This week’s Sweet Melissa Sundays was chosen by Karen of Karen’s Cakes Cookies & More: fluffy coconut cake with passion fruit filling. In a move that won’t surprise anyone who knows me, I waited until the last minute to make this cake. I was working as quickly as possible to put it together yesterday afternoon, racing against the clock to finish before I lost the natural light to photograph it. One of the nice things about this cake, however, is that it didn’t have to be that way. Had I planned ahead, I could have made each of the individual components ahead of time and simply assembled the cake yesterday afternoon.
Speaking of components, this cake has three. First, there’s the cake itself, a basic white cake recipe. I scaled back the recipe, making just 1/4 and baking the layers in two 4.5″ springform pans. I wound up with extra batter, and discovered I’d overfilled the pans slightly when they overflowed (just barely) in the oven. Next time I’ll probably either use three 4.5″ pans or go with just two layers in larger pans (maybe 6″?). Sandwiched between the layers of the cake is a fruit filling. The recipe called for passion fruit, but I went with lime because as hard as I tried, I couldn’t find passion fruit juice anywhere. Where the full recipe called for 7 egg yolks and 2 whole eggs, I used 1 egg yolk and 1 whole egg in my 1/4-sized batch to make the division of the eggs easier and it worked perfectly. The filling reminded me of curd, but unlike curd recipes I’ve made in the past, didn’t include any butter. Finally, the entire cake is covered in coconut cream cheese frosting. I confess that I didn’t use the frosting from the book as it called for cream of coconut, which I didn’t have on hand. I turned instead to my go-to cream cheese icing from Martha Stewart (you can find the recipe here). The only coconut in my cake was the flakes I threw on after it was frosted.
I almost sat out this week since I was so short on time, but I’m glad I baked along to discover this white cake recipe. It is without a doubt one of my favorite cakes I’ve made – tender and moist, but with a tight, sturdy crumb – in one word, delicious! The filling was just ok for me, perhaps it would have been better with the passion fruit. Of course I loved the cream cheese frosting, I just wasn’t sure it was the right choice for this cake. The components didn’t work together as well as I’d have liked. I’ll absolutely use the white cake recipe again though, maybe with a raspberry or strawberry filling (jam would be easy) and buttercream frosting.
Thanks to Karen for hosting this week! She will share the recipe on her blog today or you can find it on pages 96-99 of The Sweet Melissa Baking Book. We’re off to Shane’s last big race of the year this morning – a marathon – and it looks like the weather will be perfect! Hope everyone enjoys their Sunday 🙂
PERFECT!!! it looks too good to resist!
Your cake looks lovely and that filling looks luscious.
Your little cake is beautiful! I agree with you that this cake manages to be light but still have a tight crumb. I had a little trouble finding passion fruit juice too, but was able to grab a bottle at a latin grocery store.
You wait until the last moment??? LOL. And here I thought you were just doing that to keep me company. The cake looks really good, I love lime and coconut!
That’s one beautiful cake!
That’s a beautiful cake! Coconut and lime go so well together…I love your adaptation!
Your little mini cake is ADORABLE. I love that you made such small versions of the deserts and they always look perfect.
coconut is high on our list of favs.
I didn’t bake this week because we’re not coconut fans. Now I am sorry I didn’t. I am always looking for a good cake recipe. this looks beautiful. Love the small version.
Hope Shane’s marathon went well!!
Holy cow, this looks delicious!! What a perfect little cake!!
I was all prepared to dislike this (because, you know, coconut) until you mentioned that the coconut was only skin deep. =P I’ll have to try the white cake recipe to see how it compares with my favorite (from The Cake Bible). And the lime filling sounds delicious.
what a cute mini cake! i was trying to figure out how to describe the cake and i think you hit it right on the nail! tender, moist, light, with a tight crumb 🙂
This looks fabulous, what a beautiful little cake!
Your mini cake looks perfect, so cute! There was quite a bit of batter – I got eight good-size cupcakes out of a quarter recipe. I was even later than you, I didn’t make the cake until today. I am totally a procrastinator, but it seems like we always have a backlog of treats, so it’s hard to make things ahead of schedule.
I hope Shane’s marathon went well!
A beautiful and refreshing cake…love the idea of lime filling…mmmm slurp slurp 🙂
Looks delicious !
What a great cake and I love the lime filling!
Your cake looks delicious! Your filling was thicker than mine and yes the passion fruit was delicious. I loved the icing and it was in my opinion what made this cake sooooo good. You will have to give it a try.
Looks amazing! Thanks for baking along.
Off topic: How did you think this cake compares with Dories Perfect Party cake? I’m debating which to use for my daughter’s upcoming birthday cake?
Everything about this cake was delicious! Thanks for sharing it with us.
That cake really does look good. Bookmarked to try it too 😀 And I’m drolling over that filling!
I already know that you loved this cake as much as I did! It rivals my go-to vanilla cake recipe!!
Your mini cake looks great! Here’s to combating that over-filling problem 😉
Your cake is so adorable! I planned to make this because I almost picked it when it was my turn, but I ran out of time.
Your cake looks so precious! And I love that you filled it with lime (one of my favorite flavors)
Tracey, looking at your desserts make me gain 10 to 15 lbs (lol)…I don’t know what I am going to do…yes, I do…take time out and not make each dessert that you blog about…yeah, right! 🙂 I just want you to know that I admire you for introducing many bloggers to your fine desserts. And believe me, many of my friends are thanking you too. Thanks Tracey!!!!