Although I grew up in North Carolina, our dinner table was never furnished with those Southern classics like shrimp and grits, hoppin’ john, or fried chicken (save for my mom’s fairly impressive biscuits). Nevertheless, I feel a particular affinity for those traditional recipes that call to mind big, breezy front porches and tall glasses of sweet iced tea. The January issue of Gourmet magazine is devoted to Southern cooking, and there was no question in my mind that I would be making the coconut cake immediately. This is the cake version of a Southern belle; its fluffy, marshmallow-y frosting is so ladylike, you almost don’t want to ruin it by digging in. Almost.
Cake (adapted from January 2008 Gourmet)
- 3 1/3 cups sifted cake flour
- 1 tb baking powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 1/2 cups whole milk
- 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/8 tsp almond extract
- 2 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
- 1 3/4 cups sugar, divided
- 7 large egg whites, room temperature
Meringue Frosting (from January 2008 Gourmet)
- 3 large egg whites, room temperature
- 2 1/4 cups sugar
- 3/4 cup water
- 1 1/2 tb light corn syrup
- 1/2 tsp cream of tartar
- 1/8 tsp salt
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 1/2 cups shredded coconut (sweetened or not), separated
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter and flour 3 9-inch cake pans.
Make cake batter: in a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside. Combine milk and extracts; set aside. In the bowl of a standing mixer, beat butter and 1 1/2 cups sugar until lightened in color and fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes. Add flour mixture in 3 batches, alternating with milk mixture, beginning and ending with flour. Mix just until combined. Remove mixture to large bowl.
Thoroughly clean mixing bowl, and replace on mixer. Add egg whites to the bowl, beating on medium-high speed until they hold soft peaks. Add remaining 1/4 cup sugar in a thin stream, and beat until the whites hold stiff peaks. Add one-third of the whites to the batter and stir to combine; fold in remaining whites.
Divide batter evenly between the three pans. Bake for 20 minutes with two pans on upper rack, and one on lower; switch positions, and bake another 10 minutes, or until edges are golden-brown and centers spring back when touched. Cool cakes in pans 10 minutes; run a knife around edges to loosen, and invert onto cooling racks and leave until completely cool.
Make frosting: Set a saucepan of water on the stove to simmer. In a large bowl, beat together egg whites, sugar, corn syrup, water, cream of tartar, and salt using a handheld mixer. Set the bowl onto the pan of simmering water, and beat egg mixture at high speed until it holds stiff, glossy peaks, 5 to 7 minutes (go for a little longer than you think is necessary). Remove bowl from heat and transfer to the bowl of the standing mixer; add vanilla and beat on high another 6 to 8 minutes, until very thick. Remove 2 1/3 cups frosting to a separate bowl and fold in 2 cups shredded coconut.
Assemble cake: place one cake layer on a platter or cake stand; frost surface with half of the frosting-coconut mixture. Add another cake layer on top of the frosted layer; spread surface with remaining coconut frosting. Gently place final cake layer on top, and frost top and sides with remaining frosting. Use the last 1/2 cup of coconut to decorate the cake, scattering it across the top and pressing it into the sides, if desired.
This cake is best served on the day it is frosted. The cake layers will keep, covered in plastic, a day or two before frosting.
Serves 8 to 10.
Comments 17
That is one gorgeous cake! I’m saving this one to del.icio.us for the next time I need to bake a fancy cake!
Posted 12 Feb 2008 at 12:07 am ¶this looks amazing! i used to hate coconut but it’s a flavor i’ve really grown into as i’ve gotten older. i was going to make ina garners coconut cake but i might toss that one out now. yours looks so much better!
Posted 12 Feb 2008 at 12:34 am ¶We love coconut and this cake looks heavenly and light. I wish I could dig into yours but I’ll have to make one of my own instead. Thanks for sharing!
Posted 13 Feb 2008 at 7:50 pm ¶coconut layer cake was the first thing i ever made when i got my kitchenaid standing mixer. i’d never had it (anathem!) and picked it because it looked interesting and fun, and i’ve loved it ever since. my favorite recipe is the one from cook’s illustrated – it has cream of coconut in both the batter *and* the frosting, yum
I love a picture of a big fluffy layer cake.
Posted 15 Feb 2008 at 8:58 pm ¶oh.
WOW.
that is one impressively gorgeous cake.
Posted 20 Feb 2008 at 2:33 pm ¶just out of curiosity, what is the weight of 2.5 sticks of butter? i can only buy butter in 250g packages, but using 2.5 that sounds like too much
Posted 24 Mar 2008 at 11:52 am ¶Miriam, 2.5 sticks of butter equals 10 ounces.
Posted 24 Mar 2008 at 12:26 pm ¶thanks a bunch!
Posted 25 Mar 2008 at 1:42 pm ¶WOW, what a great looking recipe for Coconut cake! I’ve been searching for a (partial) recipe that I had gotten off of the Food Channels, “Bobby Flay’s (Southern Coconut Cake) Throwdown.” He was up against a Chef Robert (who owned & cooked at his Southern (“Georgia”) Restaurant. I wrote down all the ingredients, but didn’t have ALL of the amounts…of course he left that a secret, so I could only guess the amts.
Posted 10 Nov 2008 at 6:00 pm ¶So I began my search, to look at all the ingredients for HIS cake. I want to make both Robert’s and Bobby’s to see for myself, which is the BEST! They BOTH looked sooo good!
I was never a big fan of coconut as a child, until as an adult I went to the Islands and had REAL coconuts…from the TREES!
I love coconut now & love cake…so I’m going to give THIS ONE a try. It’s the closest that I’ve seen to Chef Roberts! (Ingredient- wise). I’m a self-made (Home)-Gourmet cook and have loved cooking since I was about 9 yrs. old when I started to cook dinners for my family (& drinks as well, for my parents when they came home from work!) Wish my kids were like that! Thanks for the recipe! Lisa
I LOVE MUSIC BUT I ALSO LOVE COOKING SWEETS. THIS CAKE IS SO NICE AND RICH YOU CAN MAKE IT AND THEN TURN IT TO A CHRISTMAS CAKE. MAKE A CHRISTMAS TREE ON TOP OF THE CAKE AND THROW SOME RED OR GREEN SUGAR ON THE TOP. MAKE A SANTA OR THE CHRISTMAS FLOWER ON TOP. : 0
Posted 25 Nov 2008 at 10:27 pm ¶This is my new favorite cake and this recipe looks pretty incredible. Thanks for posting!
Posted 15 Nov 2009 at 12:09 am ¶I love coconut let alone a pie, got me hungry.
Posted 11 Jan 2010 at 7:28 am ¶Hi, is it ok if I create a website, and post your beautiful cake picture and receipe on my website?
Thanks
Jacqui
Posted 11 Jan 2010 at 8:05 pm ¶jacquib337@msn.com
Супер! Спасибо :0
Posted 12 Mar 2010 at 12:26 am ¶Бродил по инету наткнулся на сайт. Хороший сайт!
Posted 05 Apr 2010 at 10:02 pm ¶Ура!, вебмастер убого отжег!
Posted 18 May 2010 at 7:57 am ¶В принципе, афтар удачно накреативил.
Posted 18 May 2010 at 11:38 am ¶Trackbacks & Pingbacks 4
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[...] (Adapted from a recipe by Ruth Cousineau in January 2008 Gourmet by Big City, Little Kitchen) [...]
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