Coconut Cream Cake | The Reptile Room

Both the kitchen and the cake were still warm from baking. The cake was a magnificent thing, rich and creamy with the perfect amount of coconut.
The Reptile Room
Lemony Snicket

I’m not a huge cake eater, I much prefer the savoury side of eating and tend to find cake just not quite satisfying. However, I kind of love making cakes. Which is quite fortunate for my housemates and neighbours. This particular cake is so delicious during hot weather, the frosting is creamy, with the notes of coconut throughout creating an almost refreshing mouthful. While the cake itself isn’t too sweet.

Obviously I’m on a little bit of a Series of Unfortunate Events kick at the moment. My parents recently dropped off a lot of my childhood books that were still at their house. Including a heap from the above mentioned series. I think the finishing up of the recent Netflix series has inspired me to do a bit of a reread - I have no memory of reading some of the parts, so it’s definitely a fascinating thing to revisit. I genuinely have no idea how the book series finishes at this stage, and am super curious to whether it’s the same as the television show.

Of course I had to make Uncle Monty’s (was the death of any guardian quite as awful as this one?) coconut cream cake from The Reptile Room.

Coconut Cream Cake
Ingredients
Cake
1 1/2 cups plain flour
1 1/2 cups white sugar
2 tsp bi-carb soda
1 tsp baking powder
2 cups desiccated coconut
1 1/2 cups coconut milk
1/2 vegetable oil
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp salt
Frosting
100g vegetable shortening, softened
1/2 cup coconut cream, can kept in fridge over night, scoop the solid cream from the top
1 cup cream cheese (I used Sheese brand, but any works well)
4 cups icing sugar

Cake

1. Preheat your oven to 180C and prepare two round 18cm cake tins. I highly recommended both greasing the pans and also placing a square of baking paper at the bottom to assist in getting the cakes out.

2. Sift together the four, baking power, bi-carb soda and salt, add in the desiccated coconut, sugar and mix to combine.

3. Mix in the vegetable oil, coconut milk, vinegar and vanilla and stir. It will be quite a thick batter, but take care not to mix too much.

4. Divide the batter between both pans evenly and smooth out the top best you can - the thickness of the batter can make this a little hard but just do your best.

5. Bake for around 30 minutes, check by inserting a skewer into the middle to see if it comes out clean. Leave to cool completely before frosting.

Frosting

1. I recommend using either a stand mixer or hand mixer for this process - however it can be done by hand - it’s just hard.

2. Combine the cream cheese and the vegetable shortening in a mixer until light and fluffy.

3. Add in the icing sugar - about a cup at a time, along with spoonfuls of the coconut cream (make sure the coconut cream is properly solid when doing this).

4. Keep adding the icing sugar until it is all gone and the frosting is mixed well - but still nice and fluffy.

5. You can frost the cake however you like, I recommend a layer in-between the two cakes and some on top. While I did frost all the sides, it can be tricky to do without creating a bit of a mess and potentially ruining the cake - however as long as it tastes good does it really matter what it looks like?

6. You can decorate with a little left over desiccated coconut and kind of whatever you like. I used fresh raspberries, but that’s just because raspberries make everything better. The cake will last roughly three days before becoming stale, and tends to dry out a little if kept in the fridge. Still delicious though!