Coconut Cream-Filled Chocolate Bundt Cake

Coconut Cream-Filled Chocolate Bundt Cake - made November 8, 2014 from Food Babbles

Do you like chocolate and coconut together? How about pastry cream, coconut and chocolate? If so, get the mixing bowl ready.

I posted the original recipe below but for this cake, I actually made a half recipe of my usual pastry cream, added some coconut to it and used that for the filling. I also made up my own glaze with a couple of cups of confectioners' sugar, enough whole milk to make the consistency I want, vanilla extract and vanilla bean paste. And I skipped the Almond Joys because I hadn't bought Halloween candy this year and didn't have any on hand.

Still, this came out really well. I did follow the chocolate cake directions in the original recipe so no modifications there. The only tricky part to this recipe is it's hard to tell when it's done using the toothpick taste. If you poke the toothpick into the center, you run straight into the filling so it comes out gooey. But when I poked the outer ring of the cake and the part closest to the inner tube of the pan, the toothpick came out clean. And of course I had my usual amnesia and forgot to time the cake in the oven. So those are my excuses as to why this was underbaked just a bit. You can tell when you look closely at the center. The chocolate cake was still a bit closer to batter than cake around the filling. Oops. Still, this is good cake. Next time, I'm just going to have to time it.

1 cup unsalted butter
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup water
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 3/4 cups granulated sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
2 large eggs
1/2 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Filling 
1 egg white
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 cup shredded coconut
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Glaze
1 cup confectioners' sugar, sifted
2-3 tablespoons heavy cream
1/2 tablespoon vanilla bean paste
3 Almond Joy bars, cut in half (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 10-cup bundt pan with nonstick baking spray containing flour. Set aside.
2. Make cake batter: In a small saucepan, add butter, cocoa powder, salt and water. Place over medium heat and stir until ingredients are combined and butter has fully melted. Remove from heat and set aside.
3. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar and baking soda. Add half the cocoa mixture and whisk, just until combined. Add the remaining cocoa mixture and again, whisk just until combined. Next, add eggs one at a time, whisking after each addition until incorporated. Add the sour cream and vanilla extract. Whisk again until combined. Set aside.
4. Make Filling: In a clean, dry glass bowl whip the egg white until soft peaks form. Sprinkle sugar gradually into egg white and continue whipping egg white until stiff peaks form. Gently fold in the coconut, flour and vanilla extract.
5. Add half the chocolate cake batter to the prepared bundt pan and spread evenly. Dollop coconut filling over batter being sure to keep the coconut in the center and not letting it touch the sides of the pan.
6. Spread the remaining cake batter into the bundt pan over the coconut and smooth top evenly.
7. Bake in preheated oven for 45-50 minutes, until a tester inserted comes out clean. Remove cake from oven and cool on a wire rack for 15 minutes. Remove from pan and cool completely on a wire rack.
8. Make glaze: In a small bowl, stir together heavy cream and confectioners' sugar starting with 2 tablespoons cream and adding more to achieve desired consistency. Stir in vanilla bean paste.
9. Drizzle cake with glaze and top with Almond Joy bar halves, if desired.