Coconut Layer Cake Filled with Lemon Curd
I’ve been loving layer cakes recently. In the past I always felt like I needed a special occasion to make a layer cake. But I got some 6″ cake pans for Christmas this year. When you make a 6″ cake, it serves 8, which is perfect for a dinner party.
I also have the opinion that when making a layer cake, you might as well go all out and make it into 4 layers. I mean, seriously, who wants just two layers of cake when you can have four! What that really means is that you’ll have more layers of the good stuff – the filling!
We had friends M&M over for dinner and I served this cake for dessert. We all enjoyed the lightness of the cake. It was the perfect ending to the meal and would be great for any of the upcoming Spring holidays.
I used my go-to white cake recipe except used coconut extract in the cake. Then I filled the cake with some lemon curd and added toasted coconut to the outside of the cake. I love adding some garnish to the sides of a cake. Then it doesn’t matter how good or bad you are at frosting the sides of a cake.
In case you were wondering, a 6″ cake uses a half batch necessary for a 9″ cake. I always use my cupcake scoop to portion out batter. Nine inch cakes are equivalent to 12 cupcakes per layer and six inch cakes are equivalent to 6 cupcakes per layer. Note the recipe below is for a full sized 9″ two-layer cake. Cut in half for a 6″ double-layer cake.
I filled the cake with this lemon curd and used this vanilla buttercream frosting recipe.
One Year Ago: White Cupcakes and Spring M&M Pretzel Treats
Two Years Ago: Sugar Cookie Bars, Goat Cheese and Sundried Tomato Appetizers, and Fauxstess Cupcakes
Three Years Ago: Summer Squash
Coconut Cake
Yield: 8
Ingredients:
2 1/4 cups cake flour
1 cup + 2 tablespoons whole milk, at room temperature
6 large egg whites (3/4 cup), at room temperature
2 tsp coconut extract
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups + 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp table salt
12 Tbsp unsalted butter, softened but still cool
Directions:
Set oven rack in middle position. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare two 9" cake pans with parchment and butter.
Pour milk, egg whites, and extracts into 2-cup glass measure, and mix with fork until blended.
Mix cake flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in bowl of electric mixer at slow speed. Add butter; continue beating at slow speed until mixture resembles moist crumbs, with no powdery streaks remaining.
Add all but 1/2 cup of milk mixture to crumbs and beat at medium speed (or high speed if using handheld mixer) for 1½ minutes. Add remaining ½ cup of milk mixture and beat 30 seconds more. Stop mixer and scrape sides of bowl. Return mixer to medium (or high) speed and beat 20 seconds longer.
Divide batter evenly into prepared pans. Bake until thin skewer or toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 25-30 minutes.
Cool completely prior to frosting.
Recipe adapted from The Way the Cookie Crumbles
I am Jen the Beantown Baker. Engineer by day and baking maven by night. Hubby serves as my #1 fan and official taste tester. We got hitched back in 2006. Barefoot. In the sand. With the waves crashing behind us. It was one of the best decisions we’ve ever made. 
it looks delicious!
Beautiful cake! I can’t get over the ending either, too soon!
beantownbaker — December 26th, 2013 @ 10:56 am
Right! It happens every year, but I feel like this year flew by especially quickly.
Wow – super gorgeous!! I’m so glad you love this cake as much as I do! Happy Christmas and almost New Years, doll!!
beantownbaker — December 26th, 2013 @ 10:58 am
Happy Holidays to you too!
This cake looks so beautiful and I bet it tastes divine 🙂 can’t wait to try it!
definitely perfect for new years! i can’t believe this year is almost over, either- crazy!
this is perfect for our holiday-the Florida strawberries have been so sweet – thank you
beantownbaker — January 2nd, 2014 @ 1:31 pm
I wish I lived somewhere where the strawberry season was longer than a few weeks…
I was just thinking, what if we made this w/pink champagne?
beantownbaker — January 2nd, 2014 @ 1:30 pm
I think it would be great with pink champagne!
I know what you mean we grew up and lived in Michigan all our lives. When our kids were little I would take them to the farms to pick blueberries, raspberries and apples. The strawberry season was always short or not at all due to the wet springs we so often had. But we did get farm fresh ones at our local farm market. I now live in Central Florida where I’m learning so much about fresh grown foods. We live a few blocks from Oviedo where DUDA farms are. They are known especially for their celery but so many other fresh veggies. We have a few local farms where you can pick strawberries and blueberries. The gulf coast really has a lot of strawberry farms. On Tuesday our local Publix store had Florida fresh strawberries on sale. I just cleaned them last night (I think my husband took about 1/2 of them to work) We are fortunate, but I still miss Michigan and all the farming communities in our area.
beantownbaker — January 4th, 2014 @ 10:38 am
Wow – I bet things in FL are very different than Michigan! We can usually get strawberries at the farmers market as well. But again, it’s SUCH a short season. Last year we missed it completely. I’m still adjusting to the different seasonal timing in Ohio vs what it was in Boston. We always make a point to pick strawberries, blueberries, peaches, and apples. Peaches and strawberries are two of my favorite summertime fruits.
Woah, thanks a bunch for sharing!
I made this cake for my girlfriend’s surprise birthday party, and it was freaking delicious. Granted this was my first cake I have ever baked, but there wasn’t enough frosting to cover the whole thing and keep part of the actual cake from showing through. I don’t even like cake, and this was bomb!
This CAKE IS THE BOMB!!!!, I found this online in 2014. I showed it to my twin sister, I said, I won’t this for our B-Day, but we didn’t have it until September 2015, and again this year. So delicious, my son Loves it as well, we’re making it tomorrow December 28th 2015 for his birthday. Yummmmy!