Coconut Cream Cake

This cake was for my friend A who I knew for many yrs. She has the same name of my dear daughter's favourite cartoon charactor, sometimes I am wondering why dear daughter love this cartoon charactor more than others? Is it influenced by A cos she had given the doll of this cartoon charactor as birthday present when she was 2 or 3 years old? This doll was the 1st big doll she had received, the few dolls that she had was barbie dolls, so definately impressed her for seeing such big doll. I didn't buy any doll for dear daughter as I dun really wan her to be so girlie that spending all her times with dolls. Not sure is it cos of me or she is by nature, she dun play doll until she was over 4 or 5 years old and rarely play as well.


A likes anything with coconut so I had set in my mind long time ago that I am going to bake her coconut cake. I had searched for recipes since then and keep as record so that I can choose the best (base on my assumption lah) to bake during her birthday.

You see, when I need to bake a cake for special event, definately will not be a smooth journey. For this time, I nearly forgot her birthday! I was sick for the last 1 week and still not totally recover thus I didn't monitor the date at all. I got to know her birthday was around the corner just 2 days before and it was the time I knocked off from office. When on the way back, I kept recalling the ingredients that will be required for the cake (worst is I still have not decided which cake to bake :P) so that I can make the purchase before go home. Since I dun really can remember what ingredients that require so I just made the purchase based on my gut feel, those that I think are definately a must e.g. coconut milk, coconut flakes, whipping cream, lemon, fruits for deco etc.


Once after shower and dinner, I went to dig out all my recipes and searched for the suitable one, one which sound or look good and also most importantly, I will need to have the ingredients that required at home. For cake, I selected the orange coconut cake from Cooking Ninja. She shared 2 method to make this cake, i opt for the 1st method which according to her will produce light, moist and fluffy cake. For frosting, I love the outlook of the cake photo for the tropicana cake in Romancing with Cakes by Connie Leaw so I decided to use her frosting.

I baked the cake after dear daughter sleep, I was quite sleepy too but I still need to get working on it. I did not have enough time to delay for another day since I can only work on the cake late at night so one day will be for baking cake and the other day is to frost the cake.


Well, must be due to my tireness (excuses! the real reason must be due to my sucks folding skill), I had over folded the batter again :( The cake was quite dense and compact in some area rather than fluffy and soft. I overlooked of the notes from Cooking Ninja that she will reduce the amount of milk for next baking, thus the batter is very watery. It was not easy to mix well the eggwhites, I took longer that probably causing the deflating.

For Lemon Coconut Cake : Recipe adapted from Cooking Ninja.
Ingredients : Yield 6" cake pan & 12 cupcakes)
2 eggs
125g butter (softened)
50g dried schredded coconut (I used flesh coconut flakes)
250g sugar (I reduced to 120g cos I think 250g is way too sweet)
180g self raising flour
1 tbsp grated orange peel (I replaced by lemon since I dun ve orange at home)
250ml milk (I regretted that I should go ahead with my initially thinking of by replacing some with coconut milk)

Method :
1. Preheat oven at 180°C and greased a 6" round cake tin.
2. Separate the egg white and egg yolk.
3. Beat the egg yolk, softened butter and sugar together in a big bowl till it is creamy and fluffy.
4. Stir in the grated lemom peel and the coconut flakes and then add in the flour.
5. Pour in the milk and stir till combined.
6. Beat the egg white until stiff peaks formed. Fold it into the mixture till combined.
7. Bake it for about 60 minutes until the wooden stick comes out clean.
8. Leave it to cool for 10 minutes before turning it out on the wire rack.

For Frosting : Recipe from Romancing with Cakes by Connie Leaw.
Ingredients :
50g milk
50g coconut milk
1/2 tbsp gelatin powder (mix with 2tbsp boiling water)
200g whipping cream

Method :
1. Warm the milk and coconut milk (do not overheat).
2. Add in dissolved gelatin and mix well.
3. Whip the cream and mix well with coconut milk mixture.

To Assemble :
1. Slice the cake into 2.
2. Apply sugar syrup on the cake to keep the cake moist.
3. Apply coconut cream on each layer of cake and sprinke some coconut flakes, chill for 30 mins.
4. Cover the cake with the remaining coconut milk and decorate with coconut flakes.
5. Chill the cake till serve.

* The whipped cream became a bit running after I added in the coconut mixture, thus I had to chill in the fridge to harden for easy spreading.
** I only used up 1/2 portion of the whipped cream.

Verdict?
The cake is full of the aroma of lemon and I can tasted the cruncy coconut flakes during each bite. The sweetness of the cake is just nice for me and the cake tasted good, I believe it will taste so much nicer if it is not deflated.
A was so impressed when she saw the cake especially was a coconut cake :). She said the cake was well received by her family, even her 3 yrs old son kept asking for more. A feedback was the cake will be perfect if the the texture is slightly more fluffy.