I wanted to share a few photos of the Chocolate Tomato Cake with Mystery Ganache and the Southern (Manhattan) Coconut Cake with Silk Meringue Buttercream, both from Rose’s Heavenly Cakes. I made both of these as half size (7 inch) cakes:

Wow, Matthew!  Both cakes are incredibly beautiful and look so delicious!  Picture perfect!

You just AMAZE me.  WOW!!! Do tell.. How does the Chocolate Tomato cake taste?  And, that coconut cake looks so delicious.  So is all of that fresh coconut.  Did you get your cream and milk from the fresh coconut also.  That cake looks so so perfect!!!

Thanks avivaleah and CRenee! The coconut cake includes these coconut components: coconut milk (canned), coconut extract, CocoRibe, frozen grated coconut, coconut “chips”, and the garnish is a small dried Indian coconut which I believe is called ballari coconut. So no, actually I didn’t use any fresh coconut :( I have in the past, but I prefer to use the frozen now as it is so much less work but still tastes fresh

Wow. I am so impressed with your cake skills and photography. I am particularly intrigued by the coconut cake. I love the split coconut decoration!

I love the 7” half concept.  The split COCONUT blew my mind away, just perfect as the coconut flakes and cake seems like pouring off from the coconut.

What a wonderful sense of humor!  The coconut is such a delight.  It seems the smaller cakes ooze elegance. No pun intended. Simply beautiful Matthew.

Fabulous cakes, Matthew!  They look straight out of RHC.  Love the split coconut topper, and photos are lovely as always.

What did the chocolate-tomato cake taste like?

And how did you like the coconut silk meringe buttercream?  Have you had the other RHC coconut cake/ any thoughts on comparing the two?

I’ve just been fantazing about baking a cake, and here come these 2 pictures. Matthew’s pictures will make me want to bake even if I hadn’t been in the mood. I hope they tasted as good as they look. I guess that coconut cake is quite costly - would that come in 2nd after the pistachio cake? Is it the best coconut cake ever? I still regret not being able to have a 2nd slice of a certain coconut cake the week I was home after my father died - another guest had just brought some fudge, and we all had to eat that instead; this is already 7 years that I have missed having another piece of that cake. It looks like this coconut cake would forever take away that regret!

Beautiful, Matthew, both cakes and photography! I’m also curious about the taste of the tomato cake. That was the one recipe I looked at and shuddered…

Ditto to what everyone else said, Matthew! Must also comment on the gorgeous crumb in both cakes. Perfect! I can almost get the mouthfeel looking at the pictures.

Thank you all! Everyone wants to know about the tomato cake To me, it mostly just tastes like a rich chocolate cake. I think no one would ever even think about it unless you told them, and even then it is hard to pick up on anything different. It is most noticeable in the ganache, where you pick up some tanginess, but it is subtle (Silke, don’t worry, you would like it).

Darm, I’m becoming devoted to these 7 inch cakes as it makes the perfect amount for a few people and I don’t feel guilty for either eating too much cake or letting it go to waste.

Julie, loved the silk meringue. Had been a couple years since I made it and I forgot how wonderful it is! I prefer this one between the two coconut cakes.

Knit, the pistachio cake seems expensive in my mind because of the cost of the nuts, but I was just thinking the other day that I actually spent more money total making the chocolate raspberry cake, even though no one ingredient stood out as extravagant. Since I bought most of the things for the coconut cake at my Indian grocery, it was actually fairly inexpensive, but it would cost more at a conventional grocery store.

Thanks Carolita, the first word that came to mind for the coconut cake was “downy” as the crumb was so soft and light!

Stunning cakes Matthew (as always)! I am always amazed at how neat your cakes are. The crumb is to die for   Thanks for the review of the chocolate cake. Everytime I look at that recipe, I wonder what it would taste like.

Thanks Rozanne, I’ve been curious from the moment I saw it too, so I finally had to give in and try it!

Matthew - 17 April 2010 10:11 PM

I wanted to share a few photos of the Chocolate Tomato Cake with Mystery Ganache and the Southern (Manhattan) Coconut Cake with Silk Meringue Buttercream,..

Oh my, these are superb! The feathery velvet texture of the Coconut cake coupled with the gloss of the SMBC make me want to reach through the screen and take it for my own! What stunning presentations. Your work is immaculate.