It's my first white birthday in 14 years and boy is it ever white. Eight inches of snow over the last three days and it's not stopping yet. So locked in our house by weather and pandemic what else is a girl to do on her birthday, but bake? Inspired by the fluffy snow, I chose a fluffy coconut cake. This is not a new cake to my repetoire, but its the first time I've miniaturised it.
The sponge is a tasty, moist vanilla cake with a dash of coconut milk to add just a hint of coconut flavour. If you're after serious coconuttiness (ooh, I like that word!), you can replace the vanilla with coconut flavouring, or even Malibu rum if that happens to be in your cupboard. I used vanilla paste which added lovely vanilla seeds flecked through the cake.
Filling between the layers is just a bit of sour cream mixed with sugar. It's deceptively simple, as the tanginess of the sour cream gives the cake a nice little cake. A sticky meringue frosting is covered by coconut, giving a simple, rustic finish to the cake. This frosting ends up quite thick, which probably works better on a full size cake than the mini version, but still yummy, none-the-less!
COCONUT MINI-CAKE
makes 2 mini-cakes (and off cuts for sampling!)
THE CAKE
1 cup (150g) flour
1½ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
⅜ cup (85g) unsalted butter at room temperature
⅔ cup white sugar
1 egg at room temperature
½ cup coconut milk
¾ teaspoon vanilla
Preheat oven to 175C (350F). Grease one 8" round cake pan and line bottom with baking paper.
Whisk flour, baking powder and salt together.
Beat butter and sugar on medium-high until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. If using a stand mixer, use the paddle attachment.
Add egg and mix on low until well blended. Mix in vanilla.
Add dry ingredients in 3 batches, alternating with coconut milk, starting and finishing with dry ingredients. Mix on low and finally at medium for no more than 30 seconds.
Pour into prepared pan and smooth top. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Allow to cool for 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool fully. Remove baking paper.
SOUR CREAM FILLING
2 tablespoons white sugar
2 tablespoons sour cream or yogurt
Mix together.
FLUFFY FROSTING
1 large egg white
½ cup icing sugar
⅓ teaspoon cream of tartar
½ teaspoon vanilla extract)
In a heat proof bowl, the bowl of your stand mixer or top of a double boiler, whisk together egg white, sugar and cream of tartar. Place over a pot of quietly simmering water and whisk for 3-4 minutes until fluffy and doubled in size. Then place on mixer and whisk on high speed with vanilla until very thick.
ASSEMBLY
Place cake on a cutting board and create mini-cake layers by cutting 4 circles. Depending on the size of your cutter, you will need to go quite close to the edge to get the four. If your cake hasn't baked flat, use a bread knife to level the tops of the layers. If your cake has baked tall enough, cut each round horizontally to make 2 layers. Feed offcuts to anyone lurking in the kitchen.
Place one layer, bottom side down, on a plate and cover the top with a thin layer of filling. Repeat with 2 more layers and then top with a last layer. Repeat with other layers to make a second cake. Cover with thick layer of frosting. Don’t try to make it thin, as it is sticky and will make a mess. Finally, sprinkle it coconut.
Store in fridge, but serve at room temperature.
Comments