Excellent coconut cake with a vintage flavor.
| Prep Time: | 30 mins |
| Cook Time: | 20 mins |
| Additional Time: | 2 hrs 10 mins |
| Total Time: | 3 hrs |
| Servings: | 12 |
| Yield: | 1 9-inch layer cake |
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups white sugar
- 2 eggs
- 4 egg yolks
- 1 cup milk
- ½ cup butter
- 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 ¾ cups white sugar
- ½ cup water
- 4 egg whites, room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon cream of tartar
- 2 cups sweetened flaked coconut, or as needed
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease three 9-inch round cake pans.
- Mix sugar, eggs, and egg yolks together in a mixing bowl using an electric mixer until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes.
- Heat milk and butter in saucepan over low heat until butter melts, 2 to 3 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool slightly.
- Combine flour and baking powder in a bowl. Pour into egg mixture. Add vanilla extract and milk mixture; beat well using an electric mixer. Divide batter evenly among the prepared pans.
- Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cakes comes out clean, 15 to 18 minutes. Let cool in pans for 10 minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.
- Meanwhile, thoroughly clean mixing bowl and beaters. Beat egg whites and cream of tartar with an electric mixer until foamy.
- Bring sugar and water to a boil in a saucepan. Boil until a candy thermometer reads 242 degrees F (116 degrees C), 3 to 4 minutes.
- Beat egg whites on high speed. Carefully pour in hot sugar mixture in the side of the bowl, avoiding the beaters; continue to beat on high until stiff peaks form, 6 to 8 minutes. Stir in vanilla extract.
- Place 1 cooled cake layer on a serving platter and frost the top. Repeat with second and third layers of cake. Complete frosting the sides, top, and throughout. Sprinkle coconut on top and smooth onto sides of cake using your hands.
- For best results for the frosting, make sure the bowl and egg beaters are clean with no trace of grease and the egg whites have no streaks of yolk. Room temperature egg whites will hold more volume than cold eggs.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 475 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 82 g |
| Cholesterol | 118 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 2 g |
| Protein | 7 g |
| Saturated Fat | 9 g |
| Sodium | 252 mg |
| Sugars | 60 g |
| Fat | 14 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
cake is not crumbly enough – too heavy. I would suggest adding cornstarch to flour.
This was just ok for hubby and me. The cake part itself is pretty good, albeit a bit sweet, but the frosting was not a favorite. It had the consistency of a melted marshmallow, which made it somewhat difficult to spread on the cake. And once the layers were stacked on top of each other, the frosting just oozed out the sides, making a mess of things. It was also very sweet, with not much flavor other than sugar. I would also enjoy more coconut flavor throughout the cake and frosting, instead of just putting some coconut on the outside. Overall though, I could see making this again, but with a few tweaks.