This Raffaello inspired cake is the perfect combination of coconut, almond and white chocolate.
Happy Friday! We are back with a cake. And when we say cake we mean a freaking cake. We made this cake at the end of 2020 and it is definitely our favorite of the whole year. Not only did it taste delicious but just look at it. She is a looker, that is for sure!
If you don’t know what a Raffaello is, they can be found in the candy our chocolate aisle of most grocery stores and even on Amazon. They are little round almond and coconut bundles of joy.
Ingredients for this Raffaello cake
This cake is special because it’s a variation from a a typical vanilla cake. This cake is made with all purpose flour but also a little bit of almond flour. It also has almond extract in it. Almond extract is very underrated and we actually think it should be in all desserts. It gives this cake a delicious almond flavor that pairs so nicely with ALL the coconut flavor.
As we said before, this cake also has a ton of coconut flavor. Not only is the outside of the cake completely covered in toasted coconut, the cake layers are also soaked in a coconut simple syrup. What is a simple syrup? It’s simply a syrup made with sugar, water and coconut extract. You soak the cooled cake layers with some of this syrup before assembly to add even more flavor to the cake while also keeping the layers nice and moist. We don’t always simple syrup our cakes as we don’t believe it is necessary all the time, but we would definitely recommend it for this cake!
Making the Raffaello cake
It looks like there are a lot of steps to this cake. While it does have a few more components than your average plain vanilla cake with vanilla buttercream the finished product is 100% worth it.
The first thing you are going to want to do is make your white chocolate ganache. This needs time to cool so we recommend making this first.
Next, you will want to work on your cake layers. While the layers are baking, work on the simple syrup and the buttercream.
When the ganache is cool and thickened, WHIP, BABY, WHIP. You are going to want to whip it just like you would whipped cream. In a stand mixer with a whisk attachment. It will get thick and pipeable.
Alrighttttt. So your cakes are cool, you’ve brushed each layer with some of the simple syrup. Now you want to create a dam around the outside of the bottom layer by piping a ring of the coconut buttercream around the outside. Fill the inside of the dam with some of the whipped ganache and top with the next layer. Continue these steps until the final cake layer has been added!
Then pipe the entire thing with the remainder of the coconut buttercream and coat the outside with some toasted coconut and crushed almonds if desired.
What size cake does this make?
We made a 3 layer 6 inch cake. We love 6 inch cakes here as they are smaller, cuter, and much more manageable when we have no-one else to feed. However, if you wanted to make an 8 inch cake, you would just only get 2 layers and they would be thinner.
We really hope you love this cake as much as we do! Make sure to check out some of our other cakes!
Happy baking!
Coconut Raffaello Cake
Ingredients
For the almond cake
- 1 1/2 cups flour
- 3/4 cups almond flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 3/4 cup unsalted butter room temp
- 1 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 3 eggs
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp almond extract
- 3/4 cup whole milk
for the whipped white chocolate ganache
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 1 cup white chocolate chips
for the coconut simple syrup
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup water
- 1 tsp coconut extract
For the coconut buttercream
- 3 sticks unsalted butter room temp
- 3 cups powdered sugar
- 1 tbsp coconnut extract
- 3-4 tbsp milk
For garnish
- Raffaello chocolates
- Toasted shredded coconut
- Sliced almonds
Instructions
For the almond cake
- Preheat oven to 350F. Line 3 6 in pans with parchment paper and spray with cooking spray.
- In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment cream together the butter and sugar until fluffy. 2-3 minutes. Reduce speed and add in eggs one at a time scraping the bowl after each addition.
- Add in vanilla and almond extracts
- In a separate bowl, mix together flour, almond flour and baking powder.
- Alternate adding flour mixture and milk to the butter mixture. Flour, milk, flour, milk.
- Mix until fully incorporated.
- Divide batter between the 3 pans and bake for 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
For the whipped ganache
- Heat the heavy cream in the microwave or on the stove until boiling. Add in white chocolate and cover with foil for 5 minutes.
- After 5 minutes, remove foil and stir to combine cream and chocolate.
- Put ganache in the fridge to get really cold and thick. The thicker you allow the ganache to get, the thicker your whipped ganache will be. We chilled ours overnight.
- Once chilled and thick, place in a stand mixer with whisk attachment and beat until it gets thick like whipped cream.
for the coconut syrup
- In a small saucepan, heat all syrup ingredients until it reaches a simmer. Continue to cook for 1-2 minutes.
- Remove from heat and allow to cool.
For the buttercream
- Beat butter until light and fluffy. Add in coconut extract.
- Slowly add in powdered sugar and continue to beat.
- Add in milk 1 tablespoon at a time to reach desired consistency.
Assembly
- Once cake is cool and leveled, brush some of the coconut syrup on top of each layer of cake. Place coconut buttercream in a piping bag fitted with a large round tip and pipe a layer of icing around the outside of the cake to create a dam.
- Spoon some of the ganache in the center and smooth out. Place another layer on top and repeat the same process.
- After the top layer is added, using remaining buttercream to frost the outside of the cake.
- If desired, cover the outside of the cake with sliced almonds and toasted coconut by using your hand to press the coconut/almonds to the side.
- Top with Raffaello's if desired.