5 Layer Coconut Cake

This cake is beautiful to look at, but most importantly it tastes delicious, it is definitely a coconut cake. Each component has coconut in it, involving coconut extract, shavings, or coconut milk. This is made with a five layer coconut sponge, made with egg whites, so it is white in color, soaked with a coconut rum syrup, filled with a coconut cream custard, coated with a coconut buttercream, and toasted coconut flakes. The individual layers have coconut flakes in between them too. In other words.. you should like coconut if you wanna eat this cake. It's truly heavenly.

First make the coconut custard:

In a stainless steel saucepan put:
1C whole milk
1C coconut milk
1 vanilla bean (scraped out)
simmer on medium heat.
In the meantime in a bowl whisk:
3 whole eggs
1/2C sugar
3T cornstarch. Whisk until there are no lumps.
When the milk mixture is just under boiling, pour it very slowly and steadily into the egg mixture, constantly stirring. Then pour the whole thing back in to the saucepan to thicken it. Have it on medium heat, constantly stir, do not stop until it has a thick pudding consistency. Have a clean bowl ready, with a sifter over it and pour the custard in to the sifter to catch any egg bits or lumps.
Now add 2T coconut rum, and 1t vanilla extract.
Cover the custard with plastic wrap, directly on to the custard, and cool for at least 2 hours. It must be very cold.
To speed it up if needed you can stir the custard constantly over a bowl of ice.
When cool whip 1 1/2C heavy cream add 1/3C powdered sugar, whip till very stiff, then fold this in to the custard. Place in the fridge until needed.

Toasted coconut:

On a sheet tray pour one bag of sweetened flaked coconut, put this in to an oven heated to 350F. Bake till golden, this will happen quickly, but check every 3 minutes to stir the coconut, to toast it evenly. Cool.

Coconut sponge:

Have 3 6" cake pans greased. An oven with a temperature of 350F.
In a mixing bowl put:
1 stick cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1/4C oil
2t salt
1C sugar
1t vanilla extract
Mix till fluffy.
In a separate bowl put:
3/4C coconut milk
1/2C whole milk
6 egg whites
1 vanilla bean, scraped out. Whisk and pour this slowly in to the butter mixture, mixing constantly until smooth.
Add 2 1/4C cake flour, or all purpose flour, paddle just until combined.
Then add 1C toasted coconut (you can put it in a food processor to grind it up more if desired), mix in .
Fill 2 cake pans 3/4 full, then put what is left in to the 3rd cake pan, this will be just under 1/2 full.
Bake for about 25 minutes. Check with a wooden skewer. Cool for 5 minutes, then remove from the cake pans and finish cooling fully on a cooling rack. When cool put one cake a t a time on a cake turn table and with a sharp serrated knife cut off the brown parts off of the top and bottoms of all the cakes, a thin layer will do, don't waste too much. This way when you put it together it will all be white. Then cut 2 of the cakes in half evenly, and make sure the last cake is the same thickness as the others. Separate the layers with parchment paper in between as you prepare the rest of the components.

Coconut soaking syrup:

In a saucepan put:
1/2C sugar
1/2C water. Boil, all the sugar crystals must be gone, pour in to a glass, then add:
1/3C coconut rum

Coconut buttercream:

In a mixing bowl put:
3 sticks soft unsalted butter, it must be soft.
1/2C confectioner's sugar
1C custard
pinch of salt
Mix until smooth. Taste, and add more confectioner's sugar if desired.
It will look lumpy, but just continue mixing. Refresh and mix some more each time you use it to keep it smooth.

Now put it all together.
On a cake turn table, get an 8" cardboard cake circle. Cut off 1" around it. Place it on the turn table. Put on one layer of sponge. Brush it well with the soaking syrup, then put on the custard, eyeball it as you will need this for 4 layers, about 1/2C per layer.
Then sprinkle on about 1/3C of toasted coconut on top of that. Put on the next layer and repeat. Make sure to keep all the layers straight. Save a flat layer for the top of the cake.

When you have finished the "tower", soak the top layer too. Then with a serrated knife cut off all the brown edges, and if the tower became a little crooked this will even everything out.

It should look like this, and now you are ready to use the buttercream. Mix the buttercream just before using, then with an offset spatula put on the buttercream, put it on heavily, then as you turn the cake with the turn table even it out. The finished cake should have 1/4" buttercream on the edges. Put the buttercream on top, make the top flat using the off set spatula.

It doesn't have to be perfectly smooth, as you will then cover the cake with toasted coconut flakes. Then fill a piping bag with the leftover buttercream with any desired tip, we used a large star tip, and pipe a nice border at the bottom of the cake, to hide the rest of the cake circle. Put it on a serving dish, and eat. This cake tastes best at room temperature. Enjoy!