I had asked in an earlier post about thickening a sour cream filling because I thought it would be too thin to ice a cake. While you all offered great advice, I decided not to use it for the icing at all, just as the filling..
A friend had once mentioned that her deceased mom used to make a "sour cream coconut cake" for her birthday. Maria said it was just sour cream, sugar and unsweetened coconut layered on boxed yellow cake. The only other criteria was it had to sit for 2 days to soak the layers.
To try this idea, but before jumping into a full-size cake, I decided to make a sample with that "3 cakes out of one cake mix" idea. I measured out 6 oz of yellow cake mix, 1 egg, 2.5 TBL butter, 2 TBL coconut creme + 2 TBL water. Baked that in a 6" cheesecake pan for 30 minutes.
The thin filling was 1 C sour cream, 1 C sugar + 6 oz frozen unsweetened coconut. I added a few TBL of the coconut cream to that as well.
When the cake came out, I cut it into three layers, poked holes with a wooden spoon and layered the filling. Then I got some of cheezz' Swiss Meringue out of the freezer (thanks cheezz for that great idea), zapped it for a few seconds to thaw and added 1/4 C of coconut cream to that. Whipped it and it was perfect for icing. You get a hit of buttery softness, then the coconut flavor kicks in.
The meringue icing is around the perimeter. Topped it off with thinly sliced roasted fresh pineapple. Got that recipe from Sherry Yard's The Secrets of Baking. I'll follow with that next.
http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g166/Finer_Kitchens/DSC03425-1.jpg
Here's a slice of it. I should have paid more attention to how I used the 3 layers. The top on is flipped so you're seeing the dark top crust which I should have sliced off. Oh well, live and learn.
http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g166/Finer_Kitchens/DSC03426.jpg
It has a nice smooth taste, not overly sweet because of the sour cream. I think you could even add some toasted fresh coconut to the outside and still not over-do it.
Last week I used 1/3 of the yellow mix to make Larry a 6" "red velvet cake" by subbing buttermilk for the water, a tsp of cocoa, a tsp of vinegar and a toothpick's worth of burgundy icing gel. I typically avoid Red Velvet cake because I hate the idea of adding a whole bottle of food coloring, so this sub worked fine. I used (again) some of the leftover frozen Swiss Meringue icing, zapped it to thaw and added a 6 oz tub of cream cheese.
http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g166/Finer_Kitchens/DSC03428.jpg
A friend had once mentioned that her deceased mom used to make a "sour cream coconut cake" for her birthday. Maria said it was just sour cream, sugar and unsweetened coconut layered on boxed yellow cake. The only other criteria was it had to sit for 2 days to soak the layers.
To try this idea, but before jumping into a full-size cake, I decided to make a sample with that "3 cakes out of one cake mix" idea. I measured out 6 oz of yellow cake mix, 1 egg, 2.5 TBL butter, 2 TBL coconut creme + 2 TBL water. Baked that in a 6" cheesecake pan for 30 minutes.
The thin filling was 1 C sour cream, 1 C sugar + 6 oz frozen unsweetened coconut. I added a few TBL of the coconut cream to that as well.
When the cake came out, I cut it into three layers, poked holes with a wooden spoon and layered the filling. Then I got some of cheezz' Swiss Meringue out of the freezer (thanks cheezz for that great idea), zapped it for a few seconds to thaw and added 1/4 C of coconut cream to that. Whipped it and it was perfect for icing. You get a hit of buttery softness, then the coconut flavor kicks in.
The meringue icing is around the perimeter. Topped it off with thinly sliced roasted fresh pineapple. Got that recipe from Sherry Yard's The Secrets of Baking. I'll follow with that next.
http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g166/Finer_Kitchens/DSC03425-1.jpg
Here's a slice of it. I should have paid more attention to how I used the 3 layers. The top on is flipped so you're seeing the dark top crust which I should have sliced off. Oh well, live and learn.
http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g166/Finer_Kitchens/DSC03426.jpg
It has a nice smooth taste, not overly sweet because of the sour cream. I think you could even add some toasted fresh coconut to the outside and still not over-do it.
Last week I used 1/3 of the yellow mix to make Larry a 6" "red velvet cake" by subbing buttermilk for the water, a tsp of cocoa, a tsp of vinegar and a toothpick's worth of burgundy icing gel. I typically avoid Red Velvet cake because I hate the idea of adding a whole bottle of food coloring, so this sub worked fine. I used (again) some of the leftover frozen Swiss Meringue icing, zapped it to thaw and added a 6 oz tub of cream cheese.
http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g166/Finer_Kitchens/DSC03428.jpg