Almond Joy Cake with Coconut and Dark Chocolate

Birthdays are for pulling out all the stops! So, when the soon-to-be-17-year-old asks “Can you do a kind of Almond Joy cake?” the answers is an enthusiastic yes.

How to go about making an Almond Joy cake?

I decided on a coconut cake with dark chocolate buttercream. Crushed almonds and toasted coconut would top it off.

Doesn’t that sound delicious? And also kind of involved? Not my usual #realfoodrealfast type of recipe, and certainly no #onebowlwonder. There’s a reason I adore one-bowl recipes – it’s easy to focus on the task, and not get overwhelmed by multiple steps. This here was going to be multiple multiple steps!

On any other day I might’ve said no way. But with birthday requests, however, I do give it my extra all. Even when it doesn’t end up turning out exactly as imagined. Who could forget the notorious princess cupcakes of  2011?!

I think I can, I think I can.

Fortunately, watching The Great British Baking Show non-stop for the past month has really increased my baking confidence. If those cheery chaps can craft a jousting scene from pastry dough or a miniature pub, complete with a ‘sticky carpet’ and bar stools, from gingerbread, I’m pretty sure I can handle a basic layer cake with toppings.

So, armed with my best go-get-’em attitude, an interesting collection of eggs from my fridge (both conventional and organic) and lots of butter, I headed into the challenge.

I had just one shot at getting the coconut cake right. So, I relied on my favorite bake blog, Sally’s Baking Addiction. She has an easy-to-follow thoroughly tested recipe for coconut cake, so I knew my time, effort, and ingredients would be well spent.

I sifted, whisked, beat, and folded my little arse off, with great results.

Ooh, it was a delightful cake 🙂 I had about 10 taste-testers, and all loved it. The mild coconut taste came from both coconut milk and about 2 cups of sweetened coconut in the batter. It was a super-moist, sponge-y (in a good way) cake that served as the foundation for the rest of the Almond Joy layers.

For the dark chocolate buttercream, I truly just made the standard chocolate buttercream, but with dark chocolate cocoa powder instead of the regular stuff. I also added a pinch of salt because I love the combo. Not enough to truly notice, but it’s there 🙂
I realized rather late in the game (like an hour before everybody would arrive) that we had just finished our bag of roasted almonds, a food we nearly always have in the house for snacking.

Thankfully, I’d just on a whim picked up a cannister of deluxe mixed nuts on sale at the store. I painstakingly picked out all the almonds. It’s a lucky thing that I wasn’t digging for pecans – there were only 4 in the entire can!

The final step to crafting a homemade almond joy cake was to crush the almonds and also toast a little coconut for topping. Just five or so minutes in the oven while the cake was baking, and the coconut was a gentle golden brown.

Cake or cupcakes? What a conundrum.

Did I mention I couldn’t decide between an almond joy cake or a cupcake version? When I realized that the batter made enough for 3 layers, but that I only had 2 cake pans, that dilemma was solved. I made 2 layers, and 6 cupcakes, and they were adorable (as was the happy face of my son as we sang the birthday song to him 🙂 )

Birthday smiles are the best smiles! ♥

Happy 17th to my creative, fun-loving, hard-working Casey.

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Almond Joy Cake with Coconut and Dark Chocolate

Get your Almond Joy cake fix with this luscious coconut cake with dark chocolate buttercream. Crushed almonds and toasted coconut top it off. It's super-moist, with a mild coconut flavor, and a rich dark chocolate finish. It's a 'joy' of a cake!

Prep Time 30 minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes

Total time 1 hour 50 minutes

Total Time 50 minutes

Servings 12 people

Author Julia Robarts

Ingredients

Coconut Cake

• 3 cups sifted cake flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup coconut milk (not coconut beverage) room temperature
• 1/2 cup buttermilk room temperature
• 1 1/2 cups butter room temperature
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
• 5 large eggs room temperature
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups sweetened flaked coconut loosely packed

Dark Chocolate Buttercream

• 2 3/4 cup confectioner's sugar
• 2/3 cup unsweetened dark cocoa powder like Hershey's Dark
• 6 tablespoons butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 4-6 tablespoons half-and-half or milk
• 1/8 teaspoon salt

Instructions

Coconut Cake

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degree Fahrenheit. Lightly butter three 9-inch cake pans (if you do not have 3 cake pans, prepare a cupcake pan with 6 liners for the extra batter)

2. Whisk together the cake flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl. Set aside.

3. In a measuring cup, combine the 1/2 cup coconut milk with the 1/2 cup buttermilk. Set aside.
   

4. Using a stand mixer, beat the 1 1/2 cups of butter (that's 3 sticks) on high for about a  minute, scraping down the sides as needed. The butter will be light and fluffy.

5. Add the sugar and brown sugar, and beat on high for 3-4 minutes, until fully incorporated. Scrape down the sides as necessary.

6. Turn the mixer to low speed, and add the eggs, one at a time, and then the vanilla. Beat on medium/high speed for 2-3 minutes.

7. Switch the mixer to low speed, and alternate back and forth 3 or 4 times adding the dry ingredients (flour mixture) and wet ingredients (milk mixture). Once these are all added, beat for one more minute on low, scraping down sides as needed. Next, turn off the mixer. Fold the 2 cups of coconut into the batter just until combined.

8. Put about 2 heaping cups of batter into each pan. Bake for 20-22 minutes in the 350F oven. Test the center of the cake with a toothpick. They are done when the pick comes out clean.

9. Cool completely in the pan before removing. Frost each layer with dark chocolate buttercream (recipe below). Top with crushed almonds (about 1/4 cup) and toasted coconut (see recipe notes).

Dark Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

1. In the stand mixer, beat the butter on medium/high until light and creamy, about 2 minutes. Add the vanilla and beat on low again for a few more seconds. 

2. Add about 1/3 of the confectioner's sugar to the bowl and beat on low until combined. Next, add 1/3 of the half-and-half, and beat on low again. Continue alternating until the sugar and milk have been added, and the frosting has a creamy, smooth texture. 

3. Add the salt and blend one final time on low. Frost the cooled layers of the cake, or store the frosting in the refrigerator until later use. Just allow the frosting to warm to room temperature again for easy spreading.

Recipe Notes

The coconut cake recipe is adapted just slightly from Sally's Baking Addiction. Hers is a coconut lemon cake. I made minor changes to the recipe (ie., I used salted butter, instead of unsalted, and omitted coconut extract). All images and written instructions are my own.

Sally recommends, and I agree, that cake flour is an important ingredient here. You don't want your cake to be heavy and dense, which will likely be the case with all-purpose flour. Take the extra time to sift the cake flour as instructed, and then to measure it, spoon the flour lightly into the measuring cup. Do not 'pack it in' or tap the cup to settle it. You truly want 3 cups of sifted, unpacked flour, nothing more!

To toast coconut, simply spread the flaked coconut on a baking sheet and roast in oven for 4-5 minutes. You will want to pull the coconut from the oven as soon as the first pieces turn slightly golden. It browns very quickly from there, and can easily over-brown!

To make DIY buttermilk, simply add 2 teaspoons of white vinegar to a measuring cup, then add regular cow's milk up to the amount you need for the recipe (in this case, pour milk up to 1/2 cup). Allow it to sit for several minutes so the milk can 'sour' adequately. After that, use in the recipe as indicated.

This batter makes enough for 3 layers. If you only have 2 cake pans (like I did), you can make the rest of the batter into cupcakes. I did not try simply dividing the batter in half to make 2 bigger layers - I feared they would not cook thoroughly due to the extra volume. I made 6 cupcakes instead, with the leftover batter, and cooked them for about 17 minutes at 350F.

I chose to frost just the tops of this cake, knowing it was quite rich between the cake and the frosting. The frosting recipe does make enough to frost the entire cake,  however, if that is your preference. My preference is knowing there is leftover dark chocolate buttercream in the fridge for those unexpected cravings 🙂