Coconut Tres Leches Cake
"My other half and I were holding a pozole party for our friends and as making something as authentically Mexican as pozole is his domain, he asked me to make dessert. I got hung up deciding between whether to make a coconut pound cake or a tres leches cake. In the end, I combined the two ideas and came out with a coconut tres leches laced with dark rum. This cake *is* as good as it sounds. It's very rich with just the right amount of coconut that even our guests who didn't like coconut loved this cake."
- Ready In:
- 24hrs 30mins
- Ingredients:
- 10
- Yields:
-
1 cake
- Serves:
- 10
ingredients
- 12 large eggs
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
- 1 (14 ounce) can evaporated milk (not nonfat!)
- 1 (14 ounce) can unsweetened coconut cream
- 1 cup dark rum, such as Myers's
- 1 (8 ounce) bag sweetened flaked coconut
- 2 cups heavy cream
- 2 tablespoons powdered sugar
directions
- Heat oven to 325°F Spray non-stick baking spray on 3 round cake pans. Separate eggs, and place yolks in a large mixing bowl. Reserve whites in a separate mixing bowl.
- Add sugar to yolks, and beat on high speed with an electric mixer until pale yellow and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Clean beaters, and whip egg whites to medium peaks, about 5 minutes.
- Using a rubber spatula, stir about 1/3 of the egg whites into the yolk mixture to lighten it. Then gently fold in remaining whites.
- Whisk flour with a dry whisk to aerate and break up any lumps, then sprinkle it over egg mixture. Use a rubber spatula to gently fold flour into egg mixture, just until there are no more white flour streaks. Don’t overmix.
- Pour batter into the prepared cake pans, and bake until cakes are puffed and golden and the edges pull away from the sides of the pans, about 20 to 25 minutes.
- Remove cakes from the oven and place on a wire cooling rack. Allow to cool for a bit before trying to turn them out. When turning them out of the pan if they stick a bit gently run a knife around the edge of the cake to free it from the pan.
- Once the cakes are turned out, with a toothpick, poke holes all over the cakes (A LOT OF HOLES). Allow to cool for 15 minutes.
- In the meantime, in a medium bowl, whisk together the sweetened condensed milk, the evaporated milk, the coconut cream and 1/4 cup rum.
- Take the bottom cake layer and place it on a large plate or cake plate (you can't move this cake once it's assembled, so pick something with a little room around the edges because some liquid will collect at the bottom.).
- Pour 1 cup of the milk mixture over the layer. Then sprinkle the top of the layer with flaked coconut and add second layer. Pour 1 cup of milk mixture over the layer, sprinkle with flaked coconut and add the final layer. For the final layer, pour the rest of the mixture over the entire cake.
- Continue cooling cake, about 45 minutes more, spoon any collected milk mixture back onto the cake and then cover tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 4 hours or overnight.
- To decorate, whip cream, powdered sugar and 4 tablespoons of rum to medium peaks (you want it to be relatively stiff.).
- Gently ice cake with the whipped cream. The cake will be very soft, so use care to avoid damaging the layers.
- Toast flaked coconut in a large frying pan over medium heat. Cook, stirring often, until coconut is lightly toasted and browned. If coconut begins to burn, reduce heat. Remove from the pan immediately.
- Sprinkle toasted coconut in a layer on the top of the cake. Then garnish with chopped mango, strawberry, kiwi and any other fruit you like.
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RECIPE SUBMITTED BY
I'm a PhD student in the art history and archaeology of ancient central and south american petroglyphs, pyramids, geoglyphs and all kinds of rock art.
I'm also a burgeoning librarian because, for whatever reason, conservation of historical artifacts and archives is a part of information studies (read- "library science") at UT. Who knew? But I like being a librarian... it's got a certain David Lee Roth "Hot for Teacher" appeal. I mean, really, feel free to bring your pencil.
Of course, all this is an elaborate ruse to make me seem somewhat respectable. My true lust for life lay in my pending performance-art-for-beer revolution, the development of tasty gluten and soy free recipes and the propagation of that which is known as the Minnesota Meat Raffle.
I've always enjoyed cooking and eating and although I'm hobbled in the kitchen by soy and gluten allergies, I think most of those around me can still say I'm a damned fine cook.
