What was the first cocktail you ever wanted to try? For Amber Weiss of Sweetpea Darlingheart it was a Piña Colada for sure!
Tropical, sweet, creamy and fragrant – what more could you want?
Time
2 hours (factoring in the vanilla sponge)
Suitable for
Ages 12+
What you’ll need
You will need 3 x 17cm or so springform cake tins, as well as the usual 3 x 21cm or so springform cake tins (multiply the measurements for the base cake by one and a half) | the drained flesh from two 440g cans of crushed pineapple, giving it a little squeeze to get rid of a bit of the excess liquid before adding (keep a generous handful aside for your layering) | the basic vanilla sponge recipe found here | 600g icing sugar | 100g unsalted butter | 250g cream cheese | zest from two limes | coconut flakes | slices of lime for decoration
What to do
Lime Cheese Frosting
- Place your icing sugar, butter and lime juice into an electric mixer. Now you are going to turn the mixer on, but first do yourself a favour and cover the mixer loosely with a tea towel, holding it closed, and start on slow speed. Otherwise, you may have an icing sugar explosion and cover yourself and your kitchen in sweetness. Once the immediate danger has passed, turn up to medium speed and beat ingredients until well mixed. While the mixer is still going, add all the cream cheese in one go as well as the lime zest, and beat until it is light, pale, creamy and looks amazing. Stop the mixer now! If you overbeat, it can become runny.
It’s Layering Time!
- Using your vanilla sponge,place the first layer of the larger pineapple cake on your cake plate. Top this with a generous layer of the lime cream cheese, sprinkle with some shredded coconut and dot with some crushed pineapple.
- Now add your final big layer of pineapple cake. At this point, you want to frost the bottom cake all around and the top too. Centre the first of the smaller cake layers on the top of the base cake. Layer with the frosting, coconut and pineapple, and then again until you have finished off with your final cake layer.
- Now you can get to frosting the top little cake all around and on the top, and neaten off the base cake too if need be. Press some coconut flakes into the sides of the cakes and top with your three delicate lime slices, or go crazy and do something else flash!
Tip
If you are going to eat your cake the same day and not transport it too far, then you can just place the smaller 17cm cake directly on top. If you are going to store your cake for more than a few hours or move it to another venue, things can get a little more complicated and I would recommend using dowels for reinforcement.
Food Styling + Recipe Development Sweetpea Darlingheart | Photography by Love Katie + Sarah Photography
Pineapple Pina Colada Cake
