My Coconut Easter Cake Experience:
When King Arthur Flour contacted me to work on their Cake Decorating Promo, I asked them if they were sure they had the right blogger. But as it turned out they were serious, and I got a great little care package complete with their Cake Essentials DVD that covers everything from ingredients to decorating techniques.
These turned out to be life-saving tips when I made my Easter Cake.
Not only did I get the DVD, but I also got a set of offset spatulas to add to my kitchen tools. If you’ve never used an offset spatula on your cakes, you don’t know what you’re missing. The Cake essentials DVD answered a lot of questions I had about baking cakes, and I got to see their master baker Susan Reid in action. She makes everything look so easy and unfortunately, that’s what caused my overconfidence….sigh (This is the Offset spatula that I recommend the 13 inch Wilton offset Spatula.
You see I’m not really a baker by trade, I bake because I enjoy it, not so much because I’m good at it. There’s a reason I never became a pastry chef, or for that matter a garde manger Chef……I just don’t have the patience or the dexterity to do that type of intricate work. My joy comes with the first 6 courses, not the last course.
Now somewhere along the line, I did teach myself enough baking to have fun with it, but I knew better than to try to get too fancy. But after watching Susan’s DVD, I was inspired and thought I’d make a cake and decorate it. If nothing else I get a gold star for trying.
I did learn a lot from the Cake Essentials DVD about why my cakes didn’t always come out the way they should and what I needed to do to ensure that they started coming out better. So armed with that knowledge I began a classic yellow butter cake recipe to use with for my Easter Cake. The batter failed….sigh But the good news was I realized the batter had failed and didn’t keep going on. So I started again and got it almost right the second time.
I think the problem was with butter, it was not at that sweet spot, where it was soft enough without being too soft. One thing I will share with you is that all of the refrigerated ingredients need to be at room temperature (and they do mean all of them, not most of them).
My second attempt was much better but still a little short of the mark. As Susan would put it, the structure of my Batter was not right, and when the structure isn’t right, the cake can’t support itself while rising which causes a myriad of problems, one being a bit too dense. That is what this cake suffered from slightly. I didn’t get quite the rise I should have, but it wasn’t a complete failure either. I will say the flavor was excellent and the cake wasn’t dry, so those points are in my favor…..maybe a silver star.
That is what this cake suffered from slightly. I didn’t get quite the rise I should have, but it wasn’t a complete failure either. I will say the flavor was excellent and the cake wasn’t dry, so those points are in my favor…..maybe a silver star.
If you’d like to try your hand at cake decorating, a small starter kit can help as well as Parchment Circles! Never again will I trace out the cake pan and cut my own circles, this has to be one of life’s simple pleasures! I am definitely ordering more of those parchment circles! (You can find those items at these
I am definitely ordering more of those parchment circles! (You can find those items at these links: Cake Decorating Set
9 inch Parchment Circles 
)
While thinking about the crumb coat, I forgot to put enough frosting in the center of the cake but we’re going to pretend I did that on purpose to cut down on the calories…. at least that’s my story and I’m sticking to it!
I hope you get to make your own Easter Cake this year and that you’re family and friends appreciate and love the results!
If you love ribs you may also like these recipes:
- White Christmas Cake
- The Original Pumpkin Crunch Cake
- Cranberry-Blueberry topped Cheesecake
- Pomegranate Mousse Cake
- Chocolate Mousse Cake
My Coconut Easter Cake
Ingredients
Cake
- 12 tablespoons butter -softened 6 ounces
- 1 ¾ cups sugar 12 ¼ ounces
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- 2 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 4 large eggs 2 yolks – room temperature
- 2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour 11 ½ ounces
- 1 ½ cup milk – room temp 12 ounces
Mascarpone frosting
- 12 ounces mascarpone – room temp
- 6 ounces butter – room temp
- 1 tablespoon vanilla
- 6 cups 10 x sugar
Topping
- 4 ounces flake coconut
- green food coloring
- your favorite robin egg candy
Instructions
Cake
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
- In a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter, sugar, salt and baking powder until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes
- add the eggs in one at a time to the butter mixture, beating well after each addition. (make sure to scrape down the bowl between each step)
- Add ⅓ of the flour, then half the milk, and repeat the process until you’ve added the last third of the flour. (scrape down the bowl frequently)
- Pour the batter into greased and floured or parchment lined 9 inch baking pans and smooth out batter.
- Bake for 25 – 30 minutes or until the cake begins to pull away from the sides of the pan.
- Allow to cool on wire racks for 10 minutes, then turn out the cakes and continue cooling on wire racks until completely cooled.
Frosting
- mix together mascarpone and butter and whip until light and fluffy (about 5 minutes)
- Slowly add the 10 x sugar, one third at a time, mixing well and scraping down the bowl after each addition.
- Add vanilla and mix until fully blended
Topping
- mix 4 or 5 drops of green food coloring to the coconut (or more if you want it darker) and mix until all the coconut is the same shade of green
Assembly
- Put together cake layers with one cup of frosting in between each layer.
- Spread a small amount of frosting over the entire cake making a light coating, this is your crumb coat. Refrigerate for 20 minutes then apply frosting to the entire cake with an even coat.
- Place frosting into a pastry bag, and using the star tip make little flour shapes by squeezing out the frosting and pulling up. Go around the top of the cake with large flowers, and around the bottom of the cake with smaller flowers
- Place green coconut on the top of the cake inside of the circle of flowers.
- Place candy robin eggs on top and refrigerate for 30 minutes before serving.
Sarbeshwar
Im going try my hand at baking this. This cake looks delicious.
Blair villanueva
This is a fabulous Easter cake! I dont know how to bake but loves eating cakes.
Nancy at Whispered Inspirations
Oh my word, this looks absolutely amazing. So festive too, I love that it has coconut. Yummy!
Melissa Bradbury
Thank you for sharing this recipe. The cake looks amazing for easter. I always try and do some easter baking so this is a recipe that I may be able to try out.
Khushboo Motihar
I love the idea of adding coconut to a traditional Easter cake! Such a lovely recipe that is easy to follow 🙂
Beeb Ashcroft
I’m in LOVE with this spring cake! It definitely sounds easy enough that I would love to give it a shot!
Tiffany La Forge-Grau
It seems like their video really helped. It turned out to be such a cute cake!
cait
this looks like such a great job my friend i could never try something like this ha im not the best baker but i def love to try all the sweets!
Mia Voss
Wow, this recipe is timeless! Another recipe I would break keto for!
Chef Dennis Littley
Thanks Mia, it was a delicious cake
Olga Riofrio
Adorable cake and looks yummy.
My cooking blog is in spanish with google translator in many Languages.
Hope you liked.
Olga.
Suz
Chef
I can not tell you how relived I was to hear about you being spot on in the first six courses of a meal. I nearly failed my entire degree because I and the baking course never did mesh, just isn’t my thing. But hand me any protein, fresh produce and spices and I’m your gal! You have continued to inspire this old chef and I can not thank you enough for all you do for the cooking community. It was just so welcoming to know someone else struggled through baked goods!
Yes you are correct about KAF, they make even not so good bakers like us turn out beautiful recipes, been my fav for years!
Chef Dennis Littley
it definitely has been a struggle Suz, but it did become fun for me eventually. I am by no means a great baker, but now I have fun doing it!
Anne - Just Only Home
This looks SO good!
Chef Dennis Littley
Thanks Anne, it was pretty darn tasty!
Maria
Happy Easter! I love mascarpone frosting! Yum! I have a really great coconut cake recipe that I bet your mascarpone frosting would go perfectly with! Also, your decorations are adorable. The kids would think all these colors are so fun. I’m boring and never really decorate cakes thematically, but you are making me want to make an exception;)
Chef Dennis Littley
Happy Easter! I have to tell you that when it comes to cake decorating I’m not very skilled so I’m sure you can make something equally if not better. I worked with a baker that used candy and frosting to cover up all her mistakes and everyone thought she was brilliant!
The Ninja Baker
Fantastic tips Chef Dennis! Great point about keeping the butter soft but not too soft. Wilton’s parchment circles are on the wish list =) Ps. With your gorgeous pumpkin fall cake wonder, I definitely consider you a cake connoisseur =)
Chef Dennis Littley
I’m happy to hear you found it helpful Kim