Coconut cake

I am quite careful about choosing a cake recipe to make. First of all, the majority of the cake recipes I find on the Internet are suitable for large pans, normally 9” or 10”. I only have one 8” springform pan, so I often have to scale down the ingredients. Moreover, since I have only one pan of each type, the recipes that require baking two or more pans at the same time cause some difficulties for me.

Secondly, cake recipes often call for large quantities of many things, so unless I understand the recipes and directions, I won’t dare trying everything since I would feel very miserable if I fail making the cakes and have to throw away them all. What a waste of time, ingredients and money, which makes me uncomfortable.

The website Joy of baking is one of my dependable sources for cake recipes. I hardly fail when I follow the recipes and directions shared by the author of that site. This coconut cake is also adopted from there. This cake attracted me since the cake contains some ingredients that I really love eating, which are coconut and lemon custard. Another reason is that the frosting is actually the whipped egg whites, which is less fatty and cheaper than other kinds of frosting.

As usual, I reduced the sugar used in this cake. For the frosting, I also reduced the sugar, which caused me more difficulty in handling with decorating the cake. However, the overall taste worked well to my family’s liking.

So, you may see the original recipe from Joy of Baking website. If you prefer less sugar recipe, you may refer to my recipe here. The recipe calls for two 8” springform pans, but I have only one pan, so I used two heart-shaped pans of different sizes to make this cake. 

Ingredients: (for two 8” springform pans)

* Cake:

- 6 eggs, separated, room temperature

- 350g (2 1/2 cups) all-purpose flour

- 2 tsp baking powder

- 1/2 tsp baking soda

- 1/2 tsp salt

- 170g unsalted butter, room temperature

- 200g white sugar

- 1 tsp vanilla extract or vanilla powder

- 360ml (1 1/2 cups) buttermilk (I made buttermilk by adding 1 tbs lemon juice to 1 cup of milk)

- 60ml coconut milk

- 1/2 tsp cream of tartar

* Lemon custard:

- 3 eggs

- 80ml lemon juice

- 1 tbs grated lemon zest

- 90g sugar

- 56g unsalted butter, cut up, room temperature

* Frosting:

- 60g egg whites

- 120-150g white sugar

- 60ml cold water

- 1 tbs corn syrup

- 1 tsp vanilla

- dessicated coconut, to decorate

Directions:

* Lemon curd:

- Mix together the egg, sugar and lemon juice in a small saucepan. Put into a pan of boiling water, stirring continuously until the mixutre thickens.

- Stir in the butter until melted through.

- Add the grated lemon zest, mix well. Let cool and keep in the fridge.

* Cake:

- Preheat the oven at 350^oF or 177^oC. Line the pans with parchment papers.

- Mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt in a large bowl. Set aside.

- Beat the butter until creamy. Gradually add 180g sugar in a stream, beat until the mixture is fluffy and light in color.

- Add one yolk at a time, beat well after each addition. Add in the vanilla, beat until combined. 

- Mix together the butter milk and coconut milk in a bowl.

- With the mixer at low speed, add 1/4 flour mixture, alternating with 1/3 buttermilk mixture, to the yolk mixture. Repeat this alternation until all the flour and buttermilk mixture are used up, ending with the flour mixture.

- In another bowl, beat the egg whites until foamy then add the cream of tartar and continue beating until soft peaks form. Add the remaining 20g sugar and beat until stiff peaks form.

- Use a spatula to mix the whipped egg whites into the yolk mixutre until well combined. Do not over-mix.

- Divide the batter into two pans, bake for about 35-40 minutes until the toothpick inserted comes out clean.

- Remove the cake from the oven and let cool completely.

* Frosting:

- Put the egg whites, water and corn syrup in a small saucepan over a pan of boiling water.

- With the mixer at low speed, beat the mixture for about 3-4 minutes. Then at high speed, continue beating for 3-4 mintues until soft peaks form.

- Remove from the pan, continue beating at high speed for 1-2 minutes until the mixture is very stiff. Use immediately on the cake.

* Assembling:

- Divide the cakes into flour cake layers.

- Assemble into a four-layer cake with three layers of lemon curd in between the cake layers.

- Cover the top and the side of the cake with egg whites frosting.

- Sprinkle with dessicated coconut on the top and the side of the cake.

- Preserve the cake in the fridge.