FoodMayhem

It was Angie’s birthday and Angie is a Taste Bud, a term I’ve given to friends who share my love of food and have impeccable taste. I get restaurant recommendations from her all the time. You can thank her for introducing us to Degustation, Eletarria (closed now), The Red Head, and many more. She’s no stranger to the bakery scene either, so my brain was cranking. What would it take to impress her?

Like me, she isn’t into eating fondant, so I scratched the idea of making a cake that looked like a Chanel handbag, or Jimmy Choo’s, designs that she would appreciate visually. I’m not even sure I could make those designs but that was my idea for a bit. I decided to focus on flavor, where vanilla beans, passion fruit, and guava all came to mind, finally landing on a Coconut Cake, Cream Cheese Frosting, and Wild Blueberry Filling combo.

It was a hit!

The Coconut layers are an adaptation from the one in Nick Malgieri’s Perfect Cakes. What I love about it, is that it bakes up very level so no need to level it later. It also smells like coconut butter cookies in the kitchen for hours. MMM…

The blueberry filling and topping is similar to a pie filling. I love all fruit fillings and cream cheese frosting is also my favorite type of frosting. Oops, I hope Angie liked her birthday cake as much as I did.

Blueberry Coconut Cream Cake
~12 to 14 servings

Coconut Cake Layers

• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 1 1/3 cups sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon finely grated lime zest
• 2 large eggs, room temperature
• 2 large egg yolks
• 1/2 cup coconut milk
• 1 cup unsweetened shredded coconut

Blueberry Filling/Topping

• 3 1/2 cups frozen wild blueberries
• 1/3 sugar
• 2 tablespoons water
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 2 teaspoons freshly squeezed lime juice

Cream Cheese Frosting

• 8 ounces cream cheese, softened
• 8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
• 4 cups confectioner’s sugar (this had a typo before, apologies)
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions –

Cake Layers

1. Set rack to middle of the oven. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter two (9-inch) pans line bottoms with parchment. Butter the parchment. Set aside.

2. Combine flour, baking powder, and salt in a small bowl and set aside.

3. Beat butter and sugar together in a mixer on medium speed, with the paddle attachment, for 5 minutes, or until light and fluffy. Beat in vanilla and zest. Beat in eggs and yolks one at a time, beating between each addition.

4. On low speed, add one-third of the flour mixture, then half of the coconut milk. Scrape down the bowl. Add another third of the flour, then the rest of the coconut milk. Scrape down again. Beat in remaining flour mixture.

5. Use a large rubber spatula to fold in the coconut. Pour the batter into prepared pans and smooth tops.

6. Bake for 30 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean. Let cakes cool in the pans for 5 minutes, then unmold onto cooling racks to cool completely.

Blueberry Filling/Topping

7. While cakes are cooling, put blueberries, sugar, water, cornstarch, and lime juice in a medium sized heavy bottom sauce pot. Heat on low heat until blueberries defrost and it looks soupy.

8. Bring heat up to medium and stir occasionally as it thickens. Remove to a bowl when it has reached desired consistency. Set aside to cool.

Cream Cheese Frosting

9. In a standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or with a hand-held electric mixer in a large bowl, mix the cream cheese, sugar, and butter on low speed until incorporated. Increase the speed to high, and mix until light and fluffy, about five minutes. (Occasionally turn the mixer off, and scrape the down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula.) Add the vanilla and mix until combined.

Assembly

10. When the cake and blueberry filling has cooled completely, you can start assembling. Dust excess crumbs off the cakes. Put one layer down and spread a single layer of blueberries across.

11. Place the second cake layer on top. Spread a thin layer of frosting over the entire cake. Place in the fridge for 30 minutes.

12. Frost the cake evenly over top and sides. Pipe a border (reverse shells) around the top edge. Pipe a border around the bottom edge. Spoon blueberry filling into the middle. Store covered in the refrigerator. Remove from fridge 30 minutes before serving.

*If you want to write on the cake like I did. I used flat cookies (Anna’s Thins) and piped on top.

posted by jessica at 04:11 PM Filed under Desserts, Recipes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.