Monday, January 12, 2009

Coconut Cake Recipe

I found this recipe on the Epicurious website and it is the most delicious coconut cake I have every baked. It’s moist and has a whole lot of  magic in it because after it’s bake, the cake disappears! I mean, really disappears.  Try it for yourself and let me know.

The cake is know as the Awesome Coconut Cake at The Shubox Cafe, Cedar Grove, New Jersey.

Coconut Layer Cake (Bon Appétit | December 1999)

Yield: 10 servings

2 3/4 cups all purpose flour (I used cake flour)

1 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 3/4 cups sugar

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature

1 cup canned sweetened cream of coconut (such as Coco Lopez)

4 large eggs, separated

1 tsp vanilla extract 1 cup buttermilk

Pinch of salt

 

Cream Cheese Frosting

 

4 cups sweetened shredded coconut

 

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350-degrees F. Butter and flour two 9-inch-diameter cake pans with 2-inch-high sides. Whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda and 1/2 teaspoon salt in medium bowl to blend. Using electric mixer, beat sugar, butter and sweetened cream of coconut in large bowl until fluffy. Beat in egg yolks and vanilla extract. On low speed, beat in dry ingredients and then buttermilk, each just until blended.

 

Using clean dry beaters, beat egg whites with pinch of salt in another large bowl until stiff but not dry. Fold beaten egg whites into batter.

 

Divide cake batter between prepared pans. Bank cakes until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 45 minutes. cool cakes in pan on rack 10 minutes. Run small sharp knife around pan sides to loosen cakes. Turn cakes out onto racks and cool completely.

 

Place 1 cake layer on cake plate. spread 1 cup Cream Cheese Frosting over cake layer. sprinkle 1 cup sweetened shredded coconut over. Top with second cake layer. Spread remaining frosting over top and sides of cake. sprinkle remaining coconut over cake, gently pressing into sides to adhere. (Coconut Layer Cake can be prepared up to 1 day ahead. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate. Let stand at room temperature 2 hours before serving.)

 

Cream Cheese Frosting

Yield: 3 1/2 cups

 

2 (8-ounces) package Philadelphia-brand cream cheese, room temperature

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, room temperature

2 cups powdered sugar

1/2 cup canned sweetened cream of coconut (such as Coco Lopez)

1 tsp vanilla extract

 

Preparation

Beat cream cheese in medium bowl until fluffy. Add butter and beat to blend. Add sugar, sweetened cream of coconut and vanilla extra and beat until well blended.

 

Source: Epicurious.com

Christ in Christmas & Happy New Year!

Can you believe it? Today is January 12, 2009 just twelve days since the start of the new year and I am feeling like Christmas flew right by me in a flash. Let me see what I have done over the holiday…I baked cakes; baked more cakes; even more cakes; and still more cakes. Lately I am starting to look like I enjoy eating the cakes I bake. About  five or more pounds heavier plus an inch or two in places that are easily seen. My take on this is…if you bake delicious cakes it should show that you like to eat them too.

Now the cake I really wanted to do for Christmas dinner was the only cake I did not get to bake. christmas cake 002Here is a picture of the cake I had for Christmas dinner (picture at right). It was an Buttermilk Yellow sheet cake covered with Swiss Meringue Buttercream (I love this buttercream – butter is the operative word here. Butter, lots of it!!) The figures on the cake I made following one of Lorraine McKay’s tutorial. It was so simple making the Christmas trees and Frosty the Snowman, I could hardly believe I was making them.

I really wanted to make a Coconut Cake with a  Nativity scene on the the cake and the words: “Happy Birthday Jesus!” on it. Well it seems like Frosty got top billing on the Christmas cake. Thank God, it’s Christ who made the “mass” possible. Although Frosty is on the cake, Henry and I made sure we kept Christ in Christmas by our love for Him and how we share it with the people we love and care for. Even if “Jesus” in not on the cake, He is in the right place with us—He is in our hearts!

Happy baking, and walk good ‘till next time.

Jeannie