Chocolate Coconut Cream Cake (C4)

This is a dessert I serve out at Camp that I call C4. For the dinner party, I cut it into diamonds and served it with a coconut caramel, but it is essentially the same cake I make for the camp.

For the chocolate cake, I first prepared 3 half sheet pans. I sprayed them, put parchment on top & them lightly sprayed the parchment.


I took two of the Duncan Hines cake mixes from the store & just made the batter according to their directions. I then portioned the cake batter equally between the 3 sheet pans.


I then spread the batter out, as equally as I could.


I baked them in a 350 degree oven until they were done, about 20-25 minutes.


I them put the cakes in the freezer, as frozen cake sheets are so much easier to work with.

For the topping, I took a couple of cups of sweetened coconut flakes and spread them out on a sheet pan. I toasted them in a 350 oven until they were golden, about 8 minutes.


For the coconut pastry cream, I scaled out the following:
2 Cans Coconut Milk (13.5oz each)
1 1/3 Cups Sugar
12oz Heavy Cream

1 Cup Heavy Cream
1 Cup Milk
7T Cornstarch

9ea Egg Yolks
Pinch of Salt

I heated up the Coconut Milk, Sugar & Heavy Cream and kept the other two mixtures in separate mixing bowls.


I brought the Coconut milk mixture up to a simmer and then cut off the heat. I tempered the liquid into the eggs, ladle by ladle while constantly stirring, so that the eggs didn't scramble.



After I had brought to temperature of the eggs up by tempering in the hot coconut milk mixture, I added them back to the pot.


I whisked the cornstarch mixture together, making sure there were no lumps and added it to the pot, constantly whisking. I turned the heat back on (about a medium-low) and stirred it until the pastry cream thickened.


I took the pot off heat and added in:
3T Butter
1oz Vanilla
2/3 Cup Sweetened Coconut Flakes



I stirred it around until it was all incorporated and then put it in the fridge to chill.

To make the cake, I inverted a sheet pan and put a piece of parchment on top, then put the first layer of frozen chocolate cake on top of the pan.


I put half of the coconut pastry cream on top of the first layer of the cake and spread it out evenly.


I then added the second layer of cake on top.



I then added the second half of the coconut pastry cream on the second layer of chocolate cake and spread it out evenly.


And then added the last layer of chocolate cake to the top.


To finish the cake, I cut it into diamond pieces, and piped whip cream onto the top.



I then added the coconut caramel over the top.


And then sprinkled the coconut topping over the cakes.