Tropical Coconut Cake

For Cake:
Preheat oven to 350F. Grease and flour three round cake pans well.

Separate eggs. Beat egg whites till stiff peaks form then set aside.

Mix flour, salt and baking powder in a medium bowl and set aside.

Cream together butter and sugar and add egg yolks. Mix well.

Into the creamed mixture, add flour and milk alternately 1/3 at a time each, starting and ending with flour. Mix well then add beaten egg whites stirring lightly till mixed thoroughly. Add vanilla and coconut extracts.

Pour into prepared pans and bake for 25 to 30 minutes.

For the pineapple curd:
While your cake is baking, open can of crushed pineapple. Pour into a large pot, add sugar and cornstarch and mix thoroughly over medium heat. Stir until bubbly. In a bowl with egg yolks pour ½ cup of the warm pineapple mixture mix (to temper the eggs) and then add that mix back to your pot of bubbly mix.. Cook 3 more minutes stirring constantly. Remove from heat and add extract and butter, mix to combine then let cool completely.

For the icing:
In a small pot on low heat stir together white chocolate and cream until melted. Let cool.

In mixing bowl cream together sour cream, coconut extract and butter. Add cooled white chocolate, mix again. Then add confectioners sugar and mix well. Add more sugar as needed.

To assemble:

Place one cake round on serving platter.. spread on half of the pineapple curd. Top with another cake round and repeat with the remaining curd. Top with final cake round. Lightly spread the icing around sides and top of cake.

This is where it gets a little fun.. With my hands I grab some toasted coconut and start pressing it lightly to the sides of the cake. About 1/3 will fall off ( make sure you do this on top of a clean counter so you can gather it back up to your pile). If your cake is uneven on the sides (mine usually are) you can build up a flat side to your cake using the coconut. Completely cover the sides leaving the top plain. This is where we will have our white chocolate curls.