Coconut Chai Cake + Coconut Buttercream (x Food Network Canada)

Hi. Hello. Hi! How come there are not that many photos? How come the photos do not look the same as usual? Good questions. Because I took them and I tried really hard (lol!). Food Network Canada reached out to me and asked if I would be willing to create a winter-themed cake along with DIY cake toppers for a new ‘DIY Birthday Party’ feature on their website. I was so anxious about doing this piece for them because I got use to Victor taking my blog photos for me and the idea of being on the other side of the camera was still quite foreign to me. After a whole lot of baking (and stressing), I sent over the content for the blog post and it got published last Tuesday! Yay! You can see the full blog post at the link below. I hope you enjoy the recipe and the photos! Let me know what you think! I have been trying to muster up the confidence to do more photos myself so I can create more content for this blog. Yay or nay? You might have to suffer through some non-Victor (he’s the photography extraordinaire for this blog) quality photos for a while though!

A Whimsical Winter Wonderland Birthday Party (with Food Network)

Coconut Chai Cake with Coconut Buttercream

Makes 1 three-layered 6-inch cake

By Amy

Equipment

• What you need for the Winter Wonderland Decorations
• Skewer sticks
• Assortment of felt, scrapbook paper, card stock
• Glue
• Plastic figurine
• Gold paint (non-toxic)
• Fresh flowers

Ingredients

Coconut Chai Cake

• 185 g unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 3 eggs
• 2-1/4 cup flour
• 1-1/2 tsp baking powder
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 3/4 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
• 200 ml coconut milk
• 100 ml milk
• 2 chai teabags, (~2 tbsp chai tea leaves)

Coconut Buttercream

• 227 g (1 cup) butter, at room temperature
• 3 cups icing sugar
• 3 tbsp coconut milk

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 350°F and grease the 6-inch cake pans.
• Over medium heat, let the two chai tea bags steep in the milk. Once milk comes to a light boil, remove from heat and let tea bags steep for 5-10 minutes. Once milk has cooled down, combine the milk with the coconut milk.
• In a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar together. Gradually add in the eggs, one at a time.
• In a separate bowl, whisk to combine flour, baking powder, shredded coconut and salt.
• Add half of the dry ingredients to the butter-sugar mixture and mix on slow to combine.
• Pour in the milk and coconut milk and add in the remaining of the dry ingredients. Mix until combined.
• Divide the mixture evenly among the three prepared cake pans and bake for 33-35 minutes. Check for doneness by using a toothpick. If the toothpick comes out clean, you’re good to go! You can also test for doneness by gently pressing your finger on the cake — it should spring back up.
• For the icing, using a stand mixer with a paddle attachment cream the butter until mixture is pale in colour and fluffy. Add the icing sugar, one cup at a time and alternating between adding the icing sugar and coconut milk, beat until light and fluffy. Add more coconut milk, 1 Tbsp at a time if buttercream is too thick.