Bakin' A Cake From Scratch

As I mentioned in my last post, one of the four final things on my bucket list was to bake a cake from scratch.  I've made shortcakes and such in the past, but I wanted to bake a layer cake.  A few years ago, there was an episode of Throwdown with Bobby Flay that my friend, Amy, watched--I never saw it myself.  But it was a coconut cake throwdown in Charleston SC.  And coconut cake and coconut pie are my favorites.  (By the by, if you ever find yourself in Chicago when Bang Bang Pie Shop is making its coconut pie, RUN to get a piece, it is to die for.)  Anyway, I don't know much about Bobby Flay, but I decided long ago that if ever I made a coconut cake myself, it was going to be this one, as it is supposed to be the ultimate.  (Having not seen the episode, I don't know if he won or lost the challenge, but the idea is, according to the Food Network website, "Chef Bobby Flay is on a secret mission: to challenge the absolute masters in different kinds of cooking – award-winning BBQers, bakers, pizza makers and more. In each episode, one of these cooks thinks Food Network is shooting their profile for a show. What they don't know is that Bobby is going to drop in for a surprise visit and challenge them to an unexpected cook-off. Since they're in their element and Bobby's out of his, prepare for an exciting, tension-filled competition."

So yesterday was the Downton Abbey premiere, and I decided I would tackle this coconut cake for my traditional little tea party I throw myself each season to celebrate its return to television.  I went to the store Saturday and what I needed (I had to go back on Sunday to get more butter--this recipe needs well over a pound of butter) and after church Sunday, I commenced with making this cake.  Now, prior to starting, I hadn't read the recipe over much other than the ingredient list so I was a little chagrined to find out that it was going to require 6 1/2 hours of my time (I mean, c'mon this is like a 30 minute TV show, and that includes commercials, right!?), especially given that yesterday was Leah's BFF's birthday party.  So I decided to just do what I could before the party and do the rest when we got home, which given that some parts of it required sitting for 4 hours or refrigerating for 2 turned out to be a good choice.  First step was making coconut flavored simple syrup, which was nothing more than boiling a bit of sugar and water and then tossing some coconut in there and letting it sit.  No big deal at all.

I also had to toast some coconut.  The directions were easy, but I was pretty sure I was going to burn it, and that there was no way it was going to work.  But sure enough, it came out just fine.  I even mis-read the directions and left it in the oven an extra 15 minutes and nothing bad happened.

By now, Leah knew something was afoot, so she decided to get involved.  So I included her in making the custard.  Leah LOVES whisking things, and so making custard is right up her alley.  We separated the eggs and then Leah asked if she could do the "frizzling".  I have no idea why on earth she calls whisking frizzling, she even calls a whisk a frizzler, and she happily frizzled away while I heated up the milks.  She also has a great deal more patience than I do, and I swear, when she was done, it was a beautiful thing, so beautifully and thoroughly mixed, I couldn't believe a 4 year old had done it.  I should have taken a picture when it was finished instead of when she started.

My little sous chef

Anyway, there she is sporting the chef hat she got from her grandparents for Christmas.  They sent her a matching apron as well, but she chooses to wear that as a cape and won't wear it for cooking!

We combined our warm milk slowly to temper the eggs and then cooked the whole thing into a beautiful custard.  I was RIGHT on the edge of overcooking it--once it thickened, it thickened quickly.  So if you try this, that is something to beware of.  But by the end of the cooking process, we had a beautiful, yellow custard flecked with vanilla bean seeds.

So then we took a 2 hour break to go to the party and when we came back, we had to bake the actual cake.  This was the part that I was most fixated on, figuring baking a cake would be very challenging.  But really, it was no big deal.  The worst of it was that I mixed up the wet ingredients, and then I was supposed to use the mixer to mix the dry ingredients and butter, but I hadn't read that far ahead. So I had to pour the wet ingredients into a measuring cup, mix up the flour and butter and whatnot, and then slowly add in the wet.  But the batter came together quite easily.  One thing I had to change was that I only used half a vanilla bean, because at $6 per bean, I was only buying one of them.  Half went in the custard and half went in the cake.  So I bumped up the amount of vanilla extract in hopes of compensating.  Secondly, I didn't have 9 inch pans, only 8 inch pans.  So I had to bump up the baking time an extra 10 minutes or so.  I also didn't bother with parchment paper on the pans.  I just greased and floured the hell out of them.  The cakes popped right out.

For some reason, I didn't take a picture of the cakes when they came out of the oven.  I drained the coconut out of the simple syrup and boiled it down some more.  I probably did too much boiling, because by the time I remembered what I was doing, there wasn't too much left, but there was enough for what I needed!

Anyway, after that was done, I had to wash the mixer bowl yet again (my mixer got quite a work out yesterday) and make the filling, which was some of the custard plus heavy cream mixed together.  I probably should have done it a bit longer, as it was pretty loose, but it tasted incredible.  So then I sliced up the cakes in half, smeared the cut sides with the simple syrup, and put custard between the layers for 3 layers in all.

Then I washed the bowl again and made the buttercream.  Unfortunately, although the recipe said the butter should be slightly cold, mine was too cold, and it didn't blend very well with the limited amount of sugar that was called for.  I should have stopped there and let it get a little bit warmer, but I plunged ahead and put the rest of the coconut custard in, and the butter just made wee little butter lumps all through the frosting.  I was not going to make more custard, but I was a little disappointed, so I let it sit out for an hour while I got Leah ready for bed, and then I mixed it again.  The phone rang, it was my dad, and so we chatted, and of course, immediately my friend Andy arrived to watch Downton with me and enjoy tea.  So three things going on at once!  My dad and I agreed to talk the next day, and so Andy and I jabbered while I frosted the cake and pressed the dried coconut onto it.  And voila!  We had coconut cake!

In case you're wondering, I started baking at around 12 noon and finished the cake at 8:45pm.  Interruptions included lunch, birthday party, phone calls, dinner, bedtime for kid.  

So, since the cake had to sit a little while, Andy and I exercised great restraint.  We had our tea first.  I broke out my London mugs, which I'd been waiting for an occasion to use, and I had made curry chicken salad for sandwiches, and caesar salad as a side.  Andy brought fruit.  we set the whole thing up on my daughter's train table to make it extra classy.

It was a lovely meal, although we both admitted to overdoing it on the initial portion, but we bravely soldiered through and ate cake nonetheless.

I got out the good china for the occasion

The cake is a very good cake.  You'll hear no argument from me about that.  Is it the ultimate coconut cake?  I don't know.  Was it worth the time and effort?  I don't know.  Odds are pretty good that I am never going to make it again.  Our local Wegmans makes a delightful coconut cake and in a pinch Pepperidge Farm coconut cake is good too.  So it's a good cake, but it was also very expensive and probably not worth the pay out.  If you have access to a decent coconut cake, skip this and just buy one.

On the other hand, it was a perfect reason to have Andy over and it did match nicely with Downton Abbey and tea. 

It's gotten me thinking about other Food Network recipes.  I think I might try some of the hardest ones listed.  This was really not very difficult.  I imagine maybe someone who isn't totally at ease in the kitchen would have difficulty with tempering the eggs for the custard, but other than that, it was just time consuming, not hard.  One down, three to go.