The end result (1 slice of it) | mmmmmm......
This is my first attempt at a coconut cake. And well... I guess you're gonna have to keep on reading to find out what happened.
So today I wanted to have a really good start to my blog as of course, I want to gain more readers. Actually A reader is the correct phrasing. But lets just say luck wasnt exactly on my side today as the start to my cake didn't turn out as I had hoped.
<----- First attempt
As most two-layer cake recipes need two springboard tins so that you can halve the batter easily, you need two baking tins - duh. Unfortunately, at the moment I only have one. So instead of getting off my lazy ass and finding a tin in the same diameter, I doubled the electricity bills by rather doing two rounds.
Im sure at some time in our lives we've all done this...yes? :) Ok, ok so I'm trying to make myself feel good about it, but in comparison to what happened to my cake, I'd rather live without the second tin.
Today I had a busy day so in a way I tried to rush the cake. STOP! Stop right there. DO NOT do this. If you're in a rush and you're trying to make a cake that has a few processes to it (especially if you have to wait double time for the first layer of cake to finish in the oven so that you can re-use the tin) than rather dont bake it. Rather make one that you throw in all the ingredients, put on the mixer, pour it into the tin and wa-la you have a cake that will be ready, hot out of the oven in half an hour.
p.s I will be giving you these recipe's that really work and that are miricle-workers on your best friend's birthday later on (beleive me, I would know) .
Sorry I'm getting very side tracked, let me finish with my story. So there I was, semi-rushed and I just put in the first tin consisting of the first half of my batter. Half an hour passed and I waited 5 minutes thinking thats all the time the cake needed to cool down before I opened the springboard withought the sides cracking (dont you all just hate when you assume its enough time when its not?) . BIG mistake. The whole crispiness of the edge stuck on to the sides, taking quite a big serving of the actual cake with it. So i was thinking to myself, its ok, I'll just make this the bottom layer - it wont make SUCH a big difference. So i plopped it over onto a plate only to realise that it was completely stuck to the bottom. I couldnt get it off, I shaked it and shaked it and shaked. No result.
I then proceeded to take a knife and cut round the edges of the cake right down to the centre (well what I thought was the centre). This seemed to be working till it plopped down, the edges were fine (even though there was no crispy part anymore) but the entire centre tore apart from the remaining cake and still stuck to the base.
I then cut this off the remaining peice dangling from the base in attempt to re-assemble my pudding- bread crumb-lookalike which was supposed to be my cake that would bring lots of readers to my blog. Oh well. There goes half an hour of the electricity bill to waste. Time to wash the tin and bring out the second half of the batter.
This time i sprayed the tin with baking oil-spray and then covered it with tinfoil, spraying it again with the spray. I put in the batter and smeared it out to be a even height and there it went, my last chance to a normal coconut cake.
After half an hour my beautiful cake comes out the oven, a golden brown and smelling like heaven. No way am I letting the baking-God steal this one from me too. This time round, I had learnt my lesson. I let it cool for about half an hour . I attempted to open the spring but i could see that a crack was beggining at the sides. So i took a knife and very (when I mean very i mean very) carefully went around the edges. I then opened the spring and magically this cake was perfection in itself.
Since I lost my other layer and I needed a two layer coconut cake, I cut the cake in half and followed the directions only this time I put the one half ontop of the other. What a day with so many mathematical culculations for my dear cake that my brain was in overload.
I put on the icing, sprinkled on the coconut and infront of me was this amazing cake that tasted like heaven. H-E-A-V-E-N. So in conclusion the recipe really is good, defenately a must for you coconut lovers out there! Try it out, just dont do the mistakes this little guinnee pig had to go through.
And here it is... The recipe.
Coconut Cake recipe
Ingredients
- 3 cups All purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons Baking Powder
- 1/2 teaspoon Salt
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla extract
- 1 cup coconut milk (if you don’t have - normal milk is fine)
- 1 cup Butter softened (225 grams)
- 2 cups Sugar
- 4 eggs
- White Mountain Coconut Icing Recipe follows
- 3 cups Freshly grated coconut or shredded coconut
Preparation
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour two 9 inch round cake pans and set aside. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt and use a fork to mix them together. Pour the milk or coconut juice into a measuring cup and stir the vanilla into the milk.
In a large bowl, beat the softened butter with a mixer at medium speed until creamy. Add the sugar and continue beating, stopping to scrape down the sides, until the mixture is light and evenly combined. Add the eggs, one by one, beating well each time, until the mixture is thick and smooth.
Add about 1/2 of the flour mixture to the batter and beat well at low speed. Then add about half the milk to the batter, beating well. Continue beating as you add another third of the flour mixture, followed by the rest of the milk, and then the remaining flour mixture, beating well each time until the batter is very thick and smooth.
Quickly scrape the batter into the prepared cake pans, dividing it evenly, and place them in the oven. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until the cakes are golden-brown, spring back when touched lightly in the center, and begin to pull away from the sides of the pans. Watch closely - one may be done before the other.
Remove from the oven and cool in the pans on wire racks or folded kitchen towels for 10 minutes. Then turn out the cakes onto wire racks or plates, turn the layers top side up and cool completely.
Make White Mountain Coconut Icing; set aside.
White Mountain Coconut Icing
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
2 egg whites
Add the sugar and water to a small sauce pan and stir to dissolve it. Bring the mixture to a gentle boil and cook without stirring for 3 minutes. Then boil for 5 to 10 minutes, stirring often, until the syrup has thickened and will form itself into a thread about 2 inches long when poured from a spoon back into the pan. Beat the egg whites in a large bowl with a mixer at high speed until they are bright white, shiny and pillow into voluminous clouds. While beating at high speed, slowly pour the cooked syrup into the egg whites to blend them into a fluffy-white icing. 4 to 5 minutes.
To ice the cake, place one cake layer, top side down, on a cake stand or serving plate. Cover it generously with icing and sprinkle with some of the coconut. Place the second layer on top of the iced layer, top side up. Ice the sides to help keep the cake steady, and then spread icing generously over the top, completely covering the cake. Place cake stand or serving plate on a cookie sheet to catch loose coconut as you shower the cake. Sprinkle coconut all over the cake, and then gently pat handfuls of coconut onto the sides and top to cover the bare spots. Transfer leftover coconut to a jar or plastic bag and store it in the freezer.
Baker-out
