Coconut white cake with lemon Swiss meringue buttercream

1. Prepare the cake pans - line the bottom of three 8 inch cake pans and butter and flour the sides. For best results you can use cake baking strips for white sides. Baking strips need to be soaked in cold water ahead of time (at least 15 minutes). After 15 - 30 minutes of soaking, wrap the prepared cake pans with the soaked baking strips and set aside until needed.
2. Preheat the oven to 325°F.

Coconut cake

1. Sift all the dry ingredients together and set aside. This includes the cake flour, baking powder and baking soda.
2. In another bowl or jug - combine the sour cream, coconut milk, desiccated coconut and the flavor extracts. Stir to combine and set aside until needed.
3. Place the butter, salt and sugar in the bowl of your stand mixer. With a paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar mix together until light, creamy and fluffy. This can take about 5 - 10 minutes depending on the texture and temperature of the butter and the ambient room temperature.
4. Whisk the egg whites separately until slightly frothy. This is to break up the egg whites and to make them loose. They do not have to be whisked into a meringue.
5. Add the whisked egg whites to the butter-sugar mixture. Mix for 2 - 3 minutes until the egg whites have completely incorporated into the butter.
6. Next, add in the rest of the wet ingredients and mix until well incorporated. If the mixture becomes grainy, do not worry. This can happen if the ingredients are at different temperatures, but it will come together after the dry ingredients have been added.
7. Gently fold in the sifted dry ingredients. Be careful to NOT OVER-MIX the dry ingredients.
8. Divide the cake batter equally between the 3 cake pans. Use an ice cream scoop to evenly divide the batter, or use weight measurements to divide the batter with more precision.
9. Use an offset spatula to spread the batter evenly in the cake pan. Knock the pans on your kitchen countertop 2 - 3 times, firmly but not too hard, to knock out any air bubbles stuck in the batter.
10. Bake the cake pans in the preheated oven for about 25 - 35 minutes, rotating once, halfway through the baking time. Baking time is 25 - 30 minutes without cake strips, and up to 35 minutes with cake strips.
11. The cake is done when a toothpick inserted comes out clean, or when the surface of the cakes are just starting to be springy to the touch.
12. Remove the cake layers from the oven and let them cool for 5 - 10 minutes. While the cake is still warm, gently remove the cakes from the pans and keep them on cooling racks.
13. While still warm, soak the cakes with the coconut syrup, using a squeeze bottle (about 3 - 4 tbsp per cake layer).
14. Let the cakes cool completely.
15. While the cakes are cooling, you can make the Swiss meringue buttercream (you can also make this the day before too).

Coconut syrup - this can be made a day ahead, or just before the cake is being made.

1. Place the sugar and coconut milk in a saucepan. Heat over medium-high heat and stir to dissolve the sugar. Heat until the mixture comes to a boil. Lower the heat and let it simmer for 2 - 5 minutes and then remove from the heat.
2. Let the syrup cool down completely. Store the syrup in a squeeze bottle until needed. You can use the syrup while warm or at room temperature.

Swiss meringue buttercream - can be made ahead of time.

1. Use my perfect Swiss meringue buttercream recipe to make the lemon Swiss meringue buttercream. Use the quantities given in this recipe, and add the lemon extract in place of the vanilla extract.

Frosting and decorating the cake

1. Once the cakes have cooled down, they are ready to be frosted. If needed, trim and level the cake tops to make them evenly flat.
2. Place a cake layer on your cake turntable (or platter). Measure and place about ½ - ¾ cup of Swiss meringue frosting on top of the cake and use an offset spatula to spread it evenly. Leave a small margin along the edge of the cake.
3. Place the second cake layer on top and repeat with an equal amount of frosting.
4. Place the final cake layer on top, with the bottom side facing up (this is to create a flat surface on top). Place about ¾ - 1 cup of frosting and spread the frosting along the top and sides of the cake, filling any gaps between cake layers. Make sure the frosting is spread very thin, over the top and sides, to create a flat surface and straight sides. This will be your crumb coating (which catches and seals in any loose crumbs).
5. Let the frosting “set” in the fridge or in a cool place for about 30 minutes.
6. Once the crumb coating is “set”, apply another thin layer of white frosting. It doesn’t have to be smooth, but make sure it’s as even as possible.
7. Next, in four bowls - place 1 to 1 ½ cups of frosting each. Color one bowl with a deep blue color. Color the second bowl with a lighter blue color and the third bowl with a pastel blue color. You can use the same blue color, but add fewer drops of blue coloring to match the gradient. Keep the final bowl plain white.
8. Using a small spatula, take small dollops of the blue frosting and create spatula strokes of the buttercream on the white cake surface. Alternate between the different blue colors and white to create a blue and white spatula painted cake. Read the post for more tips on how to do this.
9. Place the remaining frosting on plastic wrap, and roll it up to create a tube of frosting with all the remaining colors. Cut one end of the tube of frosting. Place this inside a pastry bag, which is attached with a large closed star piping tip. When you squeeze the pastry bag, you should now get blue and white swirls of frosting coming out of the piping tip.
10. Pipe large swirls of white and blue frosting on the top of the cake. Read the post for more tips on how to do this.
11. Decorate with matching sprinkles.