Chocolate Coconut Layer Cake

And to finish off the meal, a proper birthday dinner should have cake! Chef Matt’s menu called for a Coconut Cake. Since we were celebrating my birthday and all, there had to be some chocolate incorporated… and coconut and chocolate go well together. That said, I made a Chocolate Coconut Layer Cake. I made the coconut cake batter as written in the recipe, but reserved about 1/4 of the batter where I stirred in dutch cocoa. Instead of baking the cake batter in traditional cake pans, I spread the batter onto an jelly roll pan. I then dolloped some of the chocolate coconut cake batter on top, then swirling the two cake batters to gently combine. The cake was then baked, cooled and I cut the large jelly roll cake into four equal pieces. While the cake was baking and cooling, I prepared the coconut simple syrup, coconut cream filling and also a chocolate ganache. When the cake layers were cool, I started to assemble the cake by brushing a layer with the coconut simple syrup, followed by a layer of chocolate ganache. Another cake layer went on top of that, another brushing of coconut simple syrup and then the coconut cream filling. I repeated these steps, ending with coconut cream filling, which I piped on top with a decorative tip. To finish the cake, I toasted some shredded coconut and sprinkled them on top. Fresh strawberries were on sale so I served them alongside the cake for a bit of color and freshness.