Sunday Spoil: Pina Colada layer cake

You’ll need: For the sponge cakes – 125g butter, softened; 250g castor sugar; 3 large eggs; 165ml Lancewood Double Cream Plain Yoghurt; zest of 1 lime; 220g cake flour; 2 tsp baking powder; 150g desiccated coconut.

For the pineapple filling – 4 cups pineapple, diced; ½ cup castor sugar; juice of 1 lime; 50ml rum.

For the cream cheese frosting – 500g Lancewood Full Fat Plain Cream Cheese, at room temperature; 250g butter, softened; 5ml vanilla essence; 450g icing sugar, sifted.

To decorate – Coconut shavings, toasted.

How to: 

Sponge cakes:

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Grease and line three 20 cm in diameter round cake tins. 

Beat the butter and castor sugar together until light and fluffy. 

Whisk in the eggs, yoghurt and lime zest. In a separate bowl, sift the flour and baking powder together and fold it into the wet ingredients. Gently fold in the coconut. 

Divide the mixture evenly and spoon into the prepared tins. Bake for 25 – 30 minutes or until a skewer inserted comes out clean. 

Leave cakes to cool in the tins for 5 minutes before unmoulding and cooling completely on a wire rack.

Pineapple filling:

Add the pineapple, castor sugar, lime juice and rum to a medium-sized pot and gently simmer for 5 minutes.

Remove from the heat and leave to cool completely.

Cream cheese frosting:

Using a large mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese, butter and vanilla essence together until smooth. Add the icing sugar and mix until well combined.

Assemble the cake by placing one sponge cake onto a serving plate. Top with a ⅓ of the cream cheese frosting and half of the pineapple filling. Repeat the layers, finishing off with a layer of cream cheese frosting. 

To decorate:

Top the cake with toasted coconut shavings.

Recipe prepared by Zola Nene at the 2018 Lancewood Cake-Off competition.

* Recipe & image by Lancewood.