The Baking Wives: Coconut Cake with Swiss Buttercream

As you may or may not know most of my baking is inspired by my oh so sweet husband. It usually goes like this - Z: "I want sweets." Me: "What would you like?" Z: "I don't know..." Me: "Well until you decide I can't help you." ..... Days later he has finally made up his mind and it's always the most random item. This time, coconut cake. I think I've made coconut cake one other time and it wasn't anything fabulous. Lately I figure there is no reason to put effort into baking unless it's for something amazing. Which in turn means it'll be time consuming and involve ingredients I don't have sitting in my pantry. This cake pretty much fits that description to a T. But it is so worth it! The only thing I would change is the frosting, I mean swiss buttercream is amazing, but it definitely takes some time AND just look at the ingredients... Go ahead, scroll down, I'll wait................. Ya, that's right, 3 STICKS of butter. Next time I'm going for a "lighter" version and will use my go to regular buttercream frosting. Until then, enjoy, and if you have some free time, take a go at this lovely, fluffy cake. You won't regret it.

XO,
Brooke

White Cake Ingredients:

2¼ cups cake flour (9 ounces)

1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons whole milk, at room temperature

1/2 cup coconut milk

6 large egg whites (¾ cup), at room temperature

1 teaspoon coconut extract

1 teaspoon almond extract

1 teaspoon vanilla extract (or 1 inch vanilla bean seeds)

1½ cups + 2 tablespoons granulated sugar (11.35 ounces)

4 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon table salt

12 tablespoons unsalted butter (1½ sticks), softened but still cool

Coconut Pastry Cream Ingredients:

1 can (14 fluid ounces) unsweetened coconut milk

3/4 cup sugar

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

pinch kosher salt

3 large egg yolks

2 tablespoons corn starch

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 cup sweetened coconut flakes

1/2 cup whipping cream

Coconut Syrup Ingredients:

1 cup sugar

1/4 cup water

1/4 cup coconut water

Coconut Swiss Buttercream Ingredients:

1 cup sugar

4 large egg whites , at room temperature

24 tablespoons (3 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature

2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon coconut extract

3 cups sweetened coconut flakes

Directions:

Make the cake: Set oven rack in middle position. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease or butter/flour two 9-inch cake pans very well. Add a parchment paper circle in the bottom of each and grease that too. You don’t want your layers to stick! Pour milk, egg whites, and extracts into a small bowl and whisk gently until blended.

In a large bowl, whisk together cake flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Add the butter and continue beating until mixture resembles moist crumbs, with no powdery streaks left.

Add all but about 1/2 cup of milk mixture to crumbs and beat at medium speed for 1 1/2 minutes. Add the remaining 1/2 cup of milk mixture and beat 30 seconds more. Scrape down the sides of bowl before beating just a little longer.

Divide batter evenly between two prepared cake pans and smooth the tops with a spatula. Arrange pans on middle rack. Bake until a thin skewer or toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 23 to 25 minutes.

Let the cakes rest in pans for a few minutes before running a knife around the edges of the pan and inverting the cakes onto wire racks. Invert them again so they’ll be right-side up and let them cool completely, about 1 1/2 hours, before wrapping in wax paper and plastic wrap to freeze until pretty firm, about 30 minutes.

Make the coconut pastry cream: Heat the coconut milk, sugar, salt and vanilla bean or extract in a medium saucepan over medium heat. In a bowl, whisk together the egg yolks and corn starch. Once the cream is hot, remove the vanilla bean (if used), scraping out any remaining seeds and returning them to the cream. Add 1/2 cup of the hot cream slowly to the yolks, whisking as you add, to temper the eggs so they won’t cook into an omelette in the middle of your pastry cream. That would be a bummer. Then pour the yolk mixture into the pot of hot cream and whisk. Continue to whisk with heat on medium-high for 3 more minutes. The mixture will turn thick and bubble. You need to continue to whisk for the full 3 minutes or the pastry cream will separate once it is cool. After the 3 minutes, whisk in the butter. Add the coconut flakes. Pour into a shallow dish to cool.

Cover with plastic wrap pressed right against the pastry cream. This will prevent a thick skin from forming on the surface. Refrigerate for at least an hour or freeze for 30 minutes. Once it is cold, stir the pastry cream to loosen. Whip the 1/2 cup cream to medium peaks. Stir in 1/3 to the pastry cream to lighten. Fold in the remaining cream until the pastry cream is nice and light.

To make coconut syrup: Combine the sugar, water, and coconut water in a small saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat, and simmer until the sugar has dissolved, about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove the pan from the heat and allow the syrup to cool completely, about 20 minutes.

Make Coconut Swiss buttercream icing: Combine sugar and 1/2 cup water in a small saucepan and bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring to dissolve sugar. Boil without stirring until syrup reaches 240° on a digital thermometer, about 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a stand mixer with whisk attachment, beat egg whites on medium-high speed until soft peaks form. With mixer on medium speed, gradually pour in hot syrup in a thin stream; avoid pouring syrup on whisk. Increase speed to medium-high and beat until stiff peaks form and mixture is cool, about 8 minutes. Reduce speed to medium and add butter 1 tablespoon at a time, beating after each addition. (If at any time buttercream appears curdled, beat on high until smooth, then reduce speed to medium and continue beating in butter.) Once all butter is added, beat on high speed until buttercream is smooth and fluffy, about 1 minute. Beat in vanilla and coconut extract.

Assemble the cake: Carefully slice each cake layer in half with a long serrated knife. Drizzle a couple tablespoons of coconut syrup over the “inner” side (the one that seems most porous) of each layer. Spread 1/3 of the coconut pastry cream filling onto the first cake layer. Spread it almost to the edge, but pipe a thick bead of buttercream around the very outside edge of each layer to ensure no spillage. Sprinkle with flaked coconut. Repeat with the other layers. Frost the cake with a very thin crumb coat and set it in the freezer to set for about 15 minutes. Bring it out and continue frosting the rest of the cake generously. Carefully push handfuls of fluffy coconut all over the sides of the cake and on top. Keep the cake in the refrigerator, but let sit out for about 30 minutes before slicing and serving so the frosting will be soft.