Thursday, January 3, 2008

Coconut Tea Cake


I've had my eye on this recipe for a while now, but never quite got around to making it, which is too bad because it's quite good and pretty easy to put together. One of the reasons I made it tonight was that I knew a friend of mine (Lauren) who frequently misses out on the goodies at work, will be around tomorrow and she likes coconut. Well, that and I had all the ingredients on hand. :)

This is basically a pound-cake with coconut milk and shredded coconut. The flavor that comes through the most is actually the rum which is fine by me. Like most pound cakes it's a touch dry, but Dorie seems to like them that way since she mentions in her notes that it's good with coffee, and after drying out a day or two, great dipped in the coffee biscotti style. It's not nearly as dry as the regular pound cake from the Dorie book, but it's got nothing on the best pound cake I have had to date -- JB's Sour Cream Pound Cake, which I have yet to make...

Overall it's a good recipe and worth repeating. When I get around to making it again though I will probably try one of the variations Dorie offers such as adding grated lemon, lime, or orange zest and juice or even toasted sesame seeds.

Ingredients:
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
1 cup canned unsweetened coconut milk (stir well before measuring)
1/2 stick (4 tbsp) unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces
4 large eggs, preferably at room temp
2 cups sugar
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
2 tsps dark rum
3/4 cup shredded coconut (unsweetened or sweetened), toasted or not

Preheat oven to 350. Butter a 9-10 inch (10-12 cup) Kugelhopf or Bundt pan.

Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together.

Pour the coconut milk into a small saucepan, add the butter and heat until the milk is hot and the butter melted. Remove from the heat, but keep warm.

Working with a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the eggs and sugar at medium-high speed until pale, thick and almost doubled in volume, about 3 minutes. Beat in the vanilla and the rum. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the dry ingredients, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed and stopping just when the flour disappears.

Keeping the mixer on low, add the coconut, mixing only until blended, then steadily add the hot milk and butter. When the mixture is smooth, stop mixing and give the batter a couple of turns with a rubber spatula, just to make certain that any ingredients that might have fallen to the bottom of the bowl are incorporated. Pour the batter into the pan and give the pan a few back and forth shakes to even the batter.

Bake for 60-65 minutes, or until the cake is golden brown and a thin knife inserted deep into the center comes out clean. Transfer the cake to a rack and cool for 10 minutes before unmolding onto the rack to cool to room temp.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I made a coconut pound cake with a cup of coconut milk once. Let's just say I spent lots of time in the bathroom.

Anonymous said...

actually, it's a cream cheese pound cake, not a sour cream pound cake, but i thank you.  i wish i could tell you where i got the recipe but i have no idea.  maybe out of the newspaper.  meanwhile, this looks good, and i thank lauren for the inspiration :)-jb

mira said...

mm that was really yummy. i didn't have time to stop by to grab some myself today, but candy snitched me a tiny slice (tiny cuz of my non-coconut-liking status), and i JUST ate it. i told russ i brought him home some, but actually after i "tried" it, well all he got was a tiny bite-- i didn't even want to let him have that tiny bit! haha! i now regret not having gone to get a full slice!! coconut pieces, i'm not a big fan of, but coconut milk in this pound cake? seriously yummy!

Anonymous said...

wow. melissa converted mira to the cause of choconut. well done!

Anonymous said...

the cream cheese pound cake was gooood...but so was the coconut tea cake. =) ...the flavor of coconut without (too much) of the actual coconut pieces - just the way i like it.

\(^o^)/

Unknown said...

Thanks for the coconut cake! I feel so special that I (partially) inspired your decision to make this. It was really good! AND I got a shout-out in your blog. I was going to say my birthday should come around more often, but then I realized that I am now 30... :P - Lauren