Coconut & Vanilla Bean Cake

 

After a crazy hectic day yesterday at Faith birthday party I'm so glad for today.

A nice relaxing day while she is completely entertained by her new toys.

Although she is still running around today kicking balloons and shouting 'Party!'

Her birthday isn't actually till tomorrow but that's just giving me more reasons to give her another little celebration.

Now after last year, when I got lazy and decided to get someone else to make her birthday cake, I thought this year I have to make one. And it had to be special.

This cake is certainly special.

The buttercream, because of the vanilla bean, tastes like ice cream and the cake itself was so moist but not overly sweet at all.

Of course I had to make it more kid friendly and what says kids birthday more than anything else?

Lashings of M&Ms, That's what.

And with a whole carton of coconut cream in it, It's definitely a decadent cake.

Because this uses egg whites to create the fluffiness in the cake, when it comes out of the oven it does shrink a little but this is Ok, It's supposed to do this.

It's totally worth the extra little bit of effort for this cake.

The coconut flavour isn't overbearing and the icing goes perfectly with it.

Personally I'd eat this all day everyday if I could.

But I think my jeans would have something else to say.

We didn't cut the cake till after 4pm, So once it came out it was swiftly devoured.

So the birthday girl enjoyed her party and the cake was a success.

And we managed to get a family shot before Faith snatched all the M&Ms of the top of the cake.

Ingredients:

For the Cake:

225g / 1 Cup Butter (softened)

350g / 1 3/4 Cup Caster Sugar

200g / 8oz Coconut Cream

1 Tsp Coconut Flavouring

4 Eggs

320g / 2 1/2 Cup Plain Flour

1 1/2 Tsp Baking Powder

200ml / 3/4 Cup Whole Milk

For the Vanilla Bean Buttercream:

250g / 1 Cup + 1 Tbsp Butter (Softened)

400g / 3 Cups + 2 Tbsp Icing Sugar

3 Tbsp Whole Milk

1 Vanilla Bean

1 Tsp Vanilla Extract

Method:

Preheat your oven to 170c / 340f. Grease and flour 3 20cm round cake tins and line the bottom with greaseproof paper.

Separate your eggs and set aside the whites to come to room temperature (this is so your egg whites reach their full volume when you whisk them)

In a large mixing bowl beat together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. 

Then beat in the egg yolks, Coconut Cream and Coconut flavouring.

Now sift in the flour and baking powder and fold until just incorporated.

Then add the milk.

Now in a clean glass bowl whisk up your egg whites to a stiff peak consistency, then fold them very gently into the cake batter.

Evenly distribute the cake batter between your 3 tins and bake on the middle shelf for 35 - 45 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean.

If your oven isn't big enough to fit all 3 tins on the middle shelf just bake them one at a time.

Allow the cake to cool in the tin for 20 minutes then remove from the tin and pop the cakes onto a wire rack to cool fully.

While they are cooling you can make up the buttercream.

In a bowl beat your softened butter until light and fluffy.

Add your vanilla extract and scrape out the seeds from the vanilla pod and pop them into the bowl as well.

The slowly add the icing sugar. Once all the icing sugar is incorporated add your milk a tablespoon at a time till you reach the consistency of frosting you need.

Now beat your buttercream for as long as you can, as fast as you can. This will make the frosting light and fluffy.

Now that your cakes have cooled you can ice your cake.