Almond & Coconut Cake

I am an avid viewer of very many Youtube channels, amongst them is Home Cooking Adventure and I saw a recipe on there for this recipe.  An Almond cake with a wonderful coconut and mascarpone cheese with double cream, white chocolate and coconut.  I then did a search for similar recipes and found quite a few of them.  But I came back to the one on Home Cooking Adventures as it looked so good.  

I made a couple of changes to the recipe, such as not using coconut milk to spread on the layers, rather I decided to spread a little raspberry jam, as I thought it would give just a hint of sharpness to a sweet cake.

I also didn’t use any coconut extract, but that was simply because I found it impossible to find such a thing, at least in my local supermarkets.

My cake turned out very well, nice and light and it rose well.  

The important thing was to make sure that the cake was cooled completely before trying to cut it into three layers.

The frosting is very rich indeed, but it is very tasty.  In fact the entire cake is, at least to my mind, a triumph.  So I am very pleased indeed.

It does take a while to make, as there are many steps, but all the effort is worth it, as you will find out if you try it yourselves.

Ingredients:
For the cake:

• 6 medium(large in USA) eggs, room temperature, separated in to yolks and whites)
• Pinch of salt
• 200g sugar
• 100g ground almonds
• 125g plain flour
• 1 tsp (5g) almond extract

• 200g white chocolate
• 45g canned coconut milk
• 250g Mascarpone cheese, room temperature
• 500g double creaam
• 30g powdered sugar
• 40g unsweetened dessicated coconut

1. Preheat oven to 170C/150C Fan/340F Grease and line bottom and sides of a 9 inch (23cm) pan with parchment paper. 
2. Separate egg whites from yolks. Add a pinch of salt over the whites and start mixing until foamy. 
3. Gradually add sugar and continue whipping until stiff peaks form. 
4. In a small bowl mix egg yolks with almond extract and fold them into the whipped whites. 
5. Mix the ground almonds and the flour together and gradually(in three parts) fold into the egg mixture.
6. Pour the batter into the prepared pan. 
7. Bake for 40-45 minutes until lightly golden. 
8. Rmove from the oven and let it cool for about 10-15 minutes. 
9. Remove from pan and cool completely on a rack. 
10. Meanwhile prepare the frosting. Place chocolate and coconut milk in a heatproof bowl and let it melt over a pan with simmering water.  Then allow to cool but not enough to set.
11. In a large bowl mix Mascarpone cheese until smooth. Add melted chocolate and mix until combined. 
12. In another large bowl whip the cream until stiff peaks form. Incorporate powdered sugar and dessicated coconut during mixting.
13. Gradually incorporate whipped cream into the white chocolate mixture. 
14. Cover and refrigerate until ready to use. 
15. Divide the sponge cake in 3 layers. Place one cake layer on your serving plate. 
16. Spread half of the jam over the cake layer, leaving a gap all around the edge.
17. Spread evenly with a bit less than a third of frosting. 
18. Repeat, with the second layer of cake. 
19. Add the third layer of cake and spread the remaining frosting on top and sides of the cake.
20. Sprinkle dessicated coconut on the top and sides of the cake and refrigerate until ready to serve. 
21. Decorate as desired, I’ve used Raffaello truffles, and chopped almonds.