Best Coconut Cake Recipe for Stacking

You can stack any kind of cake including a sponge cake.  The tiers sit on the supports that you MUST build in.

So any kind of coconut cake can be stacked as long as you use correct support inside it.  Most coconut cake tastes better with a sprinkle of coconut rum or coconut simple syrup on the layers after baking.  That restores the delicate fragrance that baking cooks out.

You can use coconut milk for the fondant but remember that it will add some fat, so skip the shortening and go easy with the powdered sugar, until you have a kneadable consistency.

For your fillings, remember to make them a little stiffer, and use a heavy dam of buttercream or ganache.

I hate to say this, but...using a white cake mix (or homemade equivalent) with Thai-style coconut milk in place of both water and oil makes a fabulous cake. I add a small amount of coconut extract.  The can needs to be at room temperature and you need to shake it very well before opening.  I add a full 2 measuring cups canned milk per 18 ounce mix.  

Adding flaked coconut to the batter makes the cake more crumbly--but if you process the coconut with the flour to a fine powder, it won't be a problem. Yes I LIKE coconut cake, and to me the crumbliness is part of its unique nature.

The coconut simple syrup would then do the rest of what you would like.  Again, you could use 1/2 cup coconut milk, 1/2 cup water and 1/4 cup sugar to make this. Simmer and cool before adding 1/2 teaspoon extract.

And for delicate layers, I bake them 1" deep on parchment paper.  I start with the paper side up, and I take the parchment off after I get each layer in place. 

Check out the make-your-own mixes like

http://www.yummly.com/blog/2012/06/how-to-make-your-own-cake-mix/

I skip the salt, nobody has ever noticed

YES I have done the coconut milk sub in this recipe, it works very well.

Quote:

Originally Posted by LisaPeps 

Couldn't you doctor a white chocolate mud cake? Replace the water (and possibly some of the fat) with coconut milk and add some shredded coconut. White chocolate tends to intensify other flavours so it should lend itself well to the the coconut and the density of a mud cake should help with the crumbling issue. You could still add a simple syrup afterwards.

White chocolate mudcake is on my list of try-it recipes.  Sometime after I have recovered from the holiday baking...

I would try it with the coconut milk before I tell somebody else to do it...I have put the coconut milk into other recipes and it works so well that I feel safe in  sharing the tip.  It would be nice if somebody else has already done this experiment and can say how it turned out. 

I feel a lot safer making experiments in the kitchen than sharing them.  I have had the desperate phone calls too many times, from friends who used my substitutions and who figured that I was just throwing something together, and so could they.

I am very wary of sharing recipes for that reason.  I felt safe in posting a fruitcake recipe because I had given it to a non-baker who follows directions, and it turned out well.  I found that using coconut milk in those dry-mix recipes works well. But other posters on Cake Central have also described those dry mixes as indestructible.

I didn't mean any reflection on other suggestions.  I only know how big a disaster some people can make from a simple substitution...

These are all great recommendations, but personally, when I'm dealing with a moist cake, I like to freeze my layers.  It's just easier to torte, fill and crumb coat (zero crumbs and mess doing it this way, by the way!).  Then I put it in the fridge to let it settle for a little while and carry on as usual. Hasn't let me down yet :)