High Altitude Lemon Coconut Cake

Fluffy coconut cake filled with lemon curd, and frosted with lemon buttercream, piped in beautiful drop flowers.

All recipes on Curly Girl Kitchen are developed for high altitude at 5,280 feet. See FAQs for adjusting to higher or lower elevations.

5 from 2 votes

Prep Time 45

Cook Time 25

Total Time 1 10

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Servings8

2 cups unsalted butter, softened to room temperature (substitute half the butter with vegetable shortening for a whiter color)
4 cups powdered sugar
1 tbsp meringue powder
¼ tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
1 tsp vanilla extract
½ tsp lemon extract
¼ cup lemon curd, divided
electric pink gel food coloring

Preheat the oven to 350 F, and position a rack in the center of the oven. Spray the bottoms of three 6-inch cake pans with non stick baking spray.
In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the cream cheese, butter and sugar for 5 minutes on medium speed, scraping the bowl down several times, until light and fluffy.
Beat in the eggs, one at a time, until smooth, then add the extracts.
In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. Pulse the coconut a few times in a small food processor or ninja so that you don't have any large coconut flakes, then add the coconut to the dry ingredients.
Open the can of coconut milk, and if the cream and water has separated, stir it back together until smooth, before weighing out 7 ounces (half the can) for the cake.
With the mixer on low, add the dry ingredients in three additions, alternating with the coconut milk, starting and ending with the flour mixture. Use a spatula to scrape the bowl and make sure the batter is evenly mixed.
Divide the cake batter between the three pans. Bake the cakes for about 25 minutes, until the tops spring back when gently touched and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Set the pans on a cooling rack, cover them loosely with a clean kitchen towel and cool completely before frosting.

In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter for 1 minute until smooth.
With the mixer on low, add the powdered sugar by spoonfuls, the meringue powder and the salt. The mixture will be clumpy.
Add the lemon extract, vanilla extract and 2 tablespoons of the lemon curd. Increase the speed to medium and whip the buttercream for 4-5 minutes, scraping the bowl several times, until very light and fluffy. Turn the speed down to stir, and mix for 1 more minute.
Place one of the cake layers on a cake board and frost the top of the cake with the buttercream. Spread 1 tablespoon of lemon curd over the buttercream. Repeat with the second layer of cake, buttercream and lemon curd, then place the third cake layer on top. Frost all over with a thin crumb coat of buttercream, and chill the cake in the refrigerator for 30 minutes before decorating.
Baker's Note: If you won't be decorating your cake with the drop flowers, frost the cake with a final coat of buttercream, then press unsweetened coconut flakes all over the buttercream.

While the crumb coat is chilling, you can tint the rest of the buttercream to pipe the drop flowers. Divide the buttercream between three bowls. Keep 1/4 of the buttercream white. Use a few drops of "electric pink" gel food coloring to tint 1/4 of the buttercream a medium blush color, and 1/2 of the buttercream a pale blush color.
Tip: Using three shades will give the flowers more variegation in color, so that the end result is much more natural and interesting than if you only use one shade.
Fit a piping bag with tip 1M. Fill the piping bag with buttercream, alternating spoonfuls of the three colors, so that they blend together as you pipe the flowers.
Start piping drop flowers all over the cake. Rather than piping even rows, you should pipe the flowers randomly, which will give your hydrangea cake a prettier, more natural look. Continue piping flowers until all the gaps are filled in and the cake is covered.

Keyword Cake, Coconut, Flower, High Altitude, Hydrangea, Lemon

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