A couple of months ago our Gourmet Cooking Club was Caribbean themed and I made these AMAZING Jerk Salmon Tostadas with Grilled Pineapple Peach Coconut Salsa along with a little layer cake. Ok, it wasn’t a little cake…it was freaking huge! Kind of on accident. I wanted to make a four-layer cake so I just thought, oh I’ll double this cake recipe and have four layers! Well, this is a GREAT idea if you want a cake the size of Mt. Vesuvius. Seriously, I had two layers of this cake stacked and was getting worried. It was big. Too big. I then remembered that in the past when I wanted a four layer cake, I just made two cakes and SPLIT THEM IN HALF. Oh, right. Needless to say I pressed on and managed to get all four layers stacked, filled and frosted without any major mishaps. But enough about that, you just want to know how it tasted right? Of course you do!
I wanted to incorporate Caribbean flavors into the cake so coconut and rum seemed like a no brainer but I wanted to have a little twist so I thought chocolate cake would be perfect. This devil’s food cake is probably one of the best cakes I’ve ever had. The original recipe is from Sally’s Baking Addiciton. I just swapped in some dark cocoa for the light and upped the amount of vanilla a little. The coconut filling reminded me of a Mounds bar and the coconut frosting was perfect. My only complaint is that my rum simple syrup really got lost and didn’t come through like I wanted it to. I thought I had really put enough rum in the syrup (and by enough I mean A LOT more than the recipe called for) and I brushed it pretty generously over each layer, but I couldn’t taste it that well which was a total bummer! However, I still LOVED this cake and would definitely make it again, especially the devil’s food cake part. Divine.
Enjoy!
- 3½ c. All-Purpose Flour
- 3½ c. Granulated Sugar
- ¾ c. Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
- ¾ c. Special Dark Cocoa Powder
- 2 t. Baking Powder
- 4 t. Baking Soda
- 2 t. Salt
- 2 c. Buttermilk
- 1 c. Vegetable Oil
- 4 Large Eggs, at room temperature
- 2 T. Pure Vanilla Extract
- 2 c. Freshly Brewed Strong Hot Coffee
- *Note: The ingredient amounts listed are because I doubled the original recipe to get 4, 9-inch cakes. It made a HUGE layered cake. It may be more manageable to halve the recipe for 2, 9-inch cakes and then split those in half horizontally in order to make four layers.
- ¼ c., plus 2 T. Sugar
- ¼ c., plus 2 T. Water
- ½ c., plus 2 T. Spiced Rum
- 21 oz. Sweetened, Shredded Coconut (1½, 14 oz. Bags)
- 21 oz. Sweetened Condensed Milk (1½, 14 oz. Cans)
- 1 T. Pure Vanilla Extract
- 4½ Sticks Unsalted Butter, slightly softened
- ⅓ c., plus 3 T. Cream of Coconut (in the can by the drink mixers in the liquor section)
- ½ c., plus 1 T. Heavy Whipping Cream
- ¼ t. Salt
- 7½ c. Powdered Sugar
- 2 T. Pure Vanilla Extract
- 1 T. Coconut Extract
- 2 c. Toasted Coconut (for garnish, if desired)
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease, flour and line with parchment paper four, 9-inch round cake pans.
- Sift together the flour, sugar, cocoa powders, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large bowl. Set aside
- In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the buttermilk, oil, eggs and vanilla on medium speed until combined. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients with the mixer on low. Add the coffee. The batter will be VERY thin. This is ok.
- Pour the batter in to prepared baking pans and bake for 23-27 minutes or until a tester inserted in the center comes out clean. My cakes took about 25 minutes. Allow to cool completely before assembling cake. Or if you are making the cake in stages, allow the layers to cool for about 10 minutes, flip out of pans and remove parchment paper and wrap in foil. Store in freezer until ready to thaw and use. This will yield a SUPER moist cake.
- In a small saucepan, combine the sugar with the water and cook over high heat, stirring constantly, just until the sugar is completely dissolved. This will only take a couple of minutes. Let cool completely, then stir in the rum.
- In a large bowl, combine coconut, sweetened condensed milk and vanilla. Refrigerate until ready to use.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter, salt, cream of coconut and heavy whipping cream on medium-high speed. Turn to low and gradually beat in powdered sugar. Beat in vanilla and coconut extracts.
- Place one cake layer on a cake stand or serving plate. Brush with ⅓ of the rum simple syrup. Spoon on ⅓ of the coconut filling and spread evenly. Repeat with second and third layers. Place fourth cake layer on top and spread a thin layer of crumb coat icing over entire cake. Place in the refrigerator until firm. Remove and finish frosting entire cake with the buttercream. Garnish with toasted coconut. Optional: I dipped maraschino cherries in white chocolate and toasted coconut and used them to decorate the top of the cake.
