Coconut Cake with Lemon Curd Filling

This is also known as the "I believe in Harvey Dent" cake, or the "Two-Face" cake. Why, you may ask? The particular cake I made is known as the Two-Face because I only covered half of it with toasted coconut (see picture). If and when you decide to make this cake, you may cover the whole cake with coconut, or just leave it off altogether. It's your choice, kids! 


This isn't your average cake... it's dense! I'm talking Miss-Teen-USA-2007-South Carolina-dense. If you don't get the reference, click here and have a good chuckle.

Cake

4 ¼ cups flour

2 ¼ cups sugar

1 Tbl. Plus 1 ½ tsp. baking powder

2 tsp. kosher salt

2 sticks unsalted butter, softened

1 ¼ cups coconut milk

¼ cup water

2 tsp. vanilla extract

6 egg whites

Topping

2 cups unsweetened coconut flakes, toasted

2 cups heavy cream

2 ½ Tbl. sugar

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line bottoms of two 8-inch round cake pans with parchment paper and spray with Pam.
2. Mix flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Mix in butter, coconut milk, water, and vanilla until combined. Beat at high speed until very smooth.
3. In a medium bowl, beat egg whites until soft peaks form. Fold half of the egg whites into the batter until incorporated then fold in the rest. Bake for 45 minutes.
4. Cool cakes in pans for 15 minutes then invert them and let them cool completely about 2 hours.
5. Spread lemon curd on one cake top and place the other cake on top. You can also cut the cakes in half and layer curd that way, too.
6. Beat cream with sugar until medium-firm peaks form. Frost the cake and refrigerate for 1 hour before serving.