The World's Best Coconut Cake

[Stone]

I'm thinking a yellow cake, with lots of coconut. A light, coconut icing. Topped with toasted coconut. Capable of being made well by an idiot.

[Swisskaese]

This close to my Grandmother's recipe:

Coconut Layer Cake

Edited October 5, 2004 by Swisskaese (log)

[Gifted Gourmet]

the Ultimate Coconut Cake from the Peninsula Grill in Charleston, SC

This is the Rolls Royce of Coconut Cakes ...

"A little slice of heaven..." New York Times

"...light as a cloud," Bon Appetit

After you look at it and are craving it, let me know if you want the recipe ...

[Gifted Gourmet]

So simple that anyone can make it .. even me .. guess that answers your question ...

Voila, the recipe is here!

[Fernwood]

The recipe link describes building a 3-layer cake, but the photo from the restaurant looks like 6 to me. Melissa, if you have made the cake from this recipe, did you split the layers and, if so, was there enough filling?

Fern

P.S. I'm chuckling about the description in the mail order ad. If the cake really weighs 12 lbs, I'm looking forward to my 12 oz serving! I assume that's the ship weight including chill packs, etc.... Of course, if it really is 12 lbs of cake, the price is not so daunting.

[Gifted Gourmet]

The cake in the photo is really more commercial (for the Peninsula Grill) in size, not for home baking ... so, if I remember correctly, and the recipe is from 2001, I think I halved it ... and made just 3 layers of the 6 ... I simply recall that it came out deliciously and I haven't made it again because of dietary concerns... and only I eat coconut in this house so it would fall to me to eat it all by myself ... poor little me ...

[Redsugar]

My preferred triple-layered Coconut Cake for the past 20 years has comprised these ingredients:

1 medium coconut

6 fl. oz. whole milk

3 cups sifted cake flour

1 Tbsp baking powder

8 oz. butter

2 cups white granulated sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

4 large eggs, separated

The filling is composed of sweetened whipped cream; the icing is made from egg whites, vanilla, sugar, and white corn syrup. I usually eat my portion(s) with a mango spritzer. A paradisaical flavour pairing!

[CaliPoutine]

I've tried a few. The last one I tried was in Amanda Hesser's book " cooking for mr. Latte". It was unremarkable.

So, what do you have????

[Darcie B]

The best coconut layer cake I have had is the Cook's Illustrated Coconut Layer Cake. What sets it apart from others is that it uses cream of coconut (the stuff in pina coladas) and coconut extract in the cake, while most other recipes just use a white or yellow cake with a little coconut thrown in.

I don't use the buttercream recipe that CI uses, though, because I find it too rich. I make a "fake" buttercream with 1 lb. butter, 1 1/2 lbs. powdered sugar, 2-3 tablespoons rum, and 1/4 tsp. coconut extract. Then I put lightly toasted coconut over the whole thing. Coconutty!

[CaliPoutine]

The best coconut layer cake I have had is the Cook's Illustrated Coconut Layer Cake. What sets it apart from others is that it uses cream of coconut (the stuff in pina coladas) and coconut extract in the cake, while most other recipes just use a white or yellow cake with a little coconut thrown in.

I don't use the buttercream recipe that CI uses, though, because I find it too rich. I make a "fake" buttercream with 1 lb. butter, 1 1/2 lbs. powdered sugar, 2-3 tablespoons rum, and 1/4 tsp. coconut extract. Then I put lightly toasted coconut over the whole thing. Coconutty!

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Do you know what issue it is in? I make CI's coconut cream pie all the time, I really love that one.

[TrishCT]

I might be dreaming...But isn't there a Paul Prudhomme coconut cake that is supposedly so decadent it needs to be ordered days in advance at his restaurants?

I'd be interested in that recipe also if anyone has it.

[M. Lucia]

When I make the cake for coconut cake, I always substitute coconut milk for the cream or liquid listed in the recipe. Coconut milk is not the same as cream of coconut mentioned by Darcie, (which I believe has added sugar), though that would make it even more rich.

I frost my cake with an Italian meringue made with coconut extract and topped with grated coconut.

Much better than some plain cake with a little bit of coconut thrown in, and moister too.

[Tapenade]

I might be dreaming...But isn't there a Paul Prudhomme coconut cake that is supposedly so decadent it needs to be ordered days in advance at his restaurants? 

I'd be interested in that recipe also if anyone has it.

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K Paul's Coconut Cake

[Daniel]

Gifted:

Thanks for the recipe.. That coconut cake is hands down the best!!! The cake itself might be my new yellow cake recipe.. The thing tasted like a large sugar cookie.. It was amazing.. I brought it somewhere for Easter and everyone would not stop talking about the cake.. I would suggest everyone make this cake.. Not hard.. The only time consuming thing is chilling the filling.. Do that first or the day before.

Edited March 28, 2005 by Daniel (log)

[slbunge]

Thank you tapenade, I better be careful what I wish for....  Has anyone made the K Paul cake?  It seems like a lot of work, which I guess explains why you have to order it in advance. 

I might make it though sometime, for a sort of Mt. Everest kind of experience.

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Sorry, I missed this post a while ago.

When in New Orleans last, I made reservations at K Paul's and requested the cake. When the day arrived and we made it to the restaurant, both hosts and our server knew of our request but, sadly, the chef said that he was not happy with the coconuts available so the cake was not available.

When I found the recipe I decided to make it for my wife's birthday. The cake was outstanding. Great crumb to the cake. Rich soft filling that was not terribly sweet. Nice creamy frosting. Though the cake is work, it was fun to make, particularly for a special occassion. Regrettably, I only have one picture of the end result and the photographer (me) quite obviously should not quit his day job.

[JeanneCake]

Does anyone have the coconut cake recipe from The Montecito Cafe in CA? I have a client who wants to use this as her wedding cake....

[lfujii]

Different coconut cake

Theres a recipe I like to make to potlucks or BBQ. It's a coconut version of the very famous latinamerican dessert Tres Leches (three milk cake). It consists of a a regular sponge cake baked in a 13 x 9 rectangular pan (I use Pyrex glass because you are going to serve the dessert from that same pan). After it is cool, I mix 1 large can of sweetend condensed milk, 1 large can of evaporated milk, and 1/2 large can (or more, acording to taste) of coconut cream. Complete the can of coconut cream with water until if reaches the full can measurement (I find that using the whole can of cream of coconut is to much so I complete the difference with water, but you can do as your taste buds dictate). Mix this milk medley and drench the cooled sponge cake with all this mixture and top with of with Italian Meringue and shredded toasted coconut. For a chocolate variation, use chocolate sponge cake instead. Chill for 4 hours least. Cut and serve. The description is a lovely drenched cake with a puddle of white sweet cream on the plate and enough Frosting not to distract the cake. It is light and rich at the same time. Very refreshing also.

[Daniel]

Rather funny thing happened today.. My father received a coconut cake from the Pennisula Grill for his bday.. It is a monsterous and wonderfull cake.. Its exactly similar to the recipe i used.. The only major difference is the amount of layers.. They had to have cut the two seperate cakes into three parts.. The coconut is alot fresher then store bought coconut.. The cake is amazing.

[Laura B]

I can vouch for the coconut cake at Peninsula Grill. I went there for my birthday last year, and that cake was outstanding! We just ordered one piece and it was so big we had to take most of it to go. It made a very nice breakfast the next day!

Thanks for sharing the link to the recipe.

Edited April 13, 2005 by Laura B (log)

[chocklateer]

Does anyone have a tried and true recipe for a Sourcream Coconut Cake (that does not involve a box of cake mix) they are willing to share?

Thanks ,

D.

[KatieM]

I made the Peninsula Grill coconut cake this week to test for an upcoming coconut cake order I have. It was outstanding! I did make a few tiny changes, though. Because I'm a dork and I bought every kind of coconut product known to man when I was shopping (I didn't know what recipe I'd be using yet), I subsituted coconut milk for 1/3 cup of the heavy cream in the cake recipe and then I threw a dollop of cream of coconut in with the icing, because I had it in the house and I thought "why not?".

This cake rocked.

Oh, there are two reasons I think they torte the cake at the restaurant. One, this particular cake is very easy to split. It is fairly firm and has a nice tight crumb. Also, the filling just screams out to be spread between several layers. This also helps with the moisture of the cake layers.

[Ling]

I just made the Peninsula Grill coconut cake. It's for a BBQ I'm going to tomorrow, but I made extra filling, extra frosting, and ate the scrap pieces of cake when I levelled it, so I have a pretty good idea what it tastes like already.

My favourite part of the cake is the filling. Although I made it according to the recipe, I ended up folding in an extra 3/4 cup of coconut (1/2 cup of that extra bit was toasted). I thought the filling was better with the extra coconut, and I added the toasted coconut for colour contrast. I also increased the amount of sour cream from 1/4 cup to almost 1/2 cup--I liked the tanginess against the richness of the cream.

The cake itself is quite heavy--I'm not sure I like it too much. It's almost as heavy as pound cake. I measured everything carefully, but it still domed quite a bit in the oven. However, it was easy to split, as the outer edge of the cake is quite crisp--almost cookie-like. I read on Epicurious that some people found the cake dry, but mine turned out quite moist.

The frosting is just cream cheese, butter, icing sugar, and vanilla, so I added about 3 tsp. of rum extract to make it more interesting.

All in all, I would say it's a good cake, but not my favourite. I'm not a huge fan of coconut cake though, so I'm sure that plays a part in my judgment. However, I think it's a bit better than any other coconut cake I've come across.

Edited May 22, 2005 by Ling (log)

[Dailey]

i made the cake as well! i let my husband try it and he said it tasted good but had a bit of "cornbread" taste to it, darn! i noticed when i took it out of the oven that it had that "cornbread" smell but hoped it would fade, it didn't. so i landed up making another coconut cake recipe. this one called for conf. sugar and i substituted coconut milk for regular milk, turned out great! very good crumb and nice coconut flavor.

i'm still going to used the filling from the other recipe though, it sounds like a winner. i measure all my ingredients so i'm not sure why i got poor results with the cake, anyone else notice the cornbread flavor?

[Ling]

i'm still going to used the filling from the other recipe though, it sounds like a winner.  i measure all my ingredients so i'm not sure why i got poor results with the cake, anyone else notice the cornbread flavor?

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By "the other recipe", do you mean the Peninsula Grill recipe?

I didn't notice a cornbread flavour, but the edges and the top of the cake were quite crisp--kind of reminds me of cornbread in that regard. But taste-wise...it was more like pound cake to me.

[Dailey]

ling,

yes, i meant the peninsula recipe, sorry, i should have said that! anyways, i too, noticed the crispy edges, that part tasted pretty good, kinda like a sugar cookie.