Coconut Cake With Cream Cheese Frosting

I made this cake today for the restaurant, I also took the picture there, sorry not a good one. But a good cake , a very good cake.  To Read More, Click On The Recipe Title.


 I wanted to make a coconut cake that didn't just have coconut on top of it, I really didn't want to put coconut in it either, picky aren't I! I wanted to find a recipe that had coconut milk in the cake. What I found was a cake recipe that had sweetened cream of coconut in it. You can find sweetened cream of coconut in the part of the grocery store where the mixers are for mixed drinks. This stuff smells like you've got your nose in the middle of a fresh coconut! It was awesome stuff! I always start a scratch cake by making my own cake flour. It's easy, you measure out the amount of flour that you need for your recipe, sift it, then remeasure the amount you need again ( you'll find that you will have a little left over flour , just put it back in your flour bin). For every 1 cup of flour that you have take out 2 TBLS of flour and replace it with 2 TBLS of corn starch. Sift the flour and corn starch together about 4 or 5 times. I know it seems like that would take a lot of time but it really doesn't. After your done you have cake flour. Easy! Ok fast forward..... This cake was suppose to be a layer cake but I made it in a 9x13 cake pan because it's easier to serve at the restaurant . I just put the cake into the oven , picked up the recipe to look at it and realized that I made a mistake . Instead of putting 1 cup of cream of coconut in it I put the whole can in (15 ounces.) Oh Crap!! Well, it's just going to be a little more coconut tasting than the original recipe I said to myself. The Cream Cheese Frosting was suppose to have cream of coconut in it too so I decided to leave it out and just put flaked coconut on top of the cake.....and pray it tastes good!





I frosted the cake about 4pm, just in time for the dinner crowd. I cut a piece out so the waitstaff could taste it so they could tell the customers what it was like, then I went home. Everybody loved it!! Tammy, one of the waitstaff called me at 6:15pm and said the cake was gone, customers were raving about it.....thank God my mistake turned into a good cake!! Whew!! Man was I sweatin that one!!! The recipes below are the original.



Found at Epicurious

Bon Appétit
Ingredients



2 3/4 cups all purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 3/4 cups sugar

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature

1 cup canned sweetened cream of coconut (such as Coco Lépez)*

4 large eggs, separated

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup buttermilk

Pinch of salt



Cream Cheese Frosting



4 cups sweetened shredded coconut

Preparation


Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter and flour two 9-inch-diameter cake pans with 2-inch-high sides. Whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda and 1/2 teaspoon salt in medium bowl to blend. Using electric mixer, beat sugar, butter and sweetened cream of coconut in large bowl until fluffy. Beat in egg yolks and vanilla extract. On low speed, beat in dry ingredients and then buttermilk, each just until blended.



Using clean dry beaters, beat egg whites with pinch of salt in another large bowl until stiff but not dry. Fold beaten egg whites into batter.Divide cake batter between prepared pans. Bake cakes until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 45 minutes. Cool cakes in pans on rack 10 minutes. Run small sharp knife around pan sides to loosen cakes. Turn cakes out onto racks and cool completely.



Place 1 cake layer on cake plate. Spread 1 cup Cream Cheese Frosting over cake layer. Sprinkle 1 cup sweetened shredded coconut over. Top with second cake layer. Spread remaining frosting over top and sides of cake. Sprinkle remaining coconut over cake, gently pressing into sides to adhere. (Coconut Layer Cake can be prepared up to 1 day ahead. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate. Let stand at room temperature 2 hours before serving.)*Canned sweetened cream of coconut is available in the liquor section of most supermarkets nationwide.