Coconut Raspberry Lemon Cake - Rasps Whole Cakes # 1

Actually… I made this cake based on Dorie Greenspan’s Perfect Party Cake. But, somehow cakes calling for the method that mixes butter with flour and lastly with eggs just never finds favour with me. They refuse to rise well. I was slicing the cake, preparing to frost it....... hesitating..... whether I should continue with or not with a not so fluffy cake. In the end, I decided, NOPE. So, I dumped the cake into the fridge and quickly made another cake, with a trusted method that I am comfortable with. Make a sponge using the chiffon method. There's only 2 hours left to serving time. It was my FIL's birthday.

Cake created in Dec 2011


The first thing my husband said when he saw the cake was, “This cake is very expensive”. LOL. Surprisingly he knows the price of raspberries, I never thought he'd remember the price of that punnet that he once bought me (the only time he did). Usually he never remembers the price of groceries.

Raspberries cost a bomb here. Serious. I can eat one week lunch (economy rice) with the $ that I buy one punnet of raspberries. But the other day when I went to KL, I can’t help but buy them because they were cute and small. One punnet seems to contain more than what I will usually get.. Same container but seems to have more simply because they were small. I used almost 2 punnets of raspberries for this cake. (there goes 2 week's lunch) One for the compote, one for garnish.

And when my husband ate the cake, he said, the angel flakes seem to have spoiled the cake, if not it will be very nice. My kids don’t like the coconut too. But I find it ok. I just wanted the cake to look as much as how Dorie made it look like visually. Next time I won’t cover the cake with angels flakes, if I were to make it again.

This shot is taken with bounced flash indoors. Looks better right?

Raspberry Lemon Cake

Recipe source: WendyinKK
General idea derived from Dorie Greenspan's Perfect Party Cake found in Baking: From My Home to Yours


Cake

Yolk Batter
4 egg yolks
30gm sugar
40gm milk
80gm cake flour
1/3 tsp baking powder
1 heaped tsp lemon zest
40gm vegetable oil

Meringue
4 egg whites
50gm sugar
1 tsp lemon juice

Other components
Lemon buttercream (recipe below)
Raspberry compote (recipe below)

Garnishing
Angel flakes (sweetened coconut flakes)
Fresh raspberries

1. Preheat oven at 160(fan)/180C. Prepare an 8 inch pan. Line the base only.
2. Prepare yolk batter. Combine all the wet ingredients + sugar + lemon zest. Sift cake flour + baking powder together and combine with everything until a smooth batter forms.
3. Prepare meringue. Beat egg whites with lemon juice until soft peaks and beat in sugar gradually until stiff peaks form (hooked peak).
4. Prepare final batter. Fold ¼ of meringue into yolk batter until well combined. Repeat with another ¼. Pour the yolk batter into remaining meringue and fold until well combined (Fold not stir and it should look very foamy). Pour batter into prepared pan.
5. Bake the cake for 35 minutes or until done. Remove from oven and let the cake totally cool before removing cake from pan. (If it’s a springform pan, you can skip lining the base and then invert the pan to cool for better volume)
6. Assemble cake. Slice cake into 3 slices. Place one slice onto cake board/plate and spread ½ the raspberry compote onto the cake slice. Place another slice of cake onto another plate and spread generous amount of buttercream. Place the 2nd slice of cake with buttercream facing down onto the 1st slice. (it will look like a sandwich). Then spread the top of the 2nd slice with balance of raspberry compote. Spread the final slice of cake with buttercream and place it on top of the 2nd slice, buttercream side down.
7. Frost the whole cake with lemon buttercream. Cover cake with angel flakes. Pipe dots of buttercream to form a ring around cake. Place a small raspberry on top of each dot of cream.

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Raspberry Compote
175gm raspberries (frozen or fresh)
50gm sugar
1 Tbsp lemon juice

Place raspberries into a saucepan and put in sugar. Let it sit for 30 minutes or until the raspberries water down. Cook the raspberries until the berries further disintergrate. Turn off the heat and stir in lemon juice. (The final compote should taste slightly tart)

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Lemon Frosting

1.5 portion of Buttercream
4 Tbsp lemon juice

Beat in lemon juice until well combined. Add more lemon juice if you prefer more zing.

this cake is not easy to shoot.. hate it.

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Aspiring Bakers #18 Layers of Love (April 2012)

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Bake Fest by Vardhini hosted by Sumee