Toasted Coconut Cake

I love coconut, so when I found a coconut cake recipe I couldn't help myself and I baked it, the first time was for a friend's birthday and afterwards for a coffee shop in Glasgow. The recipe I found has sautéed pineapple in the topping but I wanted the cake to be all about the coconut so after some changes in the recipe that's what I've got, the sponges are soft, moist and have a subtle coconut after taste, but the buttercream is full of coconut flavour.

Sponges

• 540g of flour
• 12g of baking powder
• 1tsp of salt
• 340g of unsalted butter (room temperature)
• 340g of egg whites
• 355ml of unsweetened coconut milk
• 1Tbsp of vanilla extract
• Coconut cream

Pre-heat the oven to 177C and line and butter three 8" cake tins.

Shift together flour, baking powder and salt (dry mix)

Place the butter in the bowl of a standing electric mixer with the paddle attachment, beat until light and fluffy.

Add the sugar and continue to beat, remember to scrap the sides of the bowl.

whisk the egg whites, coconut milk and vanilla extract (wet mix)

Start adding the wet mix and the dry mix in turns to the butter and sugar mix while the electric mixer is working. Once you add everything you'll have to add some coconut cream to get the batter a little bit more wet, you'll have to add maybe between 1-2 Tbsp.

Once everything is mix divide the batter between the 3 cake tins.

Bake for about 25mins or until a cake tester inserted into the centre comes back clean.

Coconut Buttercream

• 2Tbsp of coconut milk
• 1tsp of vanilla extract
• pinch of salt
• 240g of butter (room temperature)
• 1Tbsp of coconut cream
• 600g of icing sugar
• 250g of desiccated coconut.
• 1Tbsp of coconut cream.

Place the butter in the bowl of a standing electric mixer with the paddle attachment and beat until light and fluffy.

Start adding the icing sugar (shifted), add a little at a time and mix well.

In a bowl mix the vanilla extract, salt and coconut milk. Add it to the butter and sugar mix and after is well mix add the coconut cream, you can add a bit more if you want your buttercream easier to spread.

Once the sponges are cold, we cut them to give them an even shape.

Place the first sponge on a cake board and spread a layer of buttercream, place the second sponge on top and gently press it on the fist one so the sponges are secured on place. Spread more buttercream and do the same with the third sponge, this time spreading a fine layer of buttercream all around the cake too. Put the cake into the fridge. At this point you'd have a lot of buttercream left, just keep it on a side while we get the finishing touches for the cake.

While the cake with the buttercream is getting colder, we put the desiccated coconut into a pan and toasted, remember to keep the heat low and remove constantly, we want the coconut toasted not burn.

Once is toasted leave it to cool down.

When the coconut is cool down, we take the cake from the fridge and add like half of the toasted coconut to the buttercream we have left, we mix it really well with a spoon and spread evenly all over the cake, when the cake is covered in the buttercream, we press the rest of the toasted coconut to the sides of the cake and sprinkle with it the top of the cake.

Now you just have to enjoy the cake :)