Chocolate Cherry Coconut Loaf Cake
It has been a week of cherries. Only in the last few years have I been more cognizant about the seasons of foods. I’m not one of those obsessed with in season everything types, usually. If I want goulash in the summer, I turn up the A/C and make it. If I want ice cream in the dead of January, I do as the Viennese do (as, as many Croatians in Zagreb do, since they owned us for centuries). However, when it comes to baking and using fresh fruit, there is nothing like first tasting a fruit that has just come into season for the first time or enjoying a vast cornucopia of said fruits when they abound everywhere the eye can see.
So, as a daughter of a Croatian immigrant, I came to understand that plums and cherries were our best baking friends. Yes, we love almonds. Yes, hazelnut and chocolate and custard cremes which also came from that Austro-Hungarian Empire. Fruit is also key, though. I rattle on and on about the national rakia (aka moonshine) plum brandy, Sljivovica. Of late, I’ve been infusing it into plum tarts and plum jam.
As far as cherries go, at least on this blog, I have a lot in store: traditional Croatian Fritule (fritters existing in just about every culture on earth from Italian Zeppoli, Mexican Churros, and Nigerian Puff Puffs) topped with cherry wine infused cherry compote, Cherry Hazelnut Mousse, and Croatian Cherry Strudel (thanks again, Vienna, for the rule). Today, I decided to take one of my favorite styles of regular old cake, the loaf cake, and create what I wanted with it.
So, cherry and chocolate it is. I racked my brain for a third flavor, a minor flavor. I decided on coconut. The loaf that I ended up with was very dense, almost like a brownie, so this is not your typical light and airy loaf cake.
It is like a rich, double chocolate cake (with a little coffee to bring out the flavor), with sizable chunks of cherry infused with Croatian (yes) cherry wine. A little coconut for extra texture and, when I boyfriend took a piece, I waited with baited breath, thinking “was it too much? Not enough? Too fudgy”? He said no. It was dense, like a brownie, yes. He ate four pieces in 3 days.
Try it. Chocolate Cherry Coconut Loaf in one hour. See how many pieces you can eat.
Chocolate Cherry Coconut Loaf Cake
Ingredients
For the Cake
- 8 tbsp Unsalted butter (softened)
- 3/4 cup Granulated sugar
- 2 Eggs
- 1 tsp Croatian cherry wine or Kirsch
- 1/2 tsp Coconut extract
- 1 cup All purpose flour
- 6 tbsp Cocoa
- 1/2 tsp Baking soda
- 1/2 tsp Salt
- 1/2 cup Instant Espresso Grounds
- 1 cup Cherries, chopped
- 8 oz semisweet chocolate
- 1/2 cup Shredded or flaked coconut
- Additional Cherries and coconut flakes
For the Icing
- 1/4 cup Heavy cream
- 3/4-1 cup Confectioners sugar (add to desired texture)
Instructions
For the Cake
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Grease a loaf pan and line with parchment paper. Set aside.
- Add the espresso grounds to 1/4 cup hot water. Melt the chocolate in a double boiler or in the microwave (the water should be on lower heat.) Once the chocolate is melted, add the coffee/water mix to to the double boiler of chocolate and continue to whisk until incorporated and the chocolate is thinned out. Let cool completely.
- Mix the dry ingredients and set aside.
- In a mixer, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, at least 2 minutes.
- Add in the eggs one at a time, followed by the cherry wine/liqueur and coconut extract.
- Add in the chocolate mixture until combined.
- Lower the speed and add in the dry ingredients mix, spoon by spoon until fully incorporated.
- In the mixing bowl, add in the chopped cherries and coconut and fold in with a spoon until the cherries and coconut are evenly distributed.
- Pour the batter into the loaf pan. Bake for 40-45 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out nearly or totally clean. This is a very fudgy cake, so a few crumbs are fine, as long as it is not batter like.
- After 10 minutes, remove the cake from the loaf and allow to cool completely on a wire rack.
- Make the icing and drizzle on top of the cake. Add additional cherries and coconut flakes for garnish.
