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Coconut and Pineapple Curd Cake

White fluffy coconut cake with coconut cookies and pineapple curd.
Cook Time1 hour
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Keyword: cake, coconut, pineapple
Servings: 16

Equipment

  • mixer with paddle and whisk attachments
  • kitchen scale
  • bowls
  • spatulas
  • sauce pan
  • whisk

Ingredients

Cake Layers

  • 430 g all purpose flour
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 TBS baking powder
  • 630 g Sugar
  • 1 cup unsalted butter, softened
  • 4 eggs, room temp
  • 395 g buttermilk, room temp
  • 1.5 TBS coconut extract
  • 2 packs coconut biscuits from Belvita (8 biscuits) optional

Pineapple Curd

  • 1/4 cup pineapple juice
  • juice of 1 lemon
  • 2 TBS unsalted butter
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 2 whole eggs

Coconut Swiss Meringue Buttercream

  • 6 oz pasteurized egg whites
  • 24 oz confectioners sugar
  • 18 oz unsalted butter, softened
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 TBS coconut extract

Instructions

For the cake layers

  • Preheat the oven to 330 degrees.
  • In a bowl combine buttermilk, eggs, and extract. Mix to combine and break up the eggs.
  • In the bowl of your mixer combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.
  • Combine the mixture with the paddle attachment in your mixer to distribute the ingredients.
  • Add the softened butter and allow that to mix making a coarse sand like texture, about 1 minute.
  • With your mixer on low, add around half of your wet ingredients. You really just want to add enough liquid so that everything is a little wet without forming a dough texture, it should resemble cake batter. Then turn it to medium and let it mix for 2 minutes. Set a timer and do not go over. This helps develop the structure of the cake, without over mixing.
  • Scrape your bowl after the 2 minutes. With your mixer on low add the rest of the wet ingredents. Mix just until totally combined, about 15 seconds. Scrape the bowl again if needed.
  • Prepare the pans by spraying with baking spray and lining the bottom with parchment paper.
  • Divide the batter evenly between 3, 8 inch pans. I used about 21 oz per pan.
  • Cut up your biscuits if you plan to add them. Divide them into even piles and distribute them over the cakes, pushing them down into the batter some with a utensil.
  • Cover the cakes with aluminum foil and bake for 60-70 minutes or until done. They are done once they start to pull away from the sides of the pan or a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
  • Allow the cakes to cool on a cooling rack until the pan is cool enough to touch. Remove the cakes from the pans and let them cool completely before wrapping in plastic wrap to freeze or to decorate.

For the pineapple curd

  • Add all the ingredients except for the eggs to a sauce pan and put over medium low heat to begin melting down the sugar and butter.
  • Crack your eggs into a bowl, whisk to break up and set aside.
  • Once your sugar has completely dissolved in the pineapple juice you will temper the eggs with it.
  • To temper the eggs, while whisking, add small amounts of the warmed liquid. Go very slow so you do not cook the eggs.
  • Once half of the liquid has been introduced it can all be transferred back into the pan on medium low heat.
  • Allow this to cook for 3-5 minutes while whisking the mixture.
  • Once it has thickened remove it from the heat. Allow it to cool and store it in an airtight container in the fridge until you're ready to use it. It will thicken as it cools.

For the buttercream

  • Weigh out the egg whites in the bowl of your mixer and sift the sugar into it.
  • With the whisk attachment on your mixer, turn it to low, slowly increasing it to high and let it whip for about 6 minutes.
  • Change out the whisk attachment for the paddle.
  • Turn the mixer on low and add your butter in a stick at a time until it is all in.
  • Add your salt and coconut extract.
  • Let the mixture mix for 10 minutes on the lowest setting.

For assembly

  • On a cake board, put a small dollop of buttercream and put the cake top side down on the board.
  • Smooth buttercream on the top, and make a well with your offset spatula. Pipe an additional rim around the outside of the cake to hold in where the pineapple curd will go.
  • Put some pineapple curd in the well making sure not to put too much, you do not want it to seep out.
  • Add another cake layer and repeat.
  • Add the last cake layer, seal the sides and coat the whole cake in a thin layer of buttercream to lock in any crumbs. Refrigerate that for about 15 minutes before your final coat of buttercream.
  • Add your final layer of buttercream, smooth and decorate it as you wish.
  • I chose to pipe small white flowers with a flower piping tip and stick them on with more buttercream and add white nonpareil sprinkles.