone is lucky I even bothered in the first place..

( It is the end of the day.. dinner isn’t done dinner for church tomorrow isn’t done and every three seconds the un-napper asks if the mashed potatoes are done..)

Here is the recipe.. I now am going to mash some potatoes maybe it will get rid of some aggression.

Print Recipe

Recipe

Tropical Coconut Cake

Cake:

1 ½ cups of butter

2 cups sugar

6 eggs separated

3 ¾ cups flour

1 ½ teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1 ½ cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon coconut extract

Pineapple curd:

¾ cup sugar

4 tablespoons cornstarch

20 oz can crushed pineapple

¼ cup butter

4 egg yolks
1 teaspoon pineapple extract

Frosting:

4oz white chocolate

1/8 cup cream

¼ cup butter

¼ cup sour cream

1 tablespoon coconut extract

2 cups confectioners sugar

Toasted coconut

Shaved white chocolate curls.

Directions:

For Cake:

Preheat oven to 350. grease and flour three cake pans well.

Separate eggs. beat egg whites till stiff peaks form set aside. Mix flour, salt and baking powder in med bowl set aside.

Cream together butter and sugar add egg yolks. Mix well.

Add flour and milk alternately 1/3 at a time each.. starting and ending with flour. Mix well then add beaten egg whites stirring lightly till mixed thoroughly

Add vanilla and coconut extracts.

Pour into prepared pans and bake for 25 to 30 mins.

For Curd:

While your cake is baking open can of the crushed pineapple pour into large pot add sugar and cornstarch mix thoroughly over med heat stir until bubbly. In a bowl with egg yolks pour ½ cup of pineapple mixture mix and then add that mix back to your pot of bubbly mix.. cook 3 more minutes stirring constantly. Let cool completely.

For Frosting:

In small pot on low heat stir together white chocolate and cream until melted. Let cool.

In mixing bowl cream together sour cream and butter. Add cooled white chocolate, mix again add confectioners sugar and mix well. Add more sugar as needed.

To assemble:

Place one cake round on serving platter.. spread on half of pineapple curd top with another cake round and repeat with curd. Top with final cake round.  Lightly spread icing around sides and top of cake.. This is where it gets a little fun.. with my hands I grab some toasted coconut and start pressing it lightly to the sides of the cake.. about 1/3 will fall off ( make sure your on top of a clean counter so you can gather it back up to your pile) if your cake is uneven on the sides  ( mine usually are) with the coconut you can build up a flat side to your cake.. completely cover the sides leaving the top plain. This is where we will have our white chocolate curls.. .

Obnoxious opinions by the cook:

I hate dry cake… I won’t even bother eating it ( I know I sound like a snob) if it looks dry… to me it is wasted calories and I want to at least enjoy what I am shoving in my mouth as my rear end widens. When I bake my cakes I make sure I don’t let them cook too long and as soon as I grab them out of the oven I place them on a plate and immediately cover them with plastic wrap or if it is a Bundt cake I just put it right into my cake dome covering it with the cover and let it cool down. There will be SOME condensation but easy enough to wipe down the inside of your cake cover. I am sure there is some purest bakers out there whose skin would fall off if they did this but doing it this way I am sure to have a moist cake.

Don’t ever ever not grease and flour your pans… unless you plan on eating it out of the pan or like to broken up look..

DO NOT make a cake with self rising flour.. Self rising flour  already has baking powder and soda mixed.. and not every recipe that you make will have those two included.. not only that when you make bread or cookies with self rising flour you’ll end up with a dry biscuit tasting pastry.  Cookies don’t call for baking powder usually and the baking soda is in small quantities’ to aid in the browning of your cookie. I repeat don’t bother buy self rising flour.

The original recipe called for twice as much icing.. and so far I’ve only met about 1 ½ people that actually like icing. The rest of us is scraping that crap off .. but if you’re a icing lover make a double batch.. only put half on and just eat the rest out of the bowl.