Chocolate and Coconut Bundt Cake (Snowball Cake)

This cake is an absolute delight. I wanted something a little unusual to break-in my (other) new bundt pan and I’m glad I went looking because otherwise I would never have found this delicious recipe. Dense but light chocolate cake surrounds a moist, fluffy cloud of coconut filling. It is beautiful to look at and even nicer to enjoy with friends after dinner.

The only drawback of this cake (and you may consider it a positive) is that it makes far too much for even my largest (12-cup) bundt tin. As a result, I also made 2 individual cakes, which disappeared just as quickly as the bundt.
If you’re looking for a cake-version of a Bounty chocolate bar, I’m sorry to say you’ll need to keep looking. But if you’re after a chocolate snowball cake, this is the recipe for you.

Ingredients:
Coconut Filling:
•2 egg whites, reserving one yolk
•1/2 cup sugar
•2 tbs flour
•1 tsp vanilla
•1-1/2 cups coconut

Cake:
•2 cups flour
•1-1/4 cups sugar
•1/2 cup packed brown sugar
•2/3 cup cocoa powder
•1/2 tsp salt
•1 tsp baking soda
•2 tsp vanilla
•3 eggs
•1 reserved egg yolk
•3/4 cup milk
•1/2 cup butter, softened
•1/2 cup sour cream

Icing:
•1/4 cup butter
•3 cups icing sugar
•3 tbs cocoa powder
•3-4 tbs milk
•1 tsp vanilla

Firstly, preheat your oven to 180°, then grease and flour a 10″/12 cup bundt pan (even if it’s non-stick) and set aside.
In small bowl, beat the egg whites until foamy. Gradually beat in 1/2 cup sugar until stiff peaks form. The sugar will not dissolve, so do not over-beat the whites in an attempt to achieve this.

Now fold in the coconut, 2 tablespoons of flour and 1 teaspoon of vanilla essence. Set aside; this will be the coconut filling. If you don’t wish to have leftover cake, you could easily halve this entire filling and it would not be found lacking.

In a large mixing bowl, place the 2 cups of flour, 1 & 1/4 cups of white sugar, brown sugar, cocoa powder, salt, baking soda, 2 teaspoons of vanilla essence, 3 whole eggs, 1 egg yolk, milk, butter, and sour cream. Using your electric beaters, mix the batter on low until evenly combined and then beat on medium high for 3 minutes, until the mixture pales and aerates somewhat.

Take your prepared bundt pan and fill it with the chocolate batter about 1/3 of the way up. Now place a careful ring of coconut filling, trying to keep it away from both the edges and the ring in the middle. Finally, top with the cake batter until it reaches about 2cm from the rim. The cake will rise significantly, so don’t overfill! If you need to, repeat this process with your individual ramekins.

Pop the cake in to bake for 50-60 minutes. The cake will start pulling away from the edges when it is done, or you can put a skewer near the centre to test. Cool in the pan for 5 minutes or so and then loosen the edges and turn out onto a serving plate to cool completely. Small cakes will need about 15 minutes to bake. Keep an eye on them; it will depend on the size of your ramekin.

While the cake is cooling (or perhaps while the cake is baking), start making the chocolate glaze icing. Place the butter in a small saucepan over low heat to melt. Once melted, remove from heat and add the icing sugar, cocoa powder, milk and vanilla essence and stir briskly to combine, until the mix is smooth and creamy. Add milk or sugar if you need to, in order to reach a spreadable ‘dripping’ consistency.

When the cake has cooled entirely, spread the icing over the top of the cake and let it run in tantalising drips down the side, into the pattern of your cake.
Once the icing has set a little, you can cover it with glad-wrap and store at room temperature.
I couldn’t tell you how well this keeps, because it all disappeared an hour after I served it. But I did make it the night before and it was excellent the following day.

If you wanted a more authentically ‘snowball’ cake, you could sprinkle the finished product with some dessicated coconut for a hint of nostalgia with your dessert.