I took this challenge and went flavor crazy! I knew it needed to be gluten free so a regular cake was right out. I found a beautiful recipe here this started it all for me! I am in love with lime. Lime is to die for! On a hot day while others dream of ice cold lemonade, I dream of Brazilian Lime aid. So really it was the Key lime frosting in this recipe that definitely caught my attention. The Coconut flour coconut cake was also a hit in my book. It was an easy choice.
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| it looks better in person! |
Coconut flour has some unique properties. It's not like wheat flour at all. You use a smaller amount and it absorbs liquid like you would not believe. Don't be tempted to add more water though, it doesn't acutally make the batter thinner. Here's what it looks like:
I know, I looks too thick to be a cake batter right? You have to trust me on this one. It's got this velvety feel to it, I want to just stick my fingers in it and feel it. It's really cool, okay?
I had enough batter to make a cake and some cupcakes. I figured cake for me and my honey for our 10 year anniversary and cupcakes for the kidlets so they don't feel left out. While those cooked I started the pastry cream and simple syrup. At first I wanted the syrup to also have a lime flavor to it as well, but decided on coconut. Since I didn't have any coconut flavoring I just put some coconut in to the sugar and water while simmering.
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| coconut, water and sugar...mmm... |
I failed to take into account that the coconut would absorb most of the water thus making it more of a paste than a syrup.
The pastry cream was more fun to make. I made a simple custard and added lime zest to add some flavor. I then whipped up some whip cream also with lime zest and mixed the custard and whipped cream. It was so beautiful! The only picture of it I got was on top of the cake.
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| the lime pops out! |
Next to assemble this I cut the cake in half. I also did this with the cupcakes.
I put the bottom layer in my spring form pan after I had wrapped the sides with parchment paper. Then I used a basting brush and moistened the cake with the coconut syrup. Next I pushed some sliced raspberries up against the sides of the parchment. I put them cut side out. Then I spooned in some pastry cream. I made a layer of berries again, only this time I just spread them over the cream. Another layer of cream then the top layer of cake. I, again, moistened the cake with the syrup, finishing with a nice thick layer of cream.
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| it got big! |
I did a similar thing to the cup cakes. Sliced in half, moistened with syrup, a layer of cream, cupcake top, more syrup and a dallop of pastry cream and a raspberry on top. Sam was very excited to help with all of this. He's been begging for one all day!
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| this was the boy's favorite part, well after eating them perhaps. |
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| voila a mini frasier of sorts... |
