Coconut Layer Cake
Love the crunch of the toasted coconut – NYTimes Cooking https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1017257-coconut-layer-cake
Ingredients
For the Cake
- 2 sticks 226 grams unsalted butter softened, plus more for pans
- 2 cups 265 grams all-purpose flour plus more for pans
- ½ tsp 3 grams fine sea salt
- 2 tsp 10 grams baking powder
- ¾ cup 140 grams granulated sugar
- 3 eggs separated, plus 3 whites
- 1½ cups 355 milliliters sweetened cream of coconut such as Coco Lopez
- 1¼ cups 295 milliliters unsweetened coconut milk
- 2 tbsp 30 milliliters coconut or dark rum
- 7 tbsp 104 milliliters freshly squeezed orange juice
- 3 cups 370 grams unsweetened shredded coconut
For the Frosting
- 2 sticks 226 grams unsalted butter softened
- 2 cups 54 grams cream cheese at room temperature
- 2 tsp 10 milliliters vanilla extract
- 7¼ cups 2 pounds/907 grams confectioners’ sugar
- 2¾ cups 340 grams unsweetened shredded or flaked coconut toasted (I only needed about half this amount)
Instructions
- Grease 3, 8-inch cake pans and dust with flour. Heat oven to 350 degrees.
- Whisk together flour, salt and baking powder in a bowl and reserve. Place butter and sugar in the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with paddle attachment and beat until fluffy, about 2 to 3 minutes. Add 3 egg yolks, 1 at a time, beating after each addition and scraping down sides of bowl with spatula. Lower speed and gradually add flour mixture. Batter will be thick and pasty.
- Whisk together cream of coconut, coconut milk, rum and orange juice. Alternately add shredded coconut and the orange juice mixture to the batter.
- In the clean bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whip 6 egg whites until soft peaks form. Gently fold into batter.
- Divide batter evenly among prepared pans. Bake for 45 to 60 minutes. Cool in pans on wire rack. Unmold cakes once cool.
Make the Frosting
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and cream cheese. Add vanilla extract. Gradually add confectioners’ sugar, scraping down sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Mix until combined and fluffy.
- Spread ¼-inch-thick layer of frosting on top of the first layer of cake. Sprinkle with toasted coconut. Place next cake layer on top and repeat with frosting and coconut. Repeat with the third layer, spreading frosting on top and around sides of cake. Hold cake steadily in one hand and use other hand to pat remaining coconut onto edges of cake.
Notes
might try two layers next time. I have 9 in pans and they were a bit thin and cooked too fast and were well done by 45 min.
