Coconut Atole Cake
The afflatus for this cake comes from the Long Beach, CA panadería I’m planning my honeymoon around, Gusto Bread. I say “planning” when I mean over the weekend I nudged my easy-going fiancé who only ever wants whatever I want if it makes me happy and asked, “How do you feel about Long Beach…” I don’t really talk about being engaged online because one of the least interesting things about me is that I am engaged. (I was raised by a single mother in the early 90s.)
To me, a quintessentially Californian panadería that makes a cake soaked in atole is a perfect honeymoon location. The menu boasts of in-house nixtamal (for a kouign-amann!!!!), and masa madre used for their hefty California Loaf and Concha de Cacao, the sole concha on the Gusto menu. Gusto has been a guiding genius to me on how to best represent my Cali-Mexi panadera roots. I want to spent our honeymoon going to Gusto every morning, then walking what appears on Google maps to be mere blocks to the beach. A few simple pleasures.
The cake is also rather simple. Atole, the pre-colonization era, indigenous maiz-based drink thickened with masa harina or someties pinole, a ground roasted maiz mixed with cocoa and spices, sweetened with piloncillo and served warm, gets poured over a sponge cake. (To learn more about the history of atole and its cultural significance, read this piece from my friend Andrea Aliseda on the Des Los section of the Los Angeles Times.) Some versions are made with a combination of water and milk; this version is made with dos leches: Coconut milk and either cow’s milk or oat milk. The other inspiration for this cake was my various tres leches recipes (1, 2, 3, 4) — although this is not a tres leches cake — and my insistence that they include coconut milk.
The coconut flavor is really front and center here, and then comes in the masa harina. We don’t cook the atole quite as much as we would if we were drinking it as a beverage; we remove the saucepan from the heat at the moment the atole starts to thicken. Atole is traditionally cooked until the mixture is quite thick. I’ve listed the measurement for the masa harina at 3 tablespoons, which may seem odd but 1/4 cup, or 4 tablespoons, thickens the mixture more than I want it to if it’s acting as a soak. If you want yours to be more classically thick like traditional atole, use 1/4 cup masa harina.
Piloncillo is sometimes sold as packs of little 4 ounce cones, but more often you will see them in 6 or 8 ounces. I used my sharpest chef’s knife to scrape my piloncillo into the bowl on my scale to weigh out 4 ounces. Some cones are just drier than others and so if your piloncillo is giving you too much trouble as you scrape, I really suggest just using dark brown sugar instead. (It’s not worth the risk of cutting yourself.)
The sponge is the simpliest four ingredient cake. Whip the eggs and sugar on high in a stand mixer until very, veryyy light yellow, extra voluminious and tripled in size. The mixture should fall like ribbons and then briefly mount on itself when you lift the whisk; this is called the ribbon stage of mixing. Fold in the flour and salt carefully to not deflate the volume you just created, then bake until warm brown on top and a clean toothpick you know the rest.
This recipe will make a quite tall 9-inch, or two shorter 8-inch cakes. You will use all of the soak for the thick 9-inch; about 2/3s for the 8-inch layers. While not technically a tres leches this cake should be treated in the same manner. I like to spend the evening gently spooning additional soak, in this case delicious coconut atole, over the cake every few hours to ensure the center is as moist as the outer edges. Any leftover atole will thicken further as it chills in the fridge; to serve warm add about 1/2 cup water or additional milk then heat gently in a saucepan over medium-low heat.
Frost the cake like you would a tres leches, with either stabilized whipped cream (4 ounces softened cream cheese or mascarpone, 2 tablespoons light brown sugar, pinch of salt, 1 1/2 cups cold heavy cream, whipped to soft peaks) or whipped cream alone. I love a cake that’s been drenched because while I’m typically seeking multiple textures in a dessert — crunchiness, custardy, a velvety crumb — a soaked cake says: What about a singular texture of creaminess that works so well, we miss nothing.
Coconut Atole Cake Recipe
Coconut Atole Cake
Yield: one tall 9-inch cake; two shorter 8-inch cakes
Ingredients
Cake
6 large eggs, room temperature
180 grams cane or granulated sugar
177 grams (about 1 ⅓ cups) all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon kosher salt
Coconut Atole
13.5 ounces (1 can) full-fat coconut milk
4 ounces piloncillo or ½ cup dark brown sugar
1 cinnamon stick or ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 ½ cups cow’s milk or oat milk
3 tablespoons heirloom masa harina
pinch of salt
Heat oven to 350F. Line the bottom of a 9-inch cake pan with at least 3-inch sides with parchment. Weigh out the flour and salt in a mixing bowl and whisk to combine.
In a stand mixer, whisk the eggs and sugar on high speed until the mixture becomes light yellow, very voluminous (tripled in size) and the mixture falls in ribbons then briefly mounts when you lift the whisk, about 10 minutes.
Sift and then fold the flour and salt into the egg mixture, being careful to not overmix or deflate the batter. Scrape the bottom of the bowl where the flour tends to gather. Pour batter into the prepared pan and bake until the cake is warm brown on top and a toothpick inserted into its center comes out clean, about 30-33 minutes.
Cool on a cooling rack for 10 minutes, then invert the pan and let the cake finish cooling upside down.
For the atole: In a 10-cup capacity saucepan set over medium-low, add the coconut milk, piloncillo, cinnamon and vanilla. Heat mixture until piloncillo has melted, then raise the heat to medium.
In a measuring cup or small bowl, whisk the milk and masa harina to combine. Pour it into the coconut milk mixture and whisk to combine. Cook the atole on medium heat until it starts to thicken, about 5 minutes, whisking frequently. Remove from heat and let cool at room temperature just slightly.
Transfer the cooled cake to a plate with a high lip edge to contain the atole. Poke holes throughout the top of the cake with a toothpick; using a ladle now, spoon about half of the warm atole over the cake. Every few hours, spoon additional soak over the cake to ensure it is moistened throughout the center.
Set cake in the fridge where it can hang out until you’re ready to lather it with whipped cream and serve. The cake can – and should – be made up to 24 hours in advance.