There are days or nights I should say, that I wake up in the middle of the night with ideas floating around in my head. I wanted to make a chocolate cake for two for Valentine's Day, and found a recipe that fit the bill, except that is for the frosting. For some reason the night before I made this I woke up thinking about Almond Joy bars.... oh yum! Then that went to thinking about the cake, and then why not make a frosting that is coconut flavored with a touch of almond, to okay, I need to look this up. So I found a recipe for coconut frosting, and tweaked it to my liking.
I must confess that for some reason my cake didn't end up being a cake for two, it was more like 4-6. My cake turned out tall and fluffy, so I probably should have cut the top to flatten it for stacking. You will see why when you read the directions. Give it a try, you will be amazed at the soft luscious chocolate cake and the coconut creamy frosting. Not bragging, it's just that good!
Cake
Cooking spray
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup buttermilk
1 large egg, at room temperature
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/3 cup hot water
Frosting
3 1/2 tbsp
Coconut milk
1 1/2 cups
Powdered sugar
1/2 tsp each almond extract and vanilla
1/4 cup each butter and coconut oil
Toasted slivered almonds and sweetened coconut to top the cake with.
Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 9-by-2-inch round cake pan with parchment paper, and spray with cooking spray. Or, if you are lucky like me you have an old fashioned pan with a slider that goes around the pan to loosen the cake from the pan. I greased and floured the pan and it worked great.
Whisk together the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl. Beat together the buttermilk, egg and vanilla in a measuring cup. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry, and beat with a wooden spoon until well combined, scraping the side and bottom of the bowl once or twice with a rubber spatula. Stir in the hot water until it is all absorbed and the batter is smooth (it will be thin).
Pour the batter into the prepared pan, and bake until the top is shiny, the cake is just beginning to pull away from the side of the pan and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with a crumb or 2 attached, about 20 minutes. Let the cake cool in the pan on a cooling rack for 20 minutes. Turn the cake out of the pan, remove the parchment paper and let the cake completely cool on the rack, right-side up, about 1 hour. (The cake will be thin, but don't worry-it will magically be OK once it's stacked with frosting.) This is where the original instructions and mine differ as my cake turned out fluffy and rounded on top so I should have leveled it to make it stackable.
To assemble: Cut the cooled cake into 4 even quarters. Frost the top of each quarter with about 2 tablespoons of the frosting. Stack the frosted quarters directly on top of each other on a serving plate, resulting in a 4-layer wedge of cake with frosting between layers and on top. Frost all 3 sides of the cake with the remaining frosting until completely covered. Press coconut into frosting, at your preference, both on top and the frosted sides. Sprinkle toasted almond slices on top. Chill for at least 30 minutes. Halve and serve.
