Do you know about Coquito? If you have never heard of it before, just sit back and get ready because it is the most delicious holiday beverage around. Coquito is a Puerto Rican Christmas drink made of creme de coco, coconut milk, and rum. It’s thick and creamy, boozy and tropical, and I’m always counting down until December when we can start drinking it all month long. Back when I was teaching, one of my teacher friends made the very best coquito and on the last day of school before Winter Break, she would bring a thermos of it and we would drink it after all of the kids had left, sitting on top of student desks with classroom Christmas party remnants strewn about. If you’re a teacher, you know this moment.

So for Day 10 of our 12 Days of Christmas Desserts, we made coquito tiramisu. Lady fingers are soaked in a coquito mixture of creme de coco, coconut milk, and rum and layered with a more-traditional mascarpone/saboyan cream and the whole thing is topped with toasted coconut. It’s fun and festive and very delicious.

Tiramisu in general is a fairly straightforward dessert, the cream filling being the only slightly tricky part. This one is made with a sabayon folded into a mascarpone whipped cream. Sabayon or zabaglione (in Italian) is a cooked custard made with egg yolks and sugar (and sometimes a sweet wine). Egg yolks and sugar are combined in a bowl over a double-boiler and whisked continually as they heat. When the eggs are warm to the touch and all of the sugar granules have dissolved, the mixture will be light in color and thickened. When used in different applications, like spooned over fruit, it has a more saucy consistency, but here we want it thick. When you lift your whisk out of the bowl, you should see a ribbon mark of custard that somewhat holds it’s shape. This then gets folded into the mascarpone whipped cream and it’s just luxurious, that’s all I can say.

Finally, in one last ditch effort to talk you into making this recipe for your Christmas celebration, I’ve discovered that tiramisu might be the perfect Christmas dinner dessert. It holds so well and is better 2-3 days after making it, which means that you can whip this up tomorrow and then not think about dessert again until you serve it on Christmas Day! Does it get any better than that?

Yield

makes one 9x13 baking dish

Author

Anna Ramiz

Prep time

20 Min

Cook time

15 Min

Inactive time

6 Hour

Total time

6 H & 35 M

Coquito Tiramisu

A twist on the classic Tiramisu inspired by Coquito, a Puerto-Rican holiday drink. Boozy and tropical, spiked with coconut and rum.

Ingredients

4 egg yolks
1/4 cup (50 g) granulated sugar
1/4 cup (78 g) sweetened condensed milk
3/4 cup (170 g) heavy cream
1 cup (8 oz) mascarpone cheese
2 tsp vanilla extract, divided
1 15-oz can Creme de Coco
1/4 cup dark or spiced rum
1/2 cup full-fat coconut milk
2 7-oz packages lady finger cookies
1/4 cup toasted coconut, for topping
Ground cinnamon

Instructions

Combine egg yolks, sugar, and 1 tsp vanilla extract in a heat-proof bowl and set over a pot of simmering water. Cook, whisking regularly, until the mixture is thickened and pale, warm to the touch, and sugar granules have dissolved.
Meanwhile, combine heavy cream and sweetened condensed milk in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Whip on medium-high speed until soft peaks form. Add the mascarpone cheese and whip again until completely combined and mixture is light and smooth.
Remove the egg yolks from the double boiler and gently fold whipped mascarpone mixture into the egg mixture, until no streaks remain. Set aside.
In a large glass measuring using an immersion blender, or in a high-speed blender, combine creme de coco, coconut milk, rum and 1 tsp vanilla extract. Blend until smooth and then transfer to a shallow bowl.
Dip each lady finger in the coconut milk mixture, coating completely, and lay them in an even layer in the bottom of your dish. Drizzle about a 1/4 cup of liquid over the lady finger layer and then spread 1/2 of the mascarpone mixture in an even layer on top. Repeat this process with one more layer of lady fingers and the remaining mascarpone cream.
Cover tightly and refrigerate for at least 6 hours, preferably overnight. When you are ready to serve, sprinkle the top with toasted coconut and dust with a bit of ground cinnamon.

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Does anyone else love a good sheet cake? I have vivid memories of making thick, rectangular cakes in college, piling on a bunch of fudge frosting for a friend’s birthday or other cake-demanding celebration and eating the leftover cake straight from the pan with a fork afterwards. To me, that’s the best part of cake. I’ve been playing with flavor combinations that might warrant sheet cake attention and knew that I wanted the cake base to be something thick and fluffy. The temperature in Central Florida has also been hanging out in the 90s for the last month (insert gif of a face dripping with sweat), but since travel (even to the island-themed cocktail bar down the street) is currently forbidden, I was looking for away to satisfy my tropical, tiki-vibe desires. I’ve always loved the combination of coconut and matcha. Coconut desserts can be overly sweet at times, but I think it pairs well with the grassy matcha flavor. And it’s a green-swirled cake and today is Earth Day. Voila! A sheet cake is born.

This cake is made using the reverse creaming method. The reverse creaming method is often used in what are called high-ratio cakes, where the ratio of sugar to flour and eggs to fat are high. Essentially, the dry ingredients, including sugar, are creamed with the fat to create a coarse, bread-crumb like texture, then eggs and liquid are added gradually, making the batter more like, well, cake batter. If you don’t have matcha, or don’t like matcha, feel free to use this as simply a coconut cake base (although the matcha is way more fun).

For the topping, I wanted something light and airy, closer to whipped cream than frosting so I whipped cold coconut cream with a little heavy cream and some powdered sugar. To whip coconut cream, it must be completely cold, so make sure to stick the can in the fridge overnight so it’s sufficiently chilled.

Coconut Matcha Sheet Cake

Yield: 1 9x13” cake

Ingredients:

3 cups (360 g) cake flour

1 1/2 cup (350 g) granulated sugar

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

2 sticks (226 g) unsalted butter, softened

80 g coconut oil

3 eggs, at room temperature

1 tsp vanilla

1/4 tsp coconut extract, optional

1 can (400 g) full-fat coconut milk

1 cup unsweetened shredded coconut

1 T matcha powder

for the frosting

1 can (400 g) coconut cream, chilled overnight

1/2 cup heavy cream

1/3 cup powdered sugar, sifted

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Procedure:

Preheat oven to 350° F and lightly grease a 9x13” baking dish or cake pan. Set aside.
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine cake flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Stir to combine.
In a large measuring cup, whisk together eggs, coconut milk, vanilla, and coconut extract (if using). Set aside
Add room temperature butter and coconut oil to dry ingredients mix on medium speed until batter is coarse and resembles the texture of bread crumbs.
With the mixer on low speed, slowly stream in wet ingredients, mixing only until everything is homogenous and combined. Remove bowl from the mixer and fold with a rubber spatula to ensure no dry spots remain.
Pour about 1/3 of the batter into a small bowl and add the tablespoon of matcha powder. Stir to combine. Fold shredded coconut into the batter remaining in the large mixing bowl.
Pour coconut batter into the prepared pan. Dollop matcha batter on top and use the back of a knife to marble.
Bake for 30-40 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through the baking time, until a toothpick or cake tester comes out clean. Cool completely.

to make the coconut whipped cream

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, combine cold coconut cream and heavy cream. Whip on medium speed until thickened to soft peaks.
Add vanilla extract and powdered sugar and continue to whip until the cream reaches medium peaks. Keep in refrigerator until ready to frost the cake.
To frost: Scoop and spread coconut whipped cream over the entire surface of the cake. Dust with matcha powder and top with toasted coconut if desired.

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