This cake was so pretty - was being the operative word. Once we dug in it started to look a bit peaked.
It's a coconut layer cake with a lemon curd filling and a coconut/cream cheese icing. I made a horrible mistake when baking the cake - I added two cups of flaked coconut to the cake batter that was supposed to be toasted for the sides of the cake. However, I have an excuse. The recipe listed all of the ingredients for the cake, then in a separate section, the ingredients for the filling and icing (which I did not use). The cake is Cook's Illustrated's Coconut Layer Cake (membership required to view the link) and the ingredient listing for the cake part lists 2 cups of flaked sweetened coconut.
Here's where my excuse gets a bit lame: I did not read the directions. After all, I thought to myself, I bake cakes all the time - why do I need to read the silly directions? So I just jotted down the ingredients and prepared the cake batter, folding in the flaked coconut at the end. As I was doing that, I though it was a bit strange to have coconut in the actual cake batter, but I shrugged off my gut feeling and popped the cakes into the oven.
Since I couldn't shake the feeling that something was amiss, I went back and re-read the recipe. Whoops - the coconut was to be toasted when the cake came out of the oven, then cooled and sprinkled over the icing. Knowing it was too late to do anything about the mistake, I crossed my fingers and hoped for the best.
Luckily, the cake turned out fairly well, although the texture added by the coconut made it impossible to slice neatly. Since the taste was still good, I didn't fret about it.
Since my favorite lemon curd recipe is too loose to use for a cake filling, I added a couple more tablespoons of butter and another egg to see if that would be sufficient. It's still a bit loose, so I should probably try one of the lemon filling recipes that uses gelatin when I want a layer cake. Still, it held together reasonably well and tasted sooooo good.
The cream cheese icing was made up on the spot. I had left over cream of coconut from the cake batter and some leftover coconut milk from another recipe (about 1/2 cup total), which I added to beaten cream cheese (1 lb), powdered sugar (2 cups - 7 ounces), and unsalted butter (2 sticks). I added a teaspoon of vanilla and 1/2 teaspoon coconut extract for good measure.
This cake was pretty yummy, and this post ends my long drought between posts. Sorry about that, but it's been crazy around here (a water leak, trip to Ohio, and countless other activities). Hopefully I can get back in the swing of things now.
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