Coconut Banana Whipped Dream Trifle

That's not a typo, this dessert really was a "whipped dream". I made this trifle for Mark because he graduated with his MBA last week and I wanted to make him something special to celebrate his achievement. When I asked him what sweet treat he wanted, his eyes lit up and big smile came across his face. He wanted a coconut pound cake with bananas in between the layers and coconut frosting. I knew I could do that, but then I got inspired to come up with something a bit different. I ran it past him first and he told me to go for it.
This dessert is comprised for 4 separate layers, repeated twice, in the following order: Coconut Pound Cake, Coconut Simple Syrup, Banana Curd, and lastly, Coconut Whipped Cream. I put it into the fridge overnight to macerate, but it could also be served right away too. It's dreamy either way.

Coconut Pound Cake
Yield: The pan that I used served about 20-30 smaller servings, but under normal circumstances I bet this would serve about 8-12 good sized servings
adapted from a McCormick's recipe

1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup vegetable shortening
3 cups sugar
5 whole eggs
2 egg yolks
3 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup whole milk (coconut milk would be good here too!)
1 cup sweetened flaked coconut, loosely packed
1 teaspoon coconut extract
1 teaspoon almond extract

Preheat oven to 350F. Greased and flour 10-inch Bundt pan pan.

Beat butter, shortening and sugar in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy (about 2 minutes). Beat in eggs, one at a time. Add both extracts and mix well.

In a separate bowl, sift flour with salt. Gradually add to butter mixture alternately with milk, being sure to scrape down the bowl. Add coconut and give one last final last good mix for 30 seconds on low. Pour into prepared pan.

Bake 70 to 80 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Remove cake oven. Let it cool for 10 minutes in pan. Invert onto wire rack.

Coconut Simple Syrup

1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup water
1/2 teaspoon coconut extract

Bring the water to a boil. Dissolve the sugar into the boiling water. Once the sugar is dissolved completely, remove the pan from the heat, add extract and stir. Allow to cool completely.

Banana Curd
adapted from a RecipeZaar recipe

5 ripe bananas (still yellow and slightly soft)
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1/2 cup sugar
juice of one room temperature lemon that's been strained
2 eggs
4 egg yolks

Mash up the bananas either with a fork or run them through a food processor.

Melt the butter in a saucepan over low heat. Add the sugar and mix well. Add the lemon juice and bananas and mix well. Cook over medium low heat for 15 minutes, being careful not to boil.

In a separate bowl, whip all whole eggs plus the egg yolks together until foamy with a folk or whisk.

Remove 1/4 cup of the hot banana mixture and put it into a separate bowl. Slowly add 1 tablespoon of the egg mixture to the bowl, whisking vigorously for 30 seconds. Repeat this process two more times. After each tablespoon, watch and make sure the egg doesn't become scrambled. If it does, throw it away and start over.

Add the banana and egg mixture to the saucepan and continue whisking. Then slowly pour the remainder of the eggs directly into the saucepan, whisking briskly the entire time (it helps to have someone either pouring or whisking. It also helps to pour high above the saucepan as this helps to get a long thin ribbon of eggs instead a few big blobs.) Cook, stirring constantly (to prevent it from curdling), until the mixture becomes thick (160 degrees F or 71 degrees C). This will take approximately 10 minutes. Remove from heat and let it cool at least 20 minutes. The curd will continue to thicken as it cools.

Coconut Whipped Cream

2 cups whipped cream that's very cold
1/4 cup white sugar, to to taste
1 teaspoon coconut extract*
1/3 sweetened flaked coconut, loosely packed*

Add the cream to the bowl and whip on high speed with a wire whisk until the cream is slightly thickened. (It helps to put the whisk attachment and bowl into the freezer for about 5 minutes before you start).

Add the sugar and the extract. Continue to whip until cream forms soft peaks.

Add the coconut and mix on low just until it's mixed.
*Note: you can make this plain if you wish, just omit the flaked coconut and replace the coconut extract with vanilla extract (clear-colored if you can find it).

Assembly

Before you start, pick a dish of your choosing to serve this dessert in. I used an oval pan with 3 inch sides. The size and depth of the pan will determine how many layers you will need. The following steps are written for two layers, but this could easily be adapted to as many layers as you want.

In a glass dish or trifle bowl of your choosing, spoon about a 1/4 to 1/2 cup of the banana curd into the dish, just enough to get the bottom of the dish wet.

Slice up the cake into 1/2 in slices (it doesn't have to be perfect) and line the bottom of the pan. Try to get the layer even. Feel free to cut up the pieces into different shapes to fit the pan. I do suggest keeping the edges of the cake pointed toward the center. This helps to make the side view through the glass consistently colored and looking pretty.

Lightly brush with the exposed cake with the simple syrup. ( you will have extra simple syrup).

Top the cake with enough banana curd to cover the cake.

Cover the banana curd with enough whipped cream to cover the banana curd.

Repeat with cake, then simple syrup, and then banana curd (the last layer should be whipped cream). Cover with cling wrap and store in the refrigerator over night. (I made a mini one serving version of this dessert for my husband that didn't macerate overnight and it was still super yummy so you don't have to store it overnight, but it only gets better the longer it sits in the fridge).

When you're ready to serve, scatter enough flaked coconut over the banana curd (optional), then top with the coconut whipped cream. I put it into a big plastic zip bag and piped out the border and "MBA", but you could just spread whipped cream over the top with a rubber spatula.

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Would I Make This Again? Yes. The banana curd was fun and I could see just making that by itself to serve as a jam or with pancakes. The pound cake had the classic pound cake great texture and was very moist. However next time I will use coconut milk instead of whole milk, just to see what that did to the flavor. Overall it was a fun dessert and a successful experiment. My only complaint is that it was a bit too rich for me but if I knew anyone that liked coconut and banana together, I'd wouldn't hesitate to make this again. 4 out of 5 stars.