This cake makes me think of Christmas in a hot country lol, 😂 mainly as the cake is covered in desiccated coconut which looks like snow and as it’s a coconut cake it always makes me think of a desert island somewhere. I know, totally odd combination right? I have been Christmas in a hot country once and really didn’t enjoy it, as much as I hate feeling cold, it just didn’t feel like Christmas at all.
I’ve always wanted to make a Raffello cake, I like the taste and textures of them and how they are crisp, light and creamy. I wanted to incorporate these into the cake. But the main feature being coconut of course, I wanted the cake to be spongy and taste of coconut through and through!
I adjusted the recipe slightly, I added malibu to make it more coconutty (and desert island theme of course 💁🏽) and slightly alcoholic. I also added coconut wafers in between the layer to recapture the taste of them Raffellos. These are all optional but I just wanted to I bring extra elements. Of course, I made cream cheese frosting, my fav and it works so much better as it’s creamy yum yum 😋 😋 😋 .
This cake was really moist and coconutty, if you love coconuts you will like this cake. I couldn’t taste the Malibu that much but I didn’t want to alter the texture and add too much Malibu as it could have made the cake too wet.
- 170g - soft unsalted butter
- 2 cups - plain flour
- 11/2 tsp - baking powder
- 1/2 tsp - salt
- 1 cup - caster sugar
- 1/2 tsp - vanilla extract
- 3 large - eggs
- 2 tbsp - Malibu
- 1 cup - canned coconut milk (reserve remaining from can)
- 11/2 cups - sweetened shredded coconut
- 2-23/4 cups - icing sugar
- 115g - soft unsalted butter
- 230g - cream cheese
- 1/2 - 1 cup - Desiccated Coconut
- 12 - coconut wafers
- 6 - Raffellos
- 1. Preheat oven to 175°gas/160°fan. Grease and line three 7" tins or 2 8" tins.
- 2. In a medium bowl sift the flour, baking powder, and salt.
- 3. In a stand mixer or handheld, beat together the butter for 2 minutes on medium speed. Add in the granulated sugar and beat on medium speed for 5 minutes so it's light and creamy. Add in the vanilla extract. Beat in one egg at a time, beating well after each addition. (scrap down the bowl as needed).
- 3. Add in the sifted flour mixture and coconut milk in three additions on low speed. Add 1/3 flour, 1/2 cup milk, 2 tbsp Malibu, 1/3 flour, 1/2 cup milk and finish with the remaining flour. Do not overmix.
- 4. Fold in the 11/2 cups shredded coconut. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 20-25 minutes. Allow the cake to cool completely before decorating.
- 1. Whisk the butter for a few mins at a high speed, add the icing sugar on a slow speed at first then once incorporated change to fast speed, make sure it's smooth and free from lumps.
- 2. Add the cream cheese and whip until smooth.
- 1. Put one layer of the cake on a cake board or plate then add a quarter of the frosting and spread around the cake. Add 4 crushed wafers, then add the next layer, repeat for the other two layers. Spread the remaining 1/4 frosting all around the cake. Then add desiccated coconut all around the cake. Then add Raffellos, best to add them when serving the cake as they tend to get dry.
