Coconut Macaroon Upside Down Cake

  • Coconut Macaroon Upside Down Cake

    Imagine how mysterious and exciting it will be to stab the most boring looking cake ever with a fork, only to feel slight resistance near the bottom of the piece, in that layer between the cake and the plate.

    “What could that be?” (asks you, the fork, or whomever you deem lucky enough to try this dessert).

    It’s a hunk of chocolate coconut macaroon on the bottom of the cake, obviously.  Right where it should be.

    I’m tired of scooping 7,550 balls of stringy, hard-to-work-with coconut cookies when I make macaroons.  I want to do bigger and better things with my life.  My aspirations are high.  So I spread a thick layer of macaroon dough into the bottom of a cake pan, poured cake batter over the top of it, baked it and high-fived myself.  (Which looks a lot like a very sad but enthusiastic single clap.)

    In the future I might gussy this cake up by pouring a glaze over the top of it, or frosting it, or doing anything other than nothing with the top of it.  But just like how I don’t have the energy or desire to blow-dry my hair anymore, sometimes my cakes get the low-maintenance treatment.  You can dress it up all you want, and send me a picture.

    (Oh.  This recipe makes two 9″ cakes.  Eat one, freeze the other.  Or eat two, probably.)

    Adapted from my Buttermilk Vanilla Cake and Coconut Macaroon Cookie recipes…

    MACAROON LAYER:

    3 oz. semi-sweet or bittersweet chocolate, melted

    1 can sweetened condensed milk (14 oz.)

    2 teaspoons vanilla

    10 cups Angel Flake coconut (or sweetened shredded) (equal to 2 of the 4 oz. bags)

    CAKE:

    1 ⅔ cups all-purpose flour

    1 ½ teaspoons baking powder

    ½ teaspoon baking soda

    ¼ teaspoon salt

    ¾ cups + 2 tablespoons buttermilk

    1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract

    ½ cups unsalted butter, at room temperature

    ¾ cup sugar

    3 eggs

    1. Preheat oven to 350° and line two 9″ cake pans with a parchment paper rounds; use non-stick spray.
    2. MACAROON BATTER:
      1. In a large bowl, melt chopped chocolate in the microwave and stir until smooth.  Add sweetened condensed milk and vanilla, stirring until well combined.  Stir in coconut until mixed.  Spread equally in bottoms of prepared pans.
    3. CAKE BATTER:
      1. In a medium bowl, sift flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt together and set aside.
      2. Pour buttermilk into a measuring cup and stir in vanilla.
      3. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar together with an electric mixer at medium speed until light and fluffy (about 4 minutes). Reduce the speed and add the eggs one at a time, beating for 30 seconds between additions.
      4. Add alternating increments of the flour mixture and the vanilla-buttermilk, blending well after each addition (starting and ending with the flour mixture); this should take up to 5 minutes.
      5. Pour batter equally into prepared pans over macaroon layers and bake 30 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean.  Remove from oven and let cool for 20 minutes on rack before removing from pans to finish cooling.

    Tips:

    • Want plain coconut instead of chocolate?  Oh, I guess that’s possible.  Just omit the chocolate (but don’t admit it that you did that to anyone out loud).
    • No buttermilk?  Just stir a tablespoon of vinegar or lemon juice into milk to equal the total amount of buttermilk called for in the recipe.  Wait 5 minutes and it’ll clump up like buttermilk.  Gross, but good.  TOTALLY essential for the recipe- don’t think you can make this cake without it.
    • As mentioned, this recipe makes two cakes.  By all means, try to split the recipe ingredients in half if you only want to make one cake (good luck).  Just make both cakes and give one away :)
    • This recipe freezes well.
    • Enjoy!

     

     

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    June 9th, 2016 | More Sweets Please | No Comments | Tags: , ,

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