When we got married, we went the DIY route for our wedding cake and desserts (among other things!). To keep things manageable, we opted for slab cakes for the desserts. Both cakes are special to us – for sentimental reasons but also because they turned out to be pretty darn tasty! One was our version of a Deep’N Delicious cake, the other was a passion fruit and coconut number. Now, five years and two kids later, we’ve finally gotten around to posting the second cake recipe.

Amazingly enough, this recipe survived on paper, albeit covered in toddler doodles, floating around our kitchen for more than a year before we realized we ought to record it someplace a little more permanent. So, here it is!

This recipe is makes one 8″ x 8″ slab cake.

Ingredients for coconut dacquoise:

• 14g almond flour
• 24g cake flour
• 12g icing sugar
• 0.5g salt
• 94g coconut flakes (unsweetened)
• 142g egg whites
• 48g sugar

Ingredients for passion fruit ganache

• 135g white chocolate
• 50g heavy cream
• 30g butter (unsalted)
• 70g passionfruit puree

Ingredients for coconut whipped ganache

• 10g glucose syrup
• 200g white chocolate
• 500g heavy cream
• 60g coconut reduction
• 24g gelatin mass

Tools Required:

• 8″ x 8″ square pan
• small pot (2L)
• spatula
• immersion blender (optional)
• stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment

Instructions:

1. To make the coconut dacquoise: in a large stainless steel bowl, whisk together cake flour, icing sugar, coconut, salt
2. In a stand mixer, whisk egg whites until foamy. Slowly add granulated sugar and whip until egg whites form a stiff peak.
3. Fold in coconut/flour into meringue in stages.
4. Pour batter into a lined 8″ x 8″ square pan and bake at 355°F for 21 minutes.
5. Allow it to cool to room temperature.
6. To make the passion fruit ganache: heat heavy cream, pour into white chocolate, stir in butter and passion fruit juice. Blend with immersion blender, if using.
7. Pour on top of cooled dacquoise and refrigerate for at least 4 hours.
8. To make the coconut whipped ganache: In a small pot, heat heavy cream to roughly 60°C, add gelatin mass then pour into white chocolate.
9. Refrigerate mixture for at least 4 hours before whipping.
10. Finish the cake by topping with whipped ganache and toasted coconut flakes.

FAQs, Tips, Troubleshooting:

• On finishing the cake: Our preference is to create a smooth finish with an offset spatula (the volume should come just to the top of a standard 8″ x 8″ pan so you can easily level it off with a straight edge), but you could also pipe the whipped ganache for a different look.
• Other applications: Each of the components can be used for other applications. We really like the consistency of the whipped ganache and think it would make an excellent topping for a coconut cream pie.