Going Away Cake

A friend from work who makes AMAZING cakes (by amazing we're talking cute little things cut out of fondant and deliciously lovely layers of heaven) was moving on to bigger and better things. I volunteered to make the cake for the going away party. I lack any and all skills related to arts and crafts and making things cute, so I decided I had to make it at least taste super-awesome. It may look like a pile of weirdness, but it proved to be a hit. I got more than one request for the recipe, and at least one homosexual marriage proposal. Which brings my homosexual marriage proposal record up to one, but that's for a different blog.

(I hope you can't tell much from the picture that it's lopsided. My oven is tilted, and everything cooks at a slight angle. I can line them up with two layers so you can't tell, but with three, it's just going to be a little tilty.)



So I figured the cake to go with was a coconut cake. My grandma used to make coconut cakes, and my mom says they was her favorite. I know that coconut is one of those divisive foods; people love it or loathe it. I am a fan, and I was making the cake, so coconut it was.. For this recipe, I decided to make one of those old-fashioned frostings that are a little harder to find. IT IS TOTALLY WORTH THE EFFORT. The cake itself is sort of like an angel food cake, I think, and I don't remember coconut cakes being like that. I think it worked, though, especially with the textures of the filling, icing, and coconut. This recipe is a mishmash of recipes from my favorite cookbook, Calling All Cooks, minus the booze. That's all me.





Cake:
2 3/4 C sifted cake flour
4 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
3/4 butter or shortening, room temp
1 1/2 C sugar separated into 1 and 1/2 cup
4 egg whites (room temp, though easier to separate while cold)
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp almond extract
1 C milk or coconut milk (I used 1% milk)

Sift together flour, baking powder, salt three times. (I sifted flour once and mixed the rest really well. My sifter is smaller, so screw that.) Cream butter and one cup of the sugar. Beat egg whites until fluffy, add remaining 1/2 c sugar gradually. Beat until stiff peaks. Add flavorings to milk; add milk mixture alternately with flour mixture to creamed mixture. Beat well; fold egg white mixture into batter. Pour batter into 3 greased (I also floured) round 8 inch cake pans (I used 9 in). Bake in 350* oven for 25 to 30 minutes. cool on cake racks for 15 mins in pans. Turn out onto wire racks for remainder of cooling.

While it's baking, toast a bag of coconut in a pan over medium to med-high heat. It takes a while to get to toasting, but then it goes fast, so be careful. If you're anything like me, you've only bought one bag of coconut, and if you burn it you either have to have burned-coconut cake or coconutless cake. We'll call it coconeuter cake. Either way, not good.

Filling:
1/2 package cream cheese, room temp
1 tsp milk
1 tbsp vanilla
1 3/4 C powdered sugar
2 tbsp Cointreau
1 C toasted coconut
1 Tbsp butter

Mix all this stuff together. I found it to be a little thin after I'd beat it all together, so I stuck it in the freezer to firm up some while I was waiting on the cake to cool. The recipe I was adapting called for lemon zest and juice instead of Cointreau. Shockingly, I know, I didn't have those, and I did have Cointreau. The amount that I used of it is a guess. I just poured, mixed, and tasted until it seemed orange-y enough to me.


Frosting:
The frosting was the most daunting part to me. The words double boiler scared me, but this was actually the easiest part of the whole ordeal. I'll definitely use it again. It's a really pretty frosting, even without the coconut.

In a metal bowl, combine:
3/4 C sugar
1/4 C light corn syrup
2 egg whites
2 Tbsp. water
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
1/4 tsp salt

Place over boiling water, beating with a hand mixer on medium until it stands in stiff peaks, about 7 minutes/ Remove from heat. Add 1 tsp vanilla, and beat until spreading consistency. Spread on completely cooled and filled cake, and mash the rest of your coconut into the frosting.

Enjoy!