What makes a good cake? A tender crumb and a fluffy frosting.It's hard to get a combo this good but there is a recipe that embodies both. It is a geat Meding of flavors and fruits.
Regular contributor and chef Yewande Komolafe wrote about this in Wednesday;s New York Times Wednesday Food section.Her recipe is coconut and mango layer cake, It is a labor intensive one with home bakers having to make the mango curd and the mango jam for the filling.Yet this recipe is worth it. It; can even convince the most averse coconut hater to actually liking a slice.Many of her fellow Times chefs and food writers have a loathing to the tender white flakes.Chassidy David, a junior video production editor for the TImes day the flakes get stuck between her teeth.Others claim that ti tastes like suntan lotion. Another, Tanya Sychinsky feels like the actual coconut doesn't;Lt takes like it.Yet there are some that consider the ingredient perfect. ChefClaire de Boer of the Hudson Valley's Stissing House avers that it;s mildness is what makes it.,Dria Atencio of Queens bakery Salty Lunch Lady's Little Luncheonette dosn;t like most coconut cakes save her own.She elevates the recipe with mango filling which Chef Komolafe riffs on in her recipe. It;s is a light , ethereal cake with coconut everywhere ,complimenting the mango.
How did coconut become so popular? According to Dr. Ken Abala of the University of the Pacific, it started in the 1880;s and 1890s when it ,bananas and pineapples made their way to the continental US. Soon there were coconut farms in Florida , Hawaii, the US Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. Americans taste for it intensified thanks to candy bars like Bounty , Mounds and Almond Joy. This cake is perfect for those . Again it is labor intensive thanks to eh mango curd and jam. The curd is made with canned mango puree , egg yolks butter and sugar. The jam is made with mango puree too, along with sugar lime juice fresh ginger and vanilla extract.Once the two are made they're blended together with an immersion blender.The cake and frosting are easy to create. The cake is a scratch one with a cup of butter and egg whites to create an almost angel food cake. A quarter teaspoon of coconut extract is added a long with vanilla extract to give it more of that coconut flavor along with half a cup of coconut milk. To add to the flavor is a cup of sweet shredded coconut flakes. The frosting is a cream cheese one mixed with butter. More coconut extract is added for the flavoring along with vanilla extract.The entire frosted cake is then sprinkled with more coconut on it;s sides and top.
This is the perfect cake for those who love tropical flavors. Make it for a taste of both coconut and mango.It;s a nice way to hang on to those hot ,tropical summer days.
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