Coconut Cake with Ginger Lime Curd
I cannot take credit for this recipe, as I found it online some time ago. I will say, however, that it is my favorite cake and one of the most delicious cakes I have ever tasted. I always get rave reviews when I make it. It is moist, flavorful, and the combination of tangy and sweet is awesome.
*The curd must be made in advance, it needs to thicken and set in the fridge overnight or at least 6 hours.*
*You can find the canned sweetened cream of coconut in the alcoholic beverage section at your grocer. It is NOT alcoholic, but it is used in mixed drinks such as Pina Coladas. The brand name is Coco Lepez*
Ingredients
- Cake:
2 3/4 cups cake flour
- 1 tsp baking powder (3/4 tsp for high altitude)
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 3/4 cups sugar
- 1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1 cup canned sweetened cream of coconut
- 4 large eggs, separated
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 cup buttermilk (add additional 4 tbsp for high altitude)
- Pinch of salt
- 4 cups shredded sweetened coconut
Preheat oven to 350. Butter and flour two 9 inch diameter cake pans with 2 inch high sides. Whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda and 1/2 tsp salt in medium bowl to blend. Using electric mixer, beat sugar, butter and cream of coconut in large bowl until fluffy. Beat in egg yolks and vanilla extract. On low speed, beat in dry ingredients and then buttermilk, each just until blended.
- Using clean dry beaters, beat egg whites in another large bowl until stiff but not dry. Fold beaten egg whites in batter.
- Divide cake batter between prepared pans. Bake about 40-45 minutes or until done. Cool cakes in pans on rack for 10 minutes, then turn out onto racks and cool completely.
Frosting:
- 2 (8 oz) packages cream cheese, room temperature
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 1/2 cup sweetened cream of coconut
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- Beat ingredients together. **I always add more powdered sugar, as I find the ingredients as listed to make a very runny frosting.**
Ginger Lime Curd
- 3 large eggs
- 3 large egg yolks
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup fresh lime juice
- 1/4 cup grated lime peel (from about 12 limes)
- 1 tbsp grated peeled fresh ginger
- 6 tbsp unsalted butter, cut into pieces, room temperature
- Whisk eggs, yolks, sugar, lime juice, lime peel, ginger in a large metal bowl to blend. Place bowl over saucepan of barely simmering water, being sure that the bottom of the bowl does not touch the water. (Or use a double boiler if you have one.) Whisk constantly until curd thickens, about 8 minutes. Remove bowl from over simmering water, whisk butter into curd. Strain through fine strainer set over a bowl, discard solids in strainer. (this is not necessary if you don’t mind the lime peels.) Press plastic wrap directly onto surface of curd, chill overnight. Can be made up to 2 days ahead. Keep in fridge.
Assembly:
- Use curd in between cake layers. Frost outsides with frosting. Press coconut onto sides and top of cake.
I made this cake and absolutely L-O-V-E-D IT! This is a super moist cake and very, very old timey! One person I gave some to said it was so good, it tasted like an old woman at an old church made it! Like it was just one of those old fashioned cakes that are classic! I didn't use the filling the recipe calls for, I have my own buttercream recipe I use and just added flaked coconut. Do yourself a favor and try this cake!
I am so glad that you liked it!!
this looks really similar to a cake that is on epicurious.com and in the yellow Gourmet cookbook. It's my go to cake for special occasions. I LOVE it. The curd is amazing.
Finally made this cake and it was great! Loved the cake, loved the frosting. (I will say that I think there was a transcription error somewhere along the way with the frosting. I believe it should read two pounds of sugar, not two cups.) The only thing I didn't like was the curd. I though it was waaay too tart. However, that being said, everyone I fed it to (and there were lots of them) loved the curd. So I guess it was just me :-) Anyway, I made both a two-layer cake and filled cupcakes and they both came out beautifully. I will definitely be making this one again!
Made this for my brother's wedding cake. It held up really well and everyone raved about it! My only addition was to add some coconut extract to bump up the flavor even more. It was so moist and yummy. Everyone loved the cake scraps!
Well, I just became a member here. This is the first recipe I've tried. I just pulled the cake out of the oven and they are cooling. They smell like macaroons. I was rereading the curd and frosting recipe and I realized I misread the cake recipe!! I put in an entire can of cream of coconut rather than a cup of canned cream of coconut! The toothpick came out clean, but I can't believe the cake won't be gooey or super dense. Now I am torn about whether to go ahead and fill and frost it or just cut the cake and see how bad it is. I'll let you know.
I went ahead and used the cake for a bake sale. I didnt taste it but it got rave reviews. I will try it again with the right amount of cr of coc. The cake was down right sticky to work with.