Piña colada cake
As all of us in the Northeast are preparing for yet another winter storm, I thought about posting another warming soup recipe. Then I had a better idea - a cake to trick us into thinking we are in the tropics.
The original recipe comes from one of my absolute favorite food bloggers, Smitten Kitchen. I think it's hardly a coincidence that she also made this cake a few years ago in February - this time of year is rough! If you haven't followed her yet or bought her cookbook, you now have something to do on this cold snowy Sunday.
Not only did this cake sound like the perfect thing to take my mind off of the impending shoveling, it also contained two of my boyfriend's favorite ingredients: pineapple and coconut. There's nothing quite like fresh pineapple - unfortunately, given that I decided to make this cake with one day notice, the grocery did not have any pineapples that were even close to ripe; and you definitely need a ripe one for this cake.
When a pineapple is ripe, it's slightly soft (but not too soft) and the bottom will smell noticeably like, well, pineapple. If you didn't wait until the last minute like some of us, you can buy one that isn't ripe yet and let it sit out on your counter for a few days until it ripens properly. Unfortunately, all of the ones in the grocery smelled like absolutely nothing and were rock hard so it was down to plan B, an already cored pineapple. None to be had either! Plan C - cut up fresh pineapple. Strike three. But if I wanted fresh cut mango there was enough for an army.
Never fear, I remembered that I had some Trader Joe's frozen pineapple tidbits back home. I had bought some a few weeks ago to throw in my morning banana shakes. When I first opened the bag, I couldn't believe just how, for lack of a better word, pineappley it smelled. If I were blindfolded I would have thought it was fresh pineapple. I thawed the rest of it for the cake; I think this was the closest I could get to fresh pineapple. I decided to use a bit more than the recipe originally called for to up the pineapple flavor especially since I wasn't able to use fresh. Plan D for the win!
You could, like Smitten mentions, use canned pineapple in juice (not syrup) but the pineapple flavor will be even less pronounced.
This recipe calls for cream of coconut - a quick note about cans of this delightful stuff. When you open a can, there will be a very thick layer on top and a much more liquidy one below. Separation is normal but it does look a bit odd when you open the can - not to worry. What I find useful is to scrape out all the coconutty goodness into a bowl and whisk until it's combined. This way when you measure it out, you have even proportions of the cream.
A note about cook times - know that every oven is different, especially when you compare gas to electric. I have a gas stove/oven and I find that things take a bit longer to cook in there. Just keep this in mind and always check early - it's much easier to stick something back in the oven to cook longer than it is to un-cook something ;) In fact, if you figure out how to do that please drop me a line. One other pro baking tip - always rotate the pan halfway through the cooking time so that it bakes evenly.
Here's my version of this beat-the-winter-blues cake:
Piña Colada Cake
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen
Time: Almost 3 hours til you can eat it (35 minutes active prep, 45 minutes baking, 1.5 hours cooling)
Level: Easy
Ingredients - Cake
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 stick unsalted butter, softened (take this out the night before and leave it on the counter)
1/4 cup light brown sugar
2 large eggs, at room temperature (take out of the fridge a couple hours before baking)
1 tablespoon dark rum
1 cup cream of coconut
3/4 cup finely chopped fresh pineapple (or frozen as I did, or pineapple from a can, strained)
To brush over the cooked, still warm cake:
2 tablespoons dark rum
2 tablespoons pineapple juice
Ingredients - Coconut topping
1/2 cup sweetened flake coconut
Ingredients - Glaze
1 cup powdered sugar
Pinch of table or fine sea salt (don't use Kosher salt here)
1 1/2 to 3 tablespoons pineapple juice
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Butter a 9-inch cake pan on the bottom and all around the sides. Cut out a circle of parchment paper and place on the bottom of the buttered pan. Then butter the top of the parchment paper. As Smitten mentions, you can just use cooking spray here to avoid the cutting/buttering. I really recommend buttering for baked goods like a cake - it will leave a better taste on the edges of the cake. And it's not too hard to cut out the circle - just turn the pan upside down, cut a sheet of parchment, then hold the parchment onto the pan while you cut a circle. It doesn't have to be exact!
In a medium sized bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
In the bowl of your electric mixer, beat the butter and brown sugar together until pale and fluffy, a minute or two.
Beat in eggs, one at a time, scraping down the bowl in between to make sure everything gets incorporated (I always shut my Kitchen Aid off when adding an egg just in case an eggshell falls in so I can grab it. Not that this ever happens to me.); then beat in the rum.
Add in the cream of coconut and mix well. At this point, the batter will look a bit lumpy and you'll probably think something you added went bad. It didn't! Keep going.
Add the dry ingredients, half at a time, scraping down the bowl in between additions. When you've added all the flour mixture, mix just until everything is combined (don't overmix is all this means).
Turn the mixer off and add in the pineapple - stir together with a spatula until the pineapple is distributed throughout the batter.
Scrape batter into prepared cake pan; you'll probably have to use a spatula to spread it out evenly in the pan.
Bake until golden brown and a tester in the center comes out clean. Smitten recommended 35-40 minutes; this took 46 in my oven. Don't forget to rotate halfway through (do this around the 20 minute mark).
Cool the pan on a rack for 10 minutes, but keep the oven on at 350 degrees.
While the cake is cooling, make your coconut topping:
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper (the stuff is magic I tell you).
Spread out the coconut on the pan and cook in the oven for 5-10 minutes. I give a range here because it all depends on your oven; in mine it took 10 to get the coconut lightly browned and toasted. Halfway through, you might want to give it a stir. This is what it should look like when it's done.
Pour coconut into a bowl and let cool to room temperature - you can just pick up the parchment edges and pour!
Back to the cake: after the 10 minutes has passed, run a knife around the edges of the pan, invert it onto the rack and remove the cake pan. Peel off the parchment.
In a small bowl, mix together the rum and pineapple juice and brush onto the warm cake.
Cool the cake completely - this took about 1.5 hours sitting at room temperature. You can always pop it in the fridge if you need it to cool faster.
Once it's cooled, whisk together powdered sugar, salt, and 1.5 tablespoons of pineapple juice in a small bowl. It will be very thick and pasty at this point. Add in more pineapple juice, a teaspoon at a time, until the consistency is just to the point where you can pour it. You do not want it overly liquidy! I used 3 additional teaspoons in mine, but if I were to make this again, I'd reduce to 2. It was a bit too runny and didn't stick quite enough to the cake.
Pour the glaze into the middle of the cake - if it doesn't make it all the way to the edges on its own, help it along with a spatula.
Sprinkle the toasted coconut on top of the cake.
The cake is now ready to serve, or you can leave it in the fridge for 20 minutes or so to let it set. I chose to put it in the fridge because of my thin glaze.
Mangia!