Chocolate Coconut Cake Recipe

3 cups cake flour, sifted
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 large egg whites, at room temperature
2 cups sugar
1 cup butter
1-1/2 teaspoon pure bourbon vanilla
2 teaspoons pure coconut extract
1 cup canned unsweetened coconut milk
1 cup shredded sweetened coconut

Chocolate Frosting Ingredients:

3/4 cup heavy whipping cream
1 1/2 tablespoon butter
11 ounces good dark chocolate, broken into pieces

Grease two 9-inch round cake pans and line bottoms with parchment paper. Grease the paper. Dust with flour.

Sift together flour, baking powder and salt. Beat egg whites with an electric mixer on medium speed until foamy, then gradually add 1/4 cup sugar. Gradually increase speed until whites are stiff but not dry. Scrape the egg whites on the beater into the bowl and return the beater to the mixer.

In another bowl with the same beater, cream the butter, remaining sugar and extracts. At lowest speed, alternately add the coconut milk and flour mixture, beating just until incorporated. By hand, stir in 1 cup egg whites to lighten the batter. Fold in remaining whites and the coconut with a rubber spatula.

Pour batter into the pans. Bake at 350 degrees for about 35 minutes, until the cakes are golden and start to pull away from sides of pan. Cool in pans for 10 minutes, then remove from pans and cool completely on wire racks.

Frosting Directions:

Heat the cream almost to a simmer. Pour over butter and chocolate in a bowl. Let stand 5 minutes. Stir until smooth. Cool to room temperature. Chill until frosting thickens but is still soft enough to dent with your finger. Beat with a mixer until creamy.

Assembling Cake:

Place one cake layer flat-side (bottom) up on a cake plate. Spread some of the frosting on cake. Top with other layer, flat side down. Frost top and sides of cake. Decorate with toasted sliced almonds.