quadruple coconut cake

I’ve been really trying to get away from screens lately as I think that they, along with cars, are one of the most detrimental devices to human health. Perhaps that’s why I’ve been undertaking long baking projects like this quadruple coconut cake from Claire Saffitz’ Dessert Person. Like the carrot cake, I decided to bake it in 6-inch pants instead of the recommended 8-inch pan so I could have two smaller cakes, which is a much more reasonable serving size for pandemic-sized gatherings! And since I only have one 6-inch round pan, this means that instead of baking 3 8-inch cakes, I had to bake 6 6-inch cakes sequentially. So by the time the cake bakes and cools, and I wash and line and fill the cake pan, this is a several hours’ long process. But the cake is really stunning!

I call it a quadruple coconut cake because it features four different forms of coconut: fresh coconut, dried coconut, coconut milk, and coconut oil. The cake itself is a fairly straight-forward white cake with coconut milk and oil in it. The filling is both fresh coconut (finally found in the freezer section of my local Asian supermarket after an abject failure trying to extract fresh coconut meat from a coconut water fad I fell for) and a coconut version of crème pâtissière (reduce some full-fat coconut milk by about half and then substitute half of the dairy milk with that, and substitute coconut oil for the butter). The three cake layers are split (done successfully for the first time in my life this time!) and then soaked with more coconut milk. The frosting is a straight-forward cream cheese buttercream but then my messy cake decorating skills are gracefully hidden by loads of toasted, flaked coconut. The result is a pretty, adult celebration cake.

I don’t love coconut desserts, so I’m not really sure why I decided to go through the trouble of making this cake, which took me three days (also, I got to wash my hammer, crowbar, screwdriver, and hacksaw - so I guess that was a bonus?!). In the end, it’s a delicious cake with great texture and lightly sweet coconut flavors. Andy was a big fan, as was a friend of ours I shared it with.