Coconut Cake Recipe

Scott Peacock explains us how to make a coconut cake from scratch.

Coconut Cake Recipe Audra: All these tasty dessert to start getting ready for spring especially one with a little tropical flavor so American classic Chef Scott Peacock shows us how to make a coconut cake from scratch. Scott: First of all you need a fresh coconut and you want to buy one that’s really heavy by weight and when you shake it you have a lot of water in there. Make 2 holes and that makes it all easier to get the water out. So that’s about a cup of Liquid out of this one coconut so you just want to hammer it all over the coconut and not enough to smash it though but just consistent even hammering and rotate and rounds to the entire surface. Nancy: So how do you know when you’re there? Scott: You’ll here your crack and it’ll start cracking using you can here this difference of this, this is one that I taken a little bit further and these have been covered in water so they don’t dry or oxidize and we’re just going to drain them and you want to use a light touches just a very light fine flaky grate that we’re going to use. So we’ve got our coconut cracked and grated now. We’re going to make our delicious butter layers for our cake. Nancy: Okay so what’s first. Scott: Well in here I’ve got a cut of butter that I creamed with 2 cups of sugar and now we’re going to start eggs one at a time we got 5 eggs and mix them until they’re completely incorporated and when we have a couple of milk here I’m going to go ahead and add the vanilla into the milk just to make it easier. Nancy: So is that like a couple of teaspoons? Scott: 2 teaspoons exactly so we have 3 cups of sifted cake flour that has been sifted together with 3 teaspoons of home made baking powder and a little bit of salt and just alternate the milk and the flour that exactly. So now it’s time to make our classic boil frosting for this cake. Nancy: And what’s first? Scott: Easy, easy. Some sugar 2 cups, go right into there, a little bit of cream of tartar this is going to help keep this from crystallizing. Nancy: Just mix it together. Scott: Yeah and ¾ cup of water and you want to stir this not too much turn the heat on and you just want to stir it a little bit until it is dissolved or begins to dissolve and in the meantime we’re going to start gently whipping these egg whites. We have 3 egg whites in the mixer and slowly pour this in vanilla in now. Nancy: Okay. Scott: Here’s our beautiful fresh coconut layer cake. Nancy: It’s a beautiful cake to welcome spring. I’m Nancy Hopkins for Better. Audra: That’s good and for more recipes and ideas on getting ready for spring check out better homes and garden magazine on store shelves now. Better will be right back.