Edible Books Festival 2014 (Part II)–Two Award-Winning Recipes

Instructions

To make white cake:

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a 9x13-inch baking pan and set aside.
2. In a medium bowl, combine room-temperature milk, egg whites, and vanilla extract. Set aside.
3. In a separate large bowl, mix together cake flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.
4. Add butter to dry ingredients and beat in until well combined, about 1-2 minutes.
5. Add all but 1/2 cup of milk mixture to dry ingredients. Beat in until mixture is smooth, then add remaining milk mixture and beat until completely blended.
6. Pour batter into prepared pan.
7. Bake in preheated oven for 25-30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out mostly clean. You'll want to make sure you don't overbake your cake (moisture is key!), so keep a close eye on it as it bakes and remove it from the oven when your toothpick comes out with moist crumbs--not raw batter--clinging to it. While you are waiting for your cake to finish baking, make your coconut soaking sauce (below).

To make coconut soaking sauce:

1. In a medium bowl, combine cream of coconut and sweetened condensed milk.

To make coconut whipped milk buttercream frosting:

1. In a medium pot or saucepan, bring milk, flour, and sugar to a boil. Boil for 5 minutes without stirring, then turn off heat and add vanilla. Cool mixture completely, to room temperature. You can place the pot (on a potholder) in the freezer to speed up this process--just make sure it does not overcool.
2. In the meantime, whip butter with an electric mixture until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add cream of coconut and beat for another minute. Add cooled milk mixture and beat for another 5 minutes, until completely smooth.
3. In a separate bowl, whip heavy whipping cream until stiff peaks form. Fold whipped cream into the butter mixture until lightened.
4. Once your cake is prepared, you'll be ready to frost!

For assembly:

1. After your white cake has finished baking but is still warm, poke holes all over the cake with a chopstick or toothpick. (The more holes, the better!) Pour coconut soaking sauce over the cake, using a spatula to coax sauce into the holes and warm cake.
2. Optional: If you still have sauce pooling around the edges after pouring it on the cake, you can invert your cake (carefully, to minimize splatter or breakage) onto a second large platter and poke holes on top. Pour remaining sauce onto the top portion of the cake, and voila! Extra soaked!
3. To decorate your cake, frost with whipped milk cream frosting. Add shredded coconut on top as desired. Feel free to add some melted marshmallow snowmen on top if you want to make this cake extra Calvin-y 😉

Instructions

For the cake:

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Lightly grease and generously flour the inside of your 10-cup bundt cake pan. Set aside.
2. Using an electric mixture on medium speed, cream together butter and sugar in a large bowl until light and fluffy. Add flour, cornstarch, baking powder, salt, and 3 tablespoons oil; mix in on low speed until combined, about 1-2 minutes. Add instant pudding mix and mix on low speed for another minute, until combined.
3. Add eggs, milk, rum, Kahlua, remaining 1/2 cup oil, and vanilla. Beat on medium speed until completely combined, about 2-3 minutes. As Brown-Eyed Baker notes, this will be a very thin batter.
4. Pour batter into prepared Bundt pan and bake for 45-55 minutes, until toothpick inserted near center of cake comes out mostly clean, with moist crumbs clinging to the toothpick.
5. As you wait for your cake to finish baking (with about 10 minutes left), make your rum syrup (see instructions below). Once your cake comes out of the oven, wait 5 minutes, then very carefully wiggle your cake out of the pan (I used my spatula and ran it around the edges gently), inverting it onto a large serving platter. Poke lots of holes all over your cake--yes, even on the sides--with a chopstick or toothpick.
6. Using a brush, slowly smear warm rum sauce all over your cake. You'll really want to slow down and smother your cake at this point, making sure the sauce seeps fully into the holes and not down the sides of the cake. This process may take a while: it took me a full 20 minutes to make sure all the rum got in, but this is really the key step to achieving that awesome flavor/texture contrast!
7. Once you're done soaking your cake to the max, slice and serve immediately, and keep any leftovers (what leftovers?) stored in an airtight container at room temperature or in the fridge for up to 5 days.

For the rum/Kahlua sauce:

1. In a medium saucepan, combine butter, water, and sugar. Bring to a boil and boil for 5 minutes, stirring constantly, to create a thinnish syrup. Remove from heat and immediately stir in Kahlua or rum.