Coconut POG Chiffon Cake recipe (or Lilikoi-Orange Chiffon Cake with Coconut)

Here is a recipe for the month of June.

Do you know what POG is? If you are from Hawaii you do! It's an 'onolicious' blend/mixture of Passion Fruit, Orange and Guava juices. I have some Passion Fruit juice concentrate (Passion Fruit is called Lilikoi in Hawaiian) that I get from the island of Kauai. This cake recipe was born from a craving for Lilikoi and a way to use the Lilikoi juice I have in a cake.

If you have a chance, you should definitely stop by Aunty Lilikoi's on Kauai, but if you can't go there, they will ship their products to you. They have great honeys and mustards made with Lilikoi too (an award winning mustard). If you want the Lilikoi juice concentrate shipped to you, you will have to phone them (last time I checked, they didn't have that up on the website).

Their web address is www.auntylilikoi.com.

I also wanted to incorporate some Guava into this cake as well. So I found that by using Guava paste slices in this recipe, the end result is like having Guava jelly inside the cake. Guava paste is not easy to find, even in Hawaii. It's a actually eaten mostly in Brazil, Puerto Rico and Cuba (maybe in some other South American countries like Mexico as well). You can usually find it at a Latino/Cuban foods store (or try buying some on Ebay like I do, it stays fresh for 'eons' being that it is like a fruit leather, though I am keeping some extra packages in the freezer since I won't use them for a while).

It's not easy to slice the Guava paste thinly (it's very sticky) and I would imagine that not alot of people who are familiar with Guava paste would think to use it in a cake like this but after a few trials and errors, I think it works out to give a nice 'extra' to this Lilikoi chiffon cake. Normally I don't like recipes that have hard to find ingredients but I think this is worth it.

You could leave out the Guava paste from this recipe if you like, it's not imperative to the cake being a success, but then you'd need to change the name of the cake to Lilikoi-Orange Chiffon Cake with Coconut or some other such title.

So, here is the recipe and some pictures from the last time I baked one. I hope you will enjoy! It's one of my favorite cakes to bake now!

Please note that the photos here are of a cake baked with this following recipe cut in half, so a cake made with with the full recipe will turn out to be thicker/taller than seen in these pictures.

Don't forget you can click on the photos to enlarge them.

Coconut P.O.G. Chiffon Cake
(Coconut, Passion, Orange, Guava)

Ingredients
2 ¼ c. Sifted Cake Flour
1 ½ c. Sugar (preferably Fine/Castor Sugar)
1 tablespoon Baking Powder
1 teaspoon Salt
½ c. Vegetable Oil
5 Egg Yolks
1 teaspoon Finely Grated Orange or Lemon Peel (zest)
¾ c. Orange Juice and Lilikoi (Passion Fruit) Juice from concentrate (mixed together, in fairly equal amounts)
1 c. Egg Whites (usually this is exactly what will be left over after separating the 5 yolks above)
½ teaspoon Cream of Tartar
1 c. Shredded Coconut (fine)
Guava Paste (sliced into thin pieces) *optional
1/3 c. Shredded Coconut *also optional

Lilikoi Glaze
1/4 c. Powdered Sugar
Mix in Likikoi juice to desired consistency (approximately 2-3 teaspoons)

Preparation
In a large bowl, sift together the cake flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Make a well in the center and then add the oil, egg yolks, orange (or lemon) peel and the orange and lilikoi juices. Blend all together well and beat until smooth.

In a larger separate bowl, beat egg whites and cream of tartar until very stiff peaks form. Pour first mixture in a thin stream, gently and evenly over the egg whites. Sprinkle the fine shredded coconut on top and then fold all until just blended.

Gently pour or spoon 2/3 of the batter evenly into an ungreased 10 inch tube cake pan. Bake for 3 minutes only to just slightly harden the surface (if you do not harden the surface like this before adding the Guava paste slices, because they are heavy they will sink to the bottom of the pan during baking). Do not bake longer than the 3 minutes.

Tube cake pan with 2/3 of the batter poured in

Remove the cake pan from oven and gently arrange the guava paste slices on top the slightly hardened batter, evenly, or just here and there depending on how much you want to be inside your cake. I personally like alot. Do not press the slices down into the batter (again, the point is to try and keep the guava paste from sinking down to the bottom of the batter while baking). Also, as you place the guava paste slices around, keep them from touching the sides of the cake pan (the guava paste will melt and spread out a little bit during baking and the cake batter will need to contain the guava paste on the edges, otherwise you will have sticky holes of oozing guava on the sides/edges of your cake when it is finished).

Guava paste package and slices

Pour remaining batter evenly over all (gently spread it around to be even if necessary) and return the cake pan to the oven.

Bake at 325 F (160 C) for approximately 55 minutes (check for doneness by inserting a clean butter knife (when it comes out clean, without wet cake batter on it, the cake is done).

Allow to cool completely. Once cooled, loosen sides away from cake pan gently and invert cake onto a platter or cake pedestal and remove from pan.

Finished cake after cooling

Drizzle with Lilikoi glaze (as much or as little as you like) and then immediately sprinkle with some shredded Coconut, then serve.

Cake will keep in refrigerator for several days or can be frozen for up to 3 months.

Slices of the cake arranged on a plate, after glazing and sprinkling with shredded Coconut.
Oishii!