Coconut Pineapple Cake

 

The Duncan Hines Dolly Parton coconut cake mix has become a recent favorite of mine and I'm finding even more ways to incorporate it into my baking.  I wanted to thank a friend for a recent act of kindness and I thought the cake would be a nice and delicious gift.   This time I took a tropical turn and made a Coconut Pineapple Cake.  Who doesn't love the combination of coconut and pineapple?  [You have the right to remain silent if you don't!]

 

 

The first time I made Dolly's coconut cake I filled and frosting it with cream cheese ermine frosting.  While that cake was delicious, to reduce the sweetness on this cake and let the pineapple flavor really come through, I made a small batch of vanilla pastry cream for the filling.  I then added homemade pineapple compote which was spread between the cake layers.  On top of the pastry cream layer I also applied another thin layer of the pineapple compote.  You can never have enough pineapple in my book.

Lightly sweetened mascarpone whipped cream enveloped the cake which was then finished with a flurry of dessicated coconut.  As I was gifting the cake on Easter Sunday I added a few holiday themed sprinkles.  I can attest that this coconut pineapple cake not only looks good, it tastes amazing!

Dolly Parton's Coconut Cake

Maybe you're familiar with the expression, "What Would Dolly Do?" Well, I think I know.  Dolly would bake!  When I initially heard that Dolly had partnered with Duncan Hines to create a limited edition baking collection I was definitely intrigued.  Dolly is apparently an excellent cook and baker so it seemed a foregone conclusion that her products would be delicious.  

 

 

The challenge was actually finding them in stock.  Due to its immense popularity the mixes were sold out everywhere.  Serendipitously I found the coconut cake mix at a Walmart store in my hometown and immediately snapped up a box.  The coconut cake was the one I really wanted to try so I was very happy that the store had this flavor. 

   

 

Instead of the usual vegetable oil and water that most cake mixes call for, Dolly's cake used milk and butter.  Right off the bat I knew this was going to be rich and decadent cake.  Never a bad thing in my book.  I chose not to use Dolly's buttercream because I find most prepared frostings to be sickly sweet.   Rather, I opted to make cream cheese ermine frosting, which is lightly sweet with a texture similar to a European meringue buttercream.

 

 

Frosting the cake was easy breezy since the sides were covered with sweetened coconut flakes; they hide a myriad of decorating sins.  One taste of Dolly's cake with the cream cheese frosting and I was in heaven.  The cake layers were soft and fluffy with just the right amount of coconut flavor to balance the tangy sweet frosting.  You can be sure I will be making this cake again!  And if I find the banana cake mix I will give that one a go too!