Toasted coconut comes up time and time again for my coconut-loving recipes. I make it often because it’s a best-finisher. The taste and texture are wonderful, and it’s almost too easy to prepare. I’m sharing the how-to, along with the details from my mom’s (Nonna’s) 75th birthday cake from last year as inspiration.
Focused-in on the toasted coconut to grace Nonna’s all-time favorite cake: Pineapple Paradise.
I wanted Mom’s 75th birthday cake to be extra special and beautiful, just the way she gives herself to the world. For the last decade or so, at her special request, I’ve made this cake for her, almost exactly the same – with two layers of Vanilla Italia, soaked in pineapple sauce and with the vanilla whipped cream frosting, totally covered in toasted coconut.
The cascading arrangement of flowers are fit for the queen that she is. Nonna was touched and loved this so much. It made her feel special and that’s always the goal. Here’s the labeled pic after it was made in my work-space, with the labels for each flower used.
I didn’t have the time to take photos of Mom’s cake at home with my “good” camera, until after it had been in the fridge for a few days, so the cascading arrangement was still gorgeous, but the bloomed peony is looking a little defeated here, and the white Orlaya Grandifloria had lost their color.
Living beauty is always fleeting. We have to enjoy it in the present.
It’s time to make this happen! I’m excited because coconut is my favorite seed to work with. There are no nuts here. It’s hard not to assume with such a misleading name, but those who work with food should know. Inside restaurants and retail food shops, coconuts are often mis-labeled as nut allergen and confused for as a tree nut. They’re actually the largest seed we eat! Good news is, you really won’t find coconut mislabeled as a tree nut on products sold inside grocery stores.
So, if you’ve scrolled down and are ready, let me share my simple way to toast coconut.
Toasted Coconut
Ingredients
- 1 7 ounce bag sweetened coconut
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
- On a cookie sheet, covered with either parchment paper or a silpat mat, empty the entire bag of prepared sweetened coconut, and spread evenly.
- Place in the oven for 10 minutes. Every oven is different, so you'll have to watch it. Typically, after 10 minutes the edges are barely toasted and the sheet should go back into the oven.
- Add 5 minutes and check. The edges will always toast first to be the darkest. That's good. You'll want this. Your coconut should be perfectly toasted with a total of 15 minutes in the oven. You may add a few minutes if you like a darker toast.
- Once it has cooled to the touch, you can use your hands to fold it all together. Contrast with the different tones of toasted coconut, makes for the best end-result.
- Once it's done, alow to completely cool before placing as a topping. If you have leftovers, keep in an airtight container at room temperature for up to a week.
The end result looks as beautiful as it tastes, with all of the toasted tones.
The most satisfying part to making this is mixing the pieces together.
Use toasted coconut like I do, to sprinkle on top of fruit bowls, onto ice cream or cupcakes. For cakes, I use it just like I would when decorating with sprinkles, and press them into the whipped cream or buttercream topping.
To make whipped cream frosting, like I did for Nonna’s cake, simply follow my other recipe post for making pure vanilla whipped cream:
dreamy whipped cream
Ingredients
- 1 and a 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream
- 1/3 cup granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Instructions
- Place all of the ingredients into the bowl of your standing mixer. Use the whisk attachment to stir the ingredients inside the bowl, helping to dissolve the sugar, for about 10 seconds.
- Attach the bowl and whisk to the standing mixer and gradually increase the mixing speed to 10, or the highest level. Use a stopwatch to time one minute and 20 seconds. It's done! You now have dreamy whipped cream, and it took about the same time would take (for me) to unwrap a prepackaged-version.
Most of your know, that I specialize in creating desserts that are all totally free of peanuts and tree nuts. There still seems to be some confusion in the world about coconuts being a tree nut, because of that tricky name. No worries. Coconuts are seeds and not nuts. That’s why I work with them. Here’s the definition of a coconut:
co·co·nut/ˈkōkəˌnət/noun. The large, oval, brown seed of a tropical palm, consisting of a hard shell lined with edible white flesh and containing a clear liquid. It grows inside a woody husk, surrounded by fiber.”coconut shells”
If you’d like to see more of my celebration cakes, some with toasted coconut and more without, please go to my board on Pinerest. Thanks so much!
