Every weekend is a baking adventure in our house. Katie, my girlfriend, must have been a baker in another life. She has no formal training in making sweets or bread, but manages to produce the tastiest baked goods every time. She makes amazing cheesecake and pumpkin pie (out of real pumpkin, not the store bought kind in a can), and her pumpkin cheesecake (a combination of the two) provokes my sweet tooth every time she makes it. The majority of her time spent on the Internet is dedicated to reading food related websites for baking recipes. She works all week, so once the weekend arrives she becomes giddy with excitement while jotting down her list of ingredients to buy at the San Lorenzo market on Saturday mornings. On one particular weekend, a few months ago, her baking habit reached new heights.
One particular baking weekend that has forever tamed my sweet tooth is the time she made coconut cake. In theory, it is a simple sounding recipe that shouldn’t be too difficult. Reading over the list, I never thought that it could result in such dire consequences. The amount of eggs and butter in the recipe are enough to kill a small horse. It requires five sticks of butter, five large eggs, one pound of cream cheese, one pound of confectioner’s sugar, two cups of regular sugar, three cups of flour, and various other ingredients such as: vanilla extract, almond extract, shredded coconut, baking powder, and kosher salt. When all of this is combined, the final result is a cake that looks more like an enormous pillow of coconut. She seemed to take much pleasure in making the cake. I would often pop in an out of the kitchen to see how things were coming along. Seeing the various butter wrappers and cream cheese containers scattered around the kitchen counter, I suggested to her to cut the recipe in half since it seemed a little excessive. Her theory behind making something for the first time is that you should follow the recipe exactly how it is written. This is an excellent theory when it comes to baking, but when you have five eggs, five sticks of butter, and a pound of cream cheese you become a bit worried about your health. As she was finishing up, I slowly started piecing together how a coconut cake comes to be. The outcome was a light, fluffy, and dense texture when baked. The coconut cake, was actually two round cakes layered on top of one another, each being divided by a thick layer of frosting. After the cake had been properly constructed, she coated it in frosting and sprinkled powdered coconut all over it. It was delicious and clearly buttery, the dried coconut over the outside served as the perfect contrast to the moist inner layers of the cake.
Despite it being delectable, the cake proposed a problem aside from the health risks it began making us worried of. I don’t own a large enough refrigerator that could accommodate the great baked beast. After much rearranging, we managed to squeeze it into one of the main shelves. For over two weeks it sat there in the middle shelf of the refrigerator, staring back at me every time I opened the door. We would periodically treat ourselves to a piece, hoping that it would somewhat diminish in size. The cake did not seem to be getting any smaller, it was almost as if it grew larger every time we shaved off another piece. We eventually came to the realization that the coconut cake was a baking experiment gone wrong. On a sunny Saturday afternoon we hoisted it out of the refrigerator once and for all and threw it into the garbage. The infamous coconut cake had defeated us, ultimately allowing me to realize why they invented the cupcake.
Try making your own coconut cake at home with the very recipe my girlfriend used! (recipe courtesy of foodnetwork.com’s Ina Garten)
Coconut Cake
Ingredients
3/4 pound (3 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature, plus more for greasing the pans
2 cups sugar
5 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 teaspoons pure almond extract
3 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting the pans
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup milk
4 ounces sweetened shredded coconut
For the frosting:
1 pound cream cheese, at room temperature
1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
3/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon pure almond extract
1 pound confectioners’ sugar, sifted
6 ounces sweetened shredded coconut
Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease 2 (9-inch) round cake pans, then line them parchment paper. Grease them again and dust lightly with flour.
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar on medium-high speed for 3 to 5 minutes, until light yellow and fluffy. Crack the eggs into a small bowl. With the mixer on medium speed, add the eggs 1 at a time, scraping down the bowl once during mixing. Add the vanilla and almond extracts and mix well. The mixture might look curdled; don’t be concerned.
In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. With the mixer on low speed, alternately add the dry ingredients and the milk to the batter in 3 parts, beginning and ending with dry ingredients. Mix until just combined. Fold in the 4 ounces of coconut with a rubber spatula.
Pour the batter evenly into the 2 pans and smooth the top with a knife. Bake in the center of the oven for 45 to 55 minutes, until the tops are browned and a cake tester comes out clean. Cool on a baking rack for 30 minutes, then turn the cakes out onto a baking rack to finish cooling.
For the frosting, in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, combine the cream cheese, butter, vanilla and almond extract on low speed. Add the confectioners’ sugar and mix until just smooth (don’t whip!).
To assemble, place 1 layer on a flat serving plate, top side down, and spread with frosting. Place the second layer on top, top side up, and frost the top and sides. To decorate the cake, sprinkle the top with coconut and lightly press more coconut onto the sides. Serve at room temperature and enjoy!