March 5, 2018

Coconut Bundt Cake

posted by Julie in Bundt Cakes, Desserts, Kitchen Chemistry, Recipes, Spring

Packed full of triple coconut (coconut milk, coconut extract, and shredded coconut!), coconut bundt cake is incredibly moist and delicious.  Don’t forget the coconut milk glaze and toasted coconut on top!  Perfect to welcome spring, celebrate summer… or fight away the winter blues!

Coconut Bundt Cake: an exceptionally moist triple-coconut cake (coconut milk, coconut extract, and shredded coconut) topped with a coconut glaze and toasted coconut. Outrageously delicious! {Bunsen Burner Bakery} #coconutcake #bundtcake #coconut

Usually when I work on recipe development, I’ll make something, take lab notebook worthy notes (#scientistlife), and set them aside for a little while.

After all, this is just a hobby and not a career, and everything I make are things we actually eat… and who wants to eat the same thing over and over and over?  (Not me.)

So usually, the recipe development process plays out over a long time range.

Coconut Bundt Cake: an exceptionally moist triple-coconut cake (coconut milk, coconut extract, and shredded coconut) topped with a coconut glaze and toasted coconut. Outrageously delicious! {Bunsen Burner Bakery} #coconutcake #bundtcake #coconut

Except in the case of this coconut bundt cake.

I’ve made this cake 4 times in 3 weeks, trying to get the recipe juuuuuust right.  (Suffice to say, my husband may be a little coconut caked out at the moment.)

I just really, really wanted to get a coconut bundt cake recipe up before spring and I knew I was *so close* to getting it right.

I tend to get a lot of questions on how I develop new recipes, and the answer is simple: ratios.  (Math and science nerd for life!)

Coconut Bundt Cake: an exceptionally moist triple-coconut cake (coconut milk, coconut extract, and shredded coconut) topped with a coconut glaze and toasted coconut. Outrageously delicious! {Bunsen Burner Bakery} #coconutcake #bundtcake #coconut

Ready for a little kitchen chemistry?

Sugar and flour should be a roughly equal ratio (by weight, not volume).  The eggs and the fat should be roughly equal (again, by weight).  The liquid in the cake (including the eggs) should weigh roughly the same, or a little more than, the sugar.

Boom.  Follow these rules for a traditional sweet, moist, light crumbed cake.  (Plus leavening and a pinch of salt… about a teaspoon of baking powder per cup of flour.)

Coconut Bundt Cake: an exceptionally moist triple-coconut cake (coconut milk, coconut extract, and shredded coconut) topped with a coconut glaze and toasted coconut. Outrageously delicious! {Bunsen Burner Bakery} #coconutcake #bundtcake #coconut

But, you know, rules are made to be broken… or at least bent a little, in the case of this coconut bundt cake.

My biggest complaint about flavored cakes is that the flavor is often way too mild.  If I’m eating a coconut bundt cake, I want coconut to be the foremost flavor.  And so, I pushed all the limits.

Add in some coconut milk!  Pour in half a bag of shredded coconut!  How much coconut flavor can we pack into this cake and still keep a cake structure?

Coconut Bundt Cake: an exceptionally moist triple-coconut cake (coconut milk, coconut extract, and shredded coconut) topped with a coconut glaze and toasted coconut. Outrageously delicious! {Bunsen Burner Bakery} #coconutcake #bundtcake #coconut

The answer took four tries.  Let me tell you, each of the “failed” cakes was delicious.  Like, outrageously so.

But they collapsed into the pan or crumbled when I tried to cut them.  And while I will happily eat a crumbly, moist, super coconutty cake, if I’m going to share it… it should resemble a cake when it’s done, right?  Right.

Coconut Bundt Cake: an exceptionally moist triple-coconut cake (coconut milk, coconut extract, and shredded coconut) topped with a coconut glaze and toasted coconut. Outrageously delicious! {Bunsen Burner Bakery} #coconutcake #bundtcake #coconut

So back to the drawing board we went again (and again) (and again) to make the most coconut-filled cake possible, while still maintaining a cake-like structure after cutting into it.  And this coconut bundt cake was well worth the effort, because I’m going to go ahead and call it perfect.

A slightly crispy, toasted coconut outside.  A light, airy, extra moist inside.  Enough structure to create a clean slice.  A coconut milk-based glaze and toasted coconut.  Packed with coconut flavor. Nailed it.

Coconut Bundt Cake: an exceptionally moist triple-coconut cake (coconut milk, coconut extract, and shredded coconut) topped with a coconut glaze and toasted coconut. Outrageously delicious! {Bunsen Burner Bakery} #coconutcake #bundtcake #coconut

My husband may have had enough coconut bundt cake to last a lifetime, but I sure haven’t.  I’m already regretting giving all those slices away to my neighbors.

Print Recipe
Yield: Serves 16

Coconut Bundt Cake

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 50 minutes

Total Time: 60 minutes

Packed full of triple coconut (coconut milk, coconut extract, and shredded coconut!), coconut bundt cake is incredibly moist and delicious.

Ingredients:

For the cake:
  • 1 1/2 cups butter, room temperautre
  • 2 cups sugar
  • 4 eggs, room temperature
  • 3/4 cup unsweetened full-fat coconut milk, well stirred
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 2 teaspoons coconut extract
  • 2 1/4 cups flour
  • 1 3/4 cups sweetened flaked coconut

For the coconut glaze:

  • 1 1/2 cups confectioners sugar
  • 1/4 cup unsweetened full-fat coconut milk, well stirred
  • 1 teaspoon coconut extract
  • 1/2 cup sweetened flaked coconut

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 350 °F.
  2. Beat together the butter and sugar in an electric mixer on medium speed.  Add in the eggs, one at a time, and mix until light and fluffy.  Add the coconut extract and vanilla extract.
  3. Reduce mixer speed to low and add in the baking powder, salt, and half the flour.  Add the coconut milk, followed by the other half of the flour.  Mix just until no streaks of flour remain.  Fold in the flaked coconut.
  4. Grease and flour a 12 cup bundt pan.  Bake for 50 minutes, or until the top of the cake springs back when touched and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.  Cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then invert onto a wire rack and cool completely.
  5. To make the toasted coconut, spread the remaining flaked coconut on a sheet pan and bake at 350 °F for 8 to 10 minutes, stirring every 2 minutes to prevent the coconut from browning.  Cool completely.
  6. Whisk together the confectioners sugar, coconut milk, and coconut extract to make the glaze.  Thin with additional coconut milk if a thinner glaze is desired.  Spread on top of the cake, followed by the toasted coconut.

A Bunsen Burner Bakery Original Protocol

 

posted in Bundt Cakes, Desserts, Kitchen Chemistry, Recipes, Spring
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