Pina Colada Cake

The Eid holidays are over and I am back at work (sigh!). I had a great time over the weekend, as we went bowling and to the movies, ate a lot and met up with school friends after a very long time. As I had mentioned in the Eid day post, I was in charge of dessert for Eid and this cake was one of the two cakes that I made. I first saw this recipe on Annie's Eats and her cake looked so beautiful and elegant that I knew I wanted to try it out. However, there was one glitch. You see, I had never tasted a Pina Colada before! Yes, mostly because it's a cocktail and also because I thought pineapple and coconut would taste weird together. But after seeing the recipe I was eager to give it a try and went to a restaurant and ordered the mocktail version. Two sips later I was hooked. The flavors were good and I could imagine it in cake form. I knew I had my eid dessert. However, let me be honest and say that the cake part is from a box mix (gasp! I know), but I had to make two desserts and one was very time consuming (more on that epic fail later) and I thought I could bake one cake and use it as the base cake for both the desserts. Well that worked out pretty well and I had my cake ready in no time. The frosting was also made the night before and I just kept in the fridge. The next day, I leveled the cakes and frosted and decorated the cake. We ate it on the third day and it was so moist and yummy. I was a bit skeptical about cream cheese frosting but after the cake rested in the fridge the icing transformed into awesome goodness! Next time I will surely use the cake recipe as I am sure it will be fabulous (as all recipes from Annie's site are).

Recipe Source - Frosting recipe given as is from Annie's Eats with my notes in red.

Ingredients

For The Cake
1 Package Super Moist Betty Crocker White Cake mix. (Any other brand will do)
3 Egg Whites
1 1/4 Cup Water
1/3 Cup Vegetable Oil

For The Frosting
1 Cup Fresh Pineapple Chunks - I used canned but next time will use fresh for more flavor.
12 oz. Cream Cheese (At Room Temperature)
18 Tbsp Unsalted Butter (At Room Temperature)
2 2/3 Cups Confectioners’ Sugar (Sifted)
Yellow Food Coloring (Optional) - Omitted this.

For Decoration
Shredded Sweetened Coconut
Fresh Pineapple Wedges
Fresh Strawberries

Bake The Cakes

Preheat oven to 350° F (175 Degree C). Grease two 9-inch round cake pans and keep aside. Mix and bake the cakes as per package directions. Cool completely before frosting.

Make The Frosting

Puree the pineapple in the food processor until smooth. In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the cream cheese and butter on high speed until smooth and fluffy, about 4 to 5 minutes. Add powdered sugar and mix until smooth. Add pureed pineapple until frosting achieves the desired pineapple flavor (approximately ¾ cup of puree). Add yellow food coloring to achieve a brighter color, if desired. If frosting is too liquid, allow to chill in the refrigerator 30 minutes before using to set up.

Assemble The Cake

Place one of the cake layers on a cardboard cake circle.

Top with a layer of pineapple frosting. Top with remaining cake layer. Frost sides and top of cake with remaining frosting. Garnish with shredded coconut, fresh strawberries and/or pineapple wedges, as desired.

 Happy Eating!!