Ultimate Coconut Cake

So my dad was begging for coconut cake this entire break so I went looking for a good recipe.  Where better to start than Martha Stewart???  I found the ULTIMATE COCONUT CAKE on her site and it defiantly is the ultimate in cakes.  The recipe includes 2 1/2 pounds of butter and about 7 cups of cream, but hey... go big or go home right???

The first thing to do is make this cream filling.  To be honest, the corn starch thing didn't really work out for us so we used some other thickener stuff, but you are welcome to try.  This makes A LOT so if you don't want extras, I would make maybe 3/4 of this recipe.

• 5 cups heavy cream
• 3 cups sugar
• 1 pound (4 sticks) unsalted butter
• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 9 cups shredded sweetened coconut

Directions:

Place cream, sugar, and butter in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally until sugar is dissolved

Meanwhile, in a small bowl, mix together cornstarch, vanilla, and 1 tablespoon water. Add to cream mixture, bring to a boil, and simmer until thickened, about 1 minute.

Place coconut in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse until coconut is finely chopped. Remove cream mixture from heat and stir in coconut until well combined. Transfer to a large baking dish; let cool.

Cover filling with plastic wrap and chill overnight. Just before using, place mixture in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Beat until smooth and creamy, 4 to 5 minutes

So this needs to be done the night before, ideally.  Then make the cake.  This cake is SO SO SO good.  I am going to try it without the coconut extract and see if it is still as good.



Makes two 10-inch round cakes

• Nonstick cooking spray with flour
• 1 pound unsalted butter, preferably European-style
• 3 cups sugar
• 6 large eggs
• 4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 tablespoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups heavy cream
• 1 1/2 tablespoons pure vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon coconut extract

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Spray two 10-inch round cake pans with cooking spray; set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy, 5 to 6 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, and beat until creamy, occasionally scraping down sides of the bowl using a spatula.

In a large bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, and salt. In a small bowl, mix together cream, vanilla, and coconut extract. With mixer on low speed, add flour mixture, alternating with cream mixture, beginning and ending with flour; beat until just combined.

Pour batter into prepared cake pans and bake until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean, 40 to 45 minutes. Let cool completely on a wire rack before removing cakes from pans.

This cake batter tastes like ice-cream.  It was SO GOOD!!!!!

You are then ready to assemble the cake.  You need to make some "simple syrup" which is equal amounts of sugar and water.  Just heat it up until the sugar dissolves.  I put it in a spray bottle and you use this to moisten the layers before you put filling on them.  This is a pretty popular thing to do and it does not make it soggy, just moist and awesome.  Cut each cake into 3 layers each.  That's two cuts, three layers.

Here is the action shot...

You put about 2 cups of filling in between each layer and just spread it pretty close to the edge, when you put on the next layer and push it down, you will get the filling all the way to the edge. 

It looked like a beautiful stack of pancakes!





Then make the frosting.  We did not put the vanilla bean in here because I am just too poor, but it was still amazing.  I also put about 5 or 6 tablespoons of milk in this recipe to make the frosting more spreadable.  When you frost this you only have to make sure the top looks really good.  Toast some coconut in the oven and press it into the sides of the cake. I burned the coconut the first time around so watch that carefully.  I put the oven at 350 and left it in for about 7 minutes.



Makes enough for 1 cake

• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 8 ounces cream cheese
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 5 cups confectioners' sugar
• 1 vanilla bean, scraped

Place butter and cream cheese in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment; beat until creamy.

With mixer on low speed, slowly add vanilla extract, seeds from vanilla bean, and confectioners' sugar. Continue beating until smooth and creamy, about 3 minutes.

I decorated the top with some funky star tip border and my take on fireworks.

This cake was a little hard to cut at room temp so I would keep it refrigerated until right before you cut it.  This was the richest and probably the best tasting cake I have ever eaten.  Everyone loved it!!!

On the Martha site there are some videos of how to make this cake so watch those if you need some more help.  It may seem like a lot of work, but it is TOTALLY WORTH IT!!!!