- Prep: 2 hour 30 min
- Chill: 2 hours
- Cook: 45 min
- Total: About 5 hours 15 min
- Serves 16
- Two Hours Before Starting
- 8 large eggs, room temperature
- 1 cup whole milk, room temperature
- Two hours before you plan on making the cake, remove eggs and milk from fridge and let come to room temperature.
- 1 pound (4 sticks) butter
- Place butter on a plate and let rise to room temperature to soften.
- Cake Pan and Oven Prep
- vegetable shortening
- flour
- parchment or wax paper
- Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat oven to 350°F. Generously grease three 9 inch cake pans with vegetable shortening and cover pan bottoms with rounds of parchment paper or wax paper. Grease parchment rounds, dust cake pans with flour, and tap out excess.
- Batter
- ½ cup pineapple juice (from can of crushed pineapple)
- Drain a can of crushed pineapple. Reserve crushed pineapple for cake assembly. Put juice in a small saucepan and cook over medium-high heat until reduced in half, about 6 minutes.
- ½ cup shredded coconut
- Pour reduced pineapple juice into a small bowl or measuring cup and add coconut. Mix until coconut is evenly coated. Set aside
- reserved eggs
- reserved milk
- 3 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 teaspoons coconut extract
- In a small bowl, whisk together eggs, milk, vanilla, and coconut. Set aside
- 3 ½ cups cake flour
- 3 cups sugar
- 4 teaspoons baking powder
- 2 teaspoons salt
- In a large bowl, whisk together sugar, cake flour, baking powder, and salt.
- reserved butter
- Add butter and use a pastry blender to cut the butter into small, pea-sized pieces with the flour.
- 1 ½ cups of reversed egg-milk-vanilla mixture
- Add 1 ½ cups of reserved egg-milk-vanilla mixture and mix at lowest speed with a hand mixer until incorporated, 5 to 10 seconds.
- remaining egg-milk-vanilla-mixture
- Increase speed to high, add remaining egg mixture, and beat until light and fluffy, about 1 minute.
- Stop mixer and thoroughly scrape sides and bottom of bowl. Beat on medium-high until thoroughly combined and batter looks slightly curdled, about 15 seconds longer.
- reserved coconut-pineapple mixture
- Add reserved coconut-pineapple mixture and mix with a spatula to combine.
- Baking
- Pour equal amounts of batter (about 2 cups) into three prepared cake pans. Spread batter to sides of pan and smooth with rubber spatula.
- Bake until top of cakes turn golden brown and a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, about 25 minutes. Cakes may rise in center slightly but will level when cooled.
- Remove pan from oven and cool on rack for 10 minutes. Run a knife around the perimeter of the pan to loosen. Invert cake onto large plate, peel off parchment, and reinvert onto lightly greased rack. Cool completely before decorating.
- Coconut Pudding (for Filling)
- 1 ½ cups heavy cream
- ½ cup milk
- ⅔ cup sugar
- pinch of salt
- In a medium saucepan, whisk heavy cream, milk, sugar and salt. Cook over medium-low heat, whisking occasionally, until mixture just begins to steam, about 10 mins.
- ½ cup heavy cream
- 3 tablespoons cornstarch
- In a separate bowl or measuring cup, combine cornstarch and heavy cream. Whisk until smooth and there are no lumps.
- Add cornstarch mixture to saucepan and cook, stirring occasionally, until pudding starts to thicken and barely reaches a boil, about 5 minutes.
- Immediately reduce heat to very low and stir for 5 minutes or so until thickened.
- ½ tablespoon coconut extract
- Remove from heat and stir in coconut extract
- Pour pudding into a 1-quart dish. Cover tightly with plastic wrap directly on the surface to prevent skin from forming.
- Refrigerate until chilled, about 2 hours.
- Coconut Frosting
- 5 tablespoons flour
- 1 cup milk
- In a small saucepan, whisk flour and milk.
- Cook over medium-high heat, stirring constantly, until it it is as thick as brownie batter, about 3 to 5 minutes. (Once it gets hot enough, mixture will thicken in about 30 seconds so be sure to keep stirring and remain by the stove.)
- 1 teaspoon coconut extract
- Stir in coconut extract once mixture has thickened.
- Remove from heat and let it cool to room temperature. The thickened milk mixture must be cooled completely before you continue.
- 1 cup butter (2 sticks)
- 1 cup sugar (not powdered sugar!)
- While the mixture is cooling, use an electric hand mixer to cream the butter and sugar together in a medium bowl until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
- Add cooled milk mixture to creamed sugar mixture. Using an electric hand mixer, beat the frosting until it is very light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Stop periodically and scrap down the sides of the bowl.
- Assembly and Decorating
- reserved coconut pudding
- ½ cup crushed pineapple
- Once completely cool, place one layer of cake a plate or serving platter. Top cake with about half of the coconut pudding. Sprinkle and spread ½ cup of crushed pineapple on top of the pudding.
- reserved coconut pudding
- ½ cup crushed pineapple
- Place another layer of cake on top of the pudding and top with most of the remaining pudding and an additional ½ cup of pineapple. Depending on how much filling you want, you may have leftover pudding that someone will have to eat (oh the horror).
- reserved coconut frosting
- ¼ cup shredded coconut, or more as desired (30g=(14g)}
- Place final layer of cake on top and decorate cake with frosting. Sprinkle top of cake with shredded coconut as desired..
- Serve immediately or refrigerate until ready to serve. Leftover cake will keep for up to a week in the fridge.
Read more of A Christmas Blog or Shop Now at Schmidt Christmas Market
Licensed from https://www.makebetterfood.com/recipes/coconut-pineapple-cake/