Foodie Friday: Heavenly Coconut

Happy Foodie Friday!

I recently celebrated yet another birthday (fifty two) and my birthday cake request this year was coconut cake. Not just ANY coconut cake but a delightfully light confection I had the good fortune to taste on my last trip to Hawaii. I say "taste" because Mr. Silly ordered the dessert and I restrained myself to only have a couple of bites but they were the most delectable bites I had had in months...I gave up sugar last year with the exception of an occasional bite here and there! This wonderful cake is a regular feature at a restaurant called Orchids at the Halekulani Resort in Waikiki Beach.

That was back in July and months later visions of Coconut Cake were still dancing in my head. It occurred to me that I should Google the cake and see if I could find a recipe or a reasonable facsimile. Well I not only found oodles of versions but I found THE recipe that had been published in the local Honolulu newspaper. Unfortunately, I do not have the link to that site but I DO have the recipe to share with you.

Halekulani Coconut Cake

¾ cup cake flour

1/3 cup sugar

¼ teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 egg

1/3 cup water

2 T vegetable oil

4 egg whites

¼ teaspoon cream of tartar

¼ cup sugar

Pastry Cream :

1 ½ cup milk

1 split vanilla bean

1/3 cup sugar

3 T flour

4 egg yolks

Whipped Cream:

3 cups whipping cream

3 T sugar

Preheat oven to 350° Sift together cake flour, 1/3 cup sugar, salt and baking powder. Set aside. Combine egg, water and oil; add to sifted ingredients. Mix batter until smooth.

In a separate bowl, whip egg whites, with cream of tartar. Gradually add ¼ c sugar; continue to whip to form a stiff meringue. Fold batter into meringue and mix thoroughly, pour into ungreased 9” cake pan and bake about 30 min. Invert cake onto a rack and cool.

To make pastry cream: Scrape vanilla bean seeds into milk and bring to a boil over moderate heat (add vanilla bean pod to milk as well.) Combine sugar, flour and egg yolks; whip until light yellow. Slowly pour 1/3 of the hot milk into the egg mixture to temper it. Add milk-yolk mixture back into the remaining milk and cook over moderate heat, stirring constantly until thick. Immediately remove bean pod and strain, then place in a bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Chill.

To prepare whipped cream: Whip cream and sugar until fluffy (I did it until fairly firm so that it could hold up when blended with the pastry cream!), fold 1 cup into the pastry cream, reserve the rest to frost the cake.

To assemble: Cut cooled cake into three layers. Stir ¾ cup coconut flakes into the pastry cream. Spread cream between layers of cake. Frost top and sides of cake with remaining whipped cream and sprinkle with the remaining coconut flakes.

I have to be completely honest with you, time was at a premium so I used a white cake mix. I made a single layer but used more than half of the mix in one round 9" pan. I only cake the one layer into two because I don't think that the cake mix cake would hold up if cut thinner.

The cake mix was not quite as divine as I recall the hotel version but it was still a darn good cake. I didn't hear any complaints. Even Miss Silly who had previously scoffed at the idea of a coconut cake was blown away by its yumminess. The real key to this cake is the pastry cream. My mother made coconut cake when I was a kid but hers just had the whipped cream in the middle. The pastry cream really kicks the coconut cake up big notch.

Be forewarned that vanilla beans are pricey (I paid $10 for the one I used) but compared to the $135 you could pay to have a cake FedEx-ed from Hawaii or the $9 per slice you'd pay in the restaurant, making it yourself is a bargain!

Stop by Designs By Gollum to check out the other Foodie Friday posts. Gollum has a wonderfully easy Trifle to share with you.