Blessings From My Kitchen: Food Network's Tiki Cocktail Cake

Thursday, July 30, 2020

Food Network's Tiki Cocktail Cake

There's immense pressure upon telling people that you bake cake. It leads to a sort of mandatory demo- preferably to ease your own mind, than others'- when they know you do, yet have never had a chance to actually see a snippet of the battalion you've baked within your amateur CakeBoss existence.

Often in such predicaments, providence ushers in a bounty of opportunities for cake gifting.

Like when Kiddo Two's social life takes on scores higher than any report card he brings home and he believes no pool party is a party without him. To his credit, as most living in a residential desert, inferno temps do require regular dips into backyard lagoons. If you don't have one, you amicably comply to jump in someone else's.

Which could be bane or boon to my time in the kitchen. Just for the record, I believe I am indefinitely pressed to one- up any and all potlucks/mealshares/bringalongs that come to my attention. Add to that, wowing a bunch of teenagers while keeping them well fed is no mean feat.

Tiki cake is certainly the baking experiment for when you're rushed off your feet. It's easy to make, with cutting and pasting techniques leveling skills of fourth grade Art class.

Common cake art theory involves the minimum input of half a day's work. Not so in this demo from a 5 year old issue of Food Network mag. Multiple slicing does not affect structural integrity and your less-than-two-hours make you look like a Michelin star boss.

Most of us can agree, a no-frills, no-fuss chocolate cake/ frosting combo deal is an ideal for such crowd pleaser situations. It most definitely elicits unmatched glee from buddies who see peeling apart a frosty, two sizes their face as a magnificent affair.

In today's story, melty marshmallow fondant made the beverage, while toasted coconut thatched its sides. In hindsight, and in less hurry, crucial things like chilling after icing between layers could've made Tiki taller.

While we still have quite a few more days left of 110°F + weather, I might be on a frenzy of tiki cocktail concoctioning.

And, of course, I mean cake.

Right ?

(My Black Forest Cake recipe adapted from AllRecipes)
( FN's Instructions for Tiki Cocktail cake)

Ingredients:

2 1⁄8 c all-purpose flour
2 c sugar
¾ c cocoa powder
1 ½ tsp baking powder
¾ tsp baking soda
¾ tsp salt
3 eggs
1 c milk
½ c vegetable oil
2 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 °F. Grease and flour two cake pans. I used 1 six inch round cake pan and 2 1 quart oveproof proof for this project.
In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine flour, sugar, and the rest of the dry ingredients.
Add in wet ingredients; beat on medium speed until well blended. Pour batter into prepared pans.
Bake for 35 minutes, or when toothpick inserted in centers comes out clean. Cool layers in pans for 5 minutes. Carefully remove from pans. Cool on wire racks completely.