Lovely Coconut Lemon Cake

When I think of spring, I think of lemon and coconut.  Beautiful lemon tarts and coconut macaroons...or those coconut nest cookies with the colored chocolate eggs!  It was not acting very spring like last week when it dumped a ton of snow on Minnesota, but I thought I would create a little spring of my own last weekend through baking. 

First I was just going to make a coconut layer cake, but then I remembered how delicious a lemon tart was that I had recently made and decided to make it a coconut lemon cake with lemon curd filling in between the layers. 

The process of making the cake allowed me to take a break from the nasty weather outside and do something that I enjoy!  For the cake layers I included coconut in 3 forms, flour, toasted coconut, oil, and milk!  It had a wonderful sweet, toasted coconut flavor.  Almost like a macaroon, but cake! 

I also added a small hint of lemon.  The filling was a tart lemon curd, because I love it when lemon curd almost makes you pucker...not the overly sweet stuff!  It was wonderful in contrast to the sweet cake layers and sweet cream cheese frosting I topped the cake off with!  I also included toasted large flake coconut on the outside of the cake, because I love that stuff on anything, it is beautiful and it seemed to fit here! 

The cake was the essence of spring dessert...very happy and sunshiny even if the weather that was going on at the time did not say spring.  If you need a little spring in the form of dessert, here is the recipe!

Lovely Vegan Coconut Lemon Cake

Makes 1 6 inch 4 layer cake

2 6 inch cake pans

Cake:

1 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour

1/2 cup coconut flour

1/2 cup finely shredded toasted coconut

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp sea salt

1 cup maple sugar or granulated sugar

1/2 cup coconut oil

1 cup lite coconut milk

1 Tbsp organic lemon zest

1/2 cup lemon juice

1 Tbsp pure vanilla extract

Lemon Curd:

3/4 cups fresh lemon juice

2 tsp organic lemon zest

1/2 cup maple sugar

2 Tbsp cornstarch

pinch of sea salt

2 Tbsp full fat coconut milk

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

1 Tbsp coconut oil

Frosting:

2 8 oz pkgs tofutti cream cheese

1/4 cup agave nectar

4 Tbsp maple sugar

1 Tbsp pure vanilla extract

1 cup large flake toasted coconut

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and position rack in center of oven. Line two six-inch-diameter cake pans with 2-inch-high sides with parchment paper. Coat parchment paper and pan sides with nonstick spray. Whisk flour, baking soda, sea salt, and sugar in a large bowl to blend well. Whisk oil, zest, coconut milk, lemon juice, vanilla extract together in small bowl to blend well, then whisk into the flour mixture until well blended. Transfer cake batter to prepared pan and bake cakes until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 25-30 minutes. Cool cake completely in pan on rack, about 1 hour. Cut around sides of pan to loosen. Turn cake out onto platter; peel off parchment paper. Let cool completely, then place in the fridge to chill until very cold to make slicing easier. When chilled, slice cakes horizontally in half so that you have 4 layers.

To make the curd, combine maple sugar, cornstarch, and sea salt in a medium pot, and whisk until combined. Add the juice and zest and whisk until smooth. Heat over medium high heat whisking constantly until thickened to a curd or pudding like consistency, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat and whisk in coconut milk, coconut oil, and vanilla. Pour into a bowl, and let chill in the fridge until cold before using to fill cake.

To make frosting, whip cream cheese until smooth, then add agave nectar, maple sugar, vanilla and beat until smooth.

To assemble cake, place one layer on a plate, and top with about about 2 Tbsp of the frosting, spread to the edge, then 1/2 cup curd mixture. Spread curd out on layer but not all the way to the edge, because you don't want it to ooze. Top with another layer and repeat, then the next 2 layers ending with a top layer of cake. To frost cake, spread remaining frosting over top and sides, smothing out as you go. Cover the sides of the cake with the large flake toasted coconut.  Pipe remaining frosting decoratively around top of the cake using a pastry bag or plastic ziplock with a hole in the corner.

*if you would like a 4 layer 9 inch cake, double this entire recipe and bake in two 9 inch cake pans.