Chocolate Coconut Cake

Operation:  Birthday!

A good friend of mine commissioned a surprise birthday cake for her boyfriend and only gave me three requirements:

• Coconut
• Chocolate
• Almonds

After brainstorming and pouring through recipes, this is what I came up with:

• Dark chocolate cake, Coconut cake, Dark chocolate ganache, Coconut buttercream icing, Sweetened shredded coconut, and Toasted sliced almonds

I made four 6-inch round cakes, two were dark chocolate and two were coconut.  While the cakes were cooling, I melted 62% dark chocolate in a double-boiler for the ganache filling.  After adding some heavy cream, the ganache was set aside to cool to room temperature.  Once the coconut buttercream was made, I began assembly.  Here's how it all stacked up starting from the base of the cake:

• Coconut cake layer
• Dark chocolate ganache
• Dark chocolate cake layer
• Coconut buttercream
• Dark chocolate cake layer
• Dark chocolate ganache
• Coconut Cake
• Final top layer of Coconut buttercream
• Coconut buttercream to frost the cake
• Sweetened shredded coconut pressed into the sides

I am still working on my ability to pipe letters directly onto the tops of cakes.  I get all nervous that I will make a mistake and panic that I will ruin the cake.  So instead, I melted some of the leftover dark chocolate in a bowl in the microwave and poured it into a paper piping bag that I made. (The link will take you to a super easy tutorial on how to make a paper piping bag with parchment paper!)  On a sheet pan lined with parchment paper, I piped "happy birthday brian" in cursive with the chocolate.  The cursive lettering makes it so that the chocolate is all in one piece for easy transport to the cake top.  After 2 or 3 minutes setting in the fridge, the chocolate accents were ready to top the cake.

 

 

 

I came back with the melted chocolate after and crossed my "t's" and dotted my "i's".  It wasn't until I brought the cake to work for delivery that I remembered to add the toasted almonds in a decorative border around the lettering.  (Convenient that I work in grocery retail so the ingredients and oven were readily available at the last minute!)

 

 



I do enjoy the simplicity and clean lines of the cake without the almonds, as well.  You could leave them out entirely or even put them on top of the ganache layers for an added crunch.

Buttercake Wishes and Coconut Dreams

Every July I am faced with the challenge of outdoing the previous year's birthday cake for my best friend Laura.  It was serendipitous timing as I have been deciding on what cake recipe from my new Miette cookbook to try first.   

I chose the Butter Cake because it read as a cake that would stand up well to heavy frosting yet have the taste of pound cake.  And when one is making a "butter" cake, one needs some butter...

I have never really experimented with different butters in baking before, so when pondering what to get in the dairy aisle I went with one of each.  When making the final decision on which one to use in the cake I went with the European butter, Plugra.  European butter are supposed to be the best due to a higher butterfat content. 

Thirty minutes later....

I also ordered two 6 inch Miette cake pans from their website.  I really liked the removable bottom insert for flawless cake removal.  Also the 6 inch cake is really the perfect size.  Not too big, not too small.  Just enough.  Personal.

At this point I wrapped each cake tightly with plastic wrap and placed in the fridge to cool completely for at least 30 minutes. 

While I waited I made a simple syrup to brush on each layer of the cake. (Side note: I'm still experimenting with simple syrup and so far I'm not crazy about the final textural result of the cake...dense and crumbly does not equal melt-in-your-mouth cake..but I won't rule it out yet)

After choosing the best four layers from each cake I layered each one with simple syrup and vanilla frosting (Laura's absolute, hands-down favorite flavor...she's a class(y)ic kind of lady).  Once all the layers were together I covered them in a rough crumb coat then let the cake rest in the fridge for another thirty minutes to set.

Laura's other professed favorite of favs is coconut.  Anything with coconut.  Birthday girl definitely deserves as least that much.  So toasted coconut for the outside of the cake it is.

This is the final cake, presentation frosting layer and coconut applied.

And after a little table practice I personalized the cake with her initials LMR.

Happy Birthday, Laura!