I made the Southern Manhattan Coconut cake with SMBC a couple of years ago. This week, the cake is on the HCB schedule. I thought of skipping it until I saw Hector’s posting of coconut curd on his blog. I was intrigued. So I made the cake as cupcakes (1/3 recipe - yield 12 cupcakes @ 42 grams each). I injected some of the curd into the middle of each cupcake. The curd was a bit too runny for this.

The frosting is cornstarch stabilized whipped cream, with some more curd addition. The whipped cream was too runny - I couldn’t get it stiff enough to pipe so I just apply a generous dollop on each cupcake. Next time I will try using more cornstarch or use gelatin.

Taste is excellent! The curd is good by itself but it improved when it’s added into the cream. The cake is soft and crumbly. All together, very coconut-y cupcake.

Well, Jenn, those cupcakes are mighty-cute.  The whipped cream, with its ivory color, looks so beautiful they way it coats the cupcakes—like shiny porcelain!—and the big toasted coconut flakes are just gorgeous. 

The curd looks thin.  I wonder if, for this use, what would be the best way to thicken it?  I wonder if either adding dried coconut, or coconut flour, and letting it sit would absorb some of the liquid, but of course, the texture would be different.  Maybe even reducing the coconut milk by 1/2 before making the curd?

Thanks for the cupcake quantity/weight notes!  Adding to the margins of my RHC!

I love coconut. Your cupcakes look delicious.  I love how you decorated them.

Anne, thanks. The photo of the curd is right after I took it off the stove. As it continued cooling, it thickened considerably. As thick as lemon/orange curd. Not pourable for sure. So I don’t think thickening it further would be good. It would make it hard to incorporate into the whipped cream. Hector commented on my blog that using gelatin to stablized the whipped cream would make it stiff enough - like cloud cream in TCB. Wish I had thought of gelatin!

FlourGirl, thank you for your comments!

They look great, Jenn!  So happy to see Hector’s coconut curd put to good use

Thanks, Jenn, for the clarification!!! When you’d commented that the curd was too runny for injecting into the cuppies, I thought you were photographing it at its final state.  Glad to know that the actual curd is nice and thick!!  Putting it in the cuppies was such a good idea—a surprise creamy filling!!

re the Southern Manhattan Coconut CAKE I am making this week. RLB specifies “CocoRibe” is optional but I can’t find any here. All I can find is Malibu coconut rum. Will that do just as well?
thanks much!!

Hi IndySusan,
The Malibu Rum would work the same. It’s alcohol for flavoring only so I think should be fine.

When I made this I skipped the alcohol and the cake turned out!

Have fun making it (it’s yummy) and please come back to tell us (with photos too).