The Food Adventures of Bitsa Bitsa and Rag Rag: Coconut Cake

Merry belated Christmas and Happy New Year! I am so excited to share this incredible recipe with you for coconut cake. My sweet friend (and roommate for the last few weeks), Kristi, told me to check out the Peninsula Grill's recipe for coconut cake. I was about to use Paula Deen's, which was good to me last year, but after having this cake, I won't go back to dear ole' Paula's recipe. I was in charge of making this for Christmas dinner. I must warn you: this is going to be a fairly in-depth, picture-rich post. The filling in this cake is the best coconut cake filling I have ever had. The icing has a creamy, sweet, and slightly tangy cream cheese frosting that merries perfectly with the other flavors of the cake. I love that you get the toasted coconut flavor from the outside of the cake, while still tasting the regular coconut within the filling. You will be tempted to eat the filling before you put it between the cake layers. But don't. Good gracious is this cake ever incredible. Just ask my sister, Mallory, who had a slice for lunch one day. Now let's get movin.

Takes 24 + hours (filling has to cool overnight)
Serves....a lot.

For the filling you will need:

2 tablespoons cornstarch
2 tablespoons water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups whipping cream
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup unsalted butter
2 1/4 cups sweetened flaked coconut
1/4 cup sour cream

For the cake you will need:

3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 1/4 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups unsalted butter , room temperature
5 large eggs
1 1/3 cups whipping cream
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

(Note: you can really use any white/yellow cake recipe that you love. I had to freeze the cake layers ahead of time which, I think, made them a touch more dense. If you have to freeze your cake layers for preservation purposes, make sure you wrap them tight in a few layers on plastic wrap, but before doing so, brush them with a simple syrup to ensure moisture. I'm going to try and make this cake again to see how it is without having been previously frozen. I will say though, Paula Deen has a MEAN cake recipe. Scott likes fluffier cakes, but if you prefer your cakes to be a bit more dense, this is your recipe.)

For the Frosting:

2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese , room temperature
1/2 cup unsalted butter , room temperature
2 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 cups sweetened flaked coconut , toasted

Instructions:

Stir cornstarch, 2 tablespoons water, and vanilla in small bowl to dissolve cornstarch.

Bring cream, sugar, and butter to boil in a medium sized saucepan

Add your cornstarch mixture and bring to a boil

Remove from heat and stir in your coconut

Allow to cool completely

After it is cooled, stir in the sour cream

It will look like this:

Cover this and refrigerate it overnight.

Now onto the cake:

Preheat oven to 375.

Butter and flour two 9 inch cake pans (the original recipe says 3 cake pans, but I used 2 and was just fine)

Sift flour, baking powder, and salt together over a large bowl

It will look like a powdery hill of goodness after you sift the ingredients

Beat sugar and butter in a large bowl to blend

Add your eggs, blending well after each addition

Beat in cream and vanilla

Here's the batter before the flour mixture goes in

STIR- or SLLOOWWWLLYY blend flour mixture into the butter mixture (don't overmix)

Here's your cake after the flour has been incorporated. It will be thick.

Divide your batter evenly into your buttered and floured cake pans

Bake for 35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean

Cool cakes completely (I used a wire rack for this)

Note: in order for cakes to be super fresh, I'd make the filling the night before you intend to serve the cake, and bake the cakes the morning of. This is one of those cakes, in my opinion, that needs to be made earlier in the day and served that night. Putting cakes in the fridge DRIES THEM OUT- so avoid it! Don't let leaving the cream cheese icing out scare you, my family left this cake out for days and we are all still cluckin' along like spring chickens.

Now onto the frosting:

Leave your cream cheese out for a couple hours to get it at room temp

Beat cream cheese and butter in a large bowl to blend

Beat in (a little at a time) powdered sugar and vanilla until everything is incorporated

Now that your cakes are cool (completely cool), cut them in half so that you have 4 layers.

Spread your filling mixture between each layer

Now. now. now. now. We talk frosting a cake. I am not about to claim to be as good as Ina Garten, but I've learned a thing or two from that woman and I'd like to share it with you using pictures to demonstrate.

First, cut two long pieces of wax paper to criss-cross over each other on your cake platter BEFORE YOU SET YOUR CAKE ON TOP. This prevents icing mishaps from landing on the platter so all you have to do when you're done frosting the cake is gently slide the wax paper out from under the cake!

Now, plop a hefty amount of frosting on the top layer in the middle of the cake.

With a knife or frosting spatula, spread the frosting across the cake and down the sides

Sorry, I already advanced a little bit in frosting the cake by the time I enlisted the help of a photographer. Do you get the jist, though? plop the icing, then slide it down the sides of the cake.

Then, rotate your spatula like I did in the picture, and while you frost, turn your platter

like so.

Ok, not that it's perfectly smooth, but it's lookin' pretty good. Here's the trick: run your knife/spatula under hot water and wipe it off with a towel, then spread it over the icing while rotating the platter. I wasn't as concerned about the sides because we are about to put some toasted coconut on it.

Take the toasted coconut and literally toss it on the side-gently

You like how some of my pics are edited and some are not? me too.

You'll notice a crucial mistake of mine in this pic: I only have one piece of wax paper. BIG MISTAKE. Do what I advised up above (this piece of advice actually comes from Sandra Lee on the Food Network).