How Much Coconut Can You Cram into One Cake?: Coconut Layer Cake

I was talking over cake options with a co-worker about a week before her birthday and we decided that I would mull over her preferences and surprise her. I was leaning towards making a Momofuku Milk Bar birthday cake because sprinkles were on her list of likes. But a few days later my colleague wistfully mentioned how she had been thinking about coconut cake and I decided right then and there to make her a coconut cake instead.

I used a Coconut Layer Cake recipe printed in The New York Times that came from pastry chef Larissa Raphael. It was promised to not be overly sweet and includes a few unusual ingredients -- like orange juice and rum. To make the batter, you beat sugar with softened butter until fluffy; add egg yolks; gradually incorporate the dry ingredients (flour, salt, and baking powder); alternately add unsweetened shredded coconut and the liquid ingredients (cream of coconut, coconut milk, dark rum, and freshly-squeezed orange juice); and fold in egg whites beaten to soft peaks. There was so much coconut in the batter that it was extremely thick, even after folding in the beaten egg whites. I divided the batter between three parchment-lined 8-inch pans to bake.
The cakes didn't rise much in the oven and they seemed quite and dense and heavy, so I wasn't sure if something had gone wrong. They also had completely flat tops and I didn't need to level them at all. The frosting is just a mixture of butter, cream cheese, vanilla, and a lot of powdered sugar. I spread a layer of cream cheese frosting on each cake layer before sprinkling on some toasted unsweetened coconut and stacking the next layer on top. After I had filled and frosted the entire cake, I sprinkled more toasted unsweetened coconut on top and pressed roasted coconut chips onto the sides (I'm talking about these crunchy and addictive coconut chips that I absolutely love from Trader Joe's -- I used less than two bags' worth and toasted them in the oven briefly to give them some color). 
Because of the cream cheese frosting I kept this cake in the fridge overnight. I had left it at room temperature for a few hours before serving, but it was still slightly cold when I cut it. The cake was so dense that it was difficult to slice through it and I was confused by the cake texture -- heavy like a fruitcake and not at all like the butter cake I had been expecting (and there's no way I could have cut it as cleanly as the cake in the photo accompanying the recipe). Many of the online comments on the recipe remark on the dense texture, so I don't think that I got it wrong.

Heavy texture aside, the flavor of the cake was delightful and it improved the longer the cake sat out at room temperature. My favorite part was the nice hit of orange, which was bright and surprisingly good with coconut. I do think the frosting was quite sweet and the cake as a whole was on the sweet side -- so I don't agree that restrained sweetness is one of the cake's big selling points. But it certainly delivers on being unbelievably coconutty. I'm glad I used the roasted coconut chips on the sides; they stayed nice and crunchy.

The birthday girl and my other tasters loved this cake, but I personally prefer a Coconut Layer Cake recipe from Bon Appétit because of its springy, finely textured cake. But there are tradeoffs. The cake from the Bon Appétit has much less coconut flavor in the cake itself; it has cream of coconut in the cake batter, but no coconut milk or shredded coconut. Perhaps there is a happy medium somewhere between the two recipes that could produce a lighter cake that still has strong coconut flavor. But I would recommend either recipe to someone looking for a good coconut layer cake.

Recipe: "Coconut Layer Cake" by Larissa Raphael (adapted by Melissa Clark), from The New York Times.

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