Kelly Guerra's Coconut Lime Cake - Cucpake Smackdown 1.0 Second Place Amateur Freestyle

This recipe comes from our second place amateur freestyle winner, Kelly Guerra. Mmm..... sounds yummy! Enjoy!

Coconut Lime Cake

One of my favorite drinks is a mojito, except that I like to make mine with coconut rum for a super tropical flavor, which I call a “cocojito.” I wanted to try and duplicate the flavors in cake form and this is what I came up with! This recipe is my father in law’s favorite; in fact, it was the flavor I used for his wedding cake when he and second wife got married!

1 stick of butter, room temp

¼ cup white sugar

½ cup brown sugar

1 1/3 cups cake flour

1 tsp baking powder

¼ tsp mint extract

1 tsp coconut extract

pinch of salt (nix this if you choose to use salted butter)

2 eggs

½ cup coconut milk (honest to goodness coconut milk, not the coco lopez crap)

1 TBSP key lime juice

½ tsp lime zest

1. Preheat your oven to 350F and prep your pans.
2. In the bowl of your mixer, cream together the butter and sugars together.
3. Add eggs one at a time, fully incorporating each one before adding the next.
4. Add the extracts (go easy on the mint!).
5. In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, salt, and baking powder.
6. Combine the dry and wet ingredients, alternating each one and ending with liquid.
7. Bake for about 25-30 minutes until the cake springs back at touch and a toothpick comes out clean. Recipe makes one 9 inch round and multiplies in volume very well.

For the frosting, I use a Swiss buttercream mixed with a little bit of lime curd mixed in to taste. You could use a regular buttercream too, but I love the velvety texture of Swiss buttercream. Recipes for both are below.

Lime Curd

3 eggs

6 tablespoons butter

½ cup sugar

2/3 cup fresh key lime juice

1 teaspoons key lime zest

1. Over low heat, melt the butter in a saucepan.
2. Add the remaining ingredients and whisk continuously for about 8-10 minutes or until it forms a custard.
3. Allow to cool, then pour into a jar and refrigerate. The curd will thicken considerably as it cools and will last for quite a long time in the fridge.

Swiss Buttercream

This buttercream is smooth, decadent, and darn tasty…but it’s not very heat resistant. I’ve actually subbed out a ¼ cup of the butter for shortening in order to help it stand up a bit more. You can sub out the vanilla for any other flavor you want and the frosting takes color very well. The natural color of this frosting is a soft ivory color.

¾ cup egg whites (about 5 large eggs)

1 ½ cups sugar

1 pound of salted butter, softened

1 tsp vanilla extract

1. With a hand whisk, whisk the egg whites and sugar continuously in a double boiler/bain marie until the mixture has reached 130F. The sugar crystals should have dissolved.
2. Remove the mixture from the heat and beat on medium speed with a mixer until cooled down, about 5 minutes. The eggs should be forming stiff peaks and the bowl should be cool to the touch. (I use a whisk attachment for this part)
3. Switch from the whisk attachment to the paddle attachment and add in the butter in 10-12 additions on low speed. Do this until the mixture is smooth.
4. Change back to the whisk attachment and continue to beat the mixture for another 5 minutes, this time on high speed.
5. Once done, you can add the vanilla, or other flavor, to your buttercream and whip until incorporated. The buttercream will keep in the fridge for about 2 to 3 weeks and you can even freeze it.