I’m coming to the tail end of my vacation here in Ecuador and I have one final guest post for you from my good friend, Nancy of gotta get baked. Please give Nancy a warm welcome with this fabulous 2-layered cake she made for us…
Hey y’all, I’m Nancy of gotta get baked and I’m pleased as punch to be guest posting for my dear friend Connie today while she’s enjoying her sassy self in Ecuador. Connie is awesome. She’s smart, sweet, funny and insanely talented in the kitchen. I’m beyond lucky to call her a friend.
It’s our mutual love for pets that brought Connie ‘n I together. Connie used to work at a veterinary clinic and she reached out to me on Instagram after seeing a cupcake I had made for my dog, Abby’s puppy shower. I had used an Oreo cookie and Hershey’s chocolate buttons to form a paw print on top of the cupcake and Connie, being the conscientious dog owner she is, wanted to make sure I wasn’t feeding my dog the equivalent of puppy poison. I assured her I wasn’t (they were for human consumption) and I then proceeded to pump her for free dog advice. Thus, a beautiful friendship was born!
I’m OBSESSED with dogs now. Anyone who knows me thinks that hell has frozen over because I spent my entire pre-Abby-life terrified of canines. I’m not good with small creatures, be it of the animal or child variety. Having another life depend on me for its wellbeing gives me the heebie jeebies. Now, I can’t imagine my life without my puppy and I spend most of my spare time looking up hilarious dog memes and videos online. Yup, I’m THAT person.
For example, check out this link of 33 Dogs That Cannot Even Handle It Right Now. Believe me, it’s worth your time. I was looking through it at work (shhhhh! Don’t tell) and I was laughing so hard I was crying. #25 just slays me.
Despite knowing that Connie is a queen of cake (just take a quick looksie through her blog and feast your eyes upon an endless array of absolutely perfect, stunning layer cakes) I foolishly decided to make her a layer cake. Aaaaaaaaand needless to say, it looks nowhere near as good as Connie’s do. But girl, I love ya so I made sure that this TASTES good, which is the most important part.
This cake was delicious. The texture inside is light, fluffy and bursting with coconut flavour. You have to be a real coconut lover to enjoy this cake because its full of shredded coconut both inside and out.
This is a big ass cake too. It can easily serve ten to twelve people. Lucky for me, I had lots of leftover cake after serving it to my husband’s family. I kept it in the fridge for four days and helped myself to a slice every night after work (I self medicate with wine and cake. Ain’t no shame).
Thanks for having me over, Connie! I hope you’re having an amazing time and I can’t wait to hear all about your trip!
Print
Coconut Layer Cake
Ingredients
CAKE
- 2 3/4 cups cake flour
- 2 cups unsweetened shredded coconut
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 1 cup unsalted butter, room temp
- 5 large eggs
- 1 egg yolk
- 1/2 cup coconut oil, warmed to melt
- 1 cup coconut milk
- 1/4 cup sour cream
- 2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
CREAM CHEESE FROSTING:
- 1 1/2 cups unsalted butter, room temp
- 2 packages cream cheese, room temp
- 2 1/2 cups icing sugar
- 3 tablespoon coconut milk
- 2 cups unsweetened shredded coconut, toasted
Instructions
CAKE
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease two nine inch cake pans and line bottom with parchment paper.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, shredded coconut, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer or in a large bowl with an electric hand mixer, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 to 5 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time and mix completely between each addition. Add the coconut oil and mix together. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.
- In a two cup measuring cup or a small bowl, mix together the coconut milk, sour cream and vanilla.
- Gradually add the flour mixture to the butter mixture, in three additions, alternating with the coconut milk mixture in two additions. Mix until the batter just comes together and there are no streaks of flour. Pour the batter into the two cake pans.
- Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, until the tops are golden and a cake tester comes out clean. Remove from the oven and cook in the cake pans for at least 20 minutes. Remove from the cake pans and complete cooling on racks.
FROSTING
- Place the butter and cream cheese into the bowl of a stand mixer or in a large bowl with an electric hand mixer. Blend together until light and fluffy, approximately 5 minutes. Add the icing sugar, one cup at a time, and mix to combine. Add the coconut milk and mix to combine. The icing should be light and fluffy, with no lumps.
- I found that my icing was a bit runny so I placed it into the fridge for about 15 minutes before using it to frost the cake.
ASSEMBLY
- Frost the top of one layer of cake. Place the second layer on top. Frost the top and the sides of the cake. Using your hands, press the toasted coconut against the sides. If not eating right away, place the cake in the fridge. Take the cake out of the fridge thirty minutes before serving to allow the cake to soften to room temperature.
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Thank you SO much Nancy for making this beautiful coconut cake. The crumb looks absolutely tender and I can only imagine that it must taste amazing! Can’t wait to try it!
Don’t forget to go visit Nancy over at gotta get baked for more deliciously creative recipes and be sure to keep in touch with her on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest.