Baking Coconut Cake

The finished coconut cake. Have a knife?

Thursday we’re celebrating Zoey’s (my oldest granddaughter) birthday. So today I’m baking a cake. A coconut cake that will have an orange filling. Here’s where you can find the recipe I used http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Six-Layer-Coconut-Cake/Detail.aspx. It makes an awesome cake.

Pull out the flour, butter, eggs & other ingredients and get started. In a very short time, I have cake batter ready to pour into 3 8-inch cake pans. Carefully place the pans into the preheated oven & bake the cake layers. While my coconut cake bakes, I work on cooking the filling. As soon as the filling is finished, I put it in the refrigerator to cool.

Coconut cake cooling in pans.

In a short time, the coconut cake layers are ready to come out of the oven. I place them on the wire racks to cool before removing them from the pans. After the layers are removed from the cake pans, I let them cool completely. In the meantime, I clean a spot on the counter.

I had lots of oranges so used fresh orange juice.

Once the coconut cake is completely cooled, I pull the layers over to the newly cleaned spot on the counter. I dig out my cake leveler & set it for cutting the 3 layers in half. Once the initial cut into the crust is made, it’s easy going. Just have to be careful & watch what you’re doing. Go too fast & the cake will move on you.

The cake leveler sits on top of the cake layer that is now 2 tiers.

Now that cake is cut is cut into the proper number of tiers, I start filling the cake. Place the bottom tier on a cake board & a third of a cup of the filling on top of it. Gently spread it until it covers the cake. Take the top of that layer & gently place it on top. Spread a third of a cup of the orange filling on top of it. The bottom tier of a layer goes on it. Continue stacking cake tiers & filling until the last tier is in place.

Stacked & filled layers of coconut cake with orange filling.

Now it’s time to make the frosting. Pull out the candy thermometer as it will be a necessary tool for making the frosting. Combine all the ingredients but the vanilla in a large pot & start cooking. I use the directly over low heat method; if you prefer, you can use a double boiler. Very carefully beat on low speed with an electric mixer. It’s a bit of a pain because you have to be careful to stay away from the candy thermometer. Don’t want a diaster!

After the frosting reaches 160 degrees in temperature, it’s time to pull it off the stove & pour into a large mixing bowl. Add the vanilla & turn your mixer up to high speed. Beat until you get lovely stiff peaks. This will take somewhere around 7 minutes. Your frosting is now ready for the cake!

Another look at the finished coconut cake.

Spread the icing on the top & the sides of the cake generously. Once that’s finished, it’s time to either sprinkle or cover the cake with shredded coconut. Which you do, will depend on how much your family likes coconut. I cover mine because I love coconut. You know the old saying “you eat what the cook likes”. Now all I need is a certain grandchild who’s celebrating her birthday & we’ll have cake.

Tags: allrecipes.com, cake, cake leveler, coconut cake, family, grandchild, icing, orange filling, shredded coconut, zoey