Saturday, March 20, 2010

The Pastry Queen's Coconut Cake

Tomorrow is my grandmother's birthday and one of her favorite cakes is a coconut cake. It was my great grandmother's specialty. So I spent the afternoon whipping up one, it wasn't easy but I think it turned out pretty good!
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter at room temperature
• 2 cups sugar
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
• ½ teaspoon kosher salt
• ¼ cup whole milk
• ½ cup unsweetened coconut milk (available in the Asian section of most supermarkets, or see notes)
• ¼ cup coconut cream (such as Coco Lopez)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 8 large egg whites at room temperature
• Whipped cream filling (recipe follows) I used Stonewall's Lemon Curd instead from the shop-makes it much more delicious!!!
• Frosting (recipe follows)
• 3 to 4 cups unsweetened flaked coconut for decorating
click here for rest of recipe

Coconut cake is such an essential part of the Southern culinary landscape that it was featured alongside fried chicken, greens and cornbread during a "state of the plate discussion" at the 10th annual Southern Foodways Alliance symposium. This cake would be fantastic to make for Easter.