Two of the ten cakes in our layer cake range are built on coconut. They taste almost nothing alike. One is bright, tropical and vanilla-based. The other is the Prestige Coconut Cake: dark, deep, closer to a chocolate cake that happens to have coconut in it. Working out which of the two you are actually after is most of the decision.
What is inside the Prestige
Four layers. The first is a velvety chocolate sponge carrying a genuinely intense cocoa base. Between the layers sits a creamy coconut milk caramel, made in house, smooth and milky enough to stop the chocolate turning heavy. The whole cake is then encased in dark chocolate ganache and finished with Raffaello touches on top, which shatter into flakes under the knife.
The cake goes dark first and sweet second. Coconut does not sit on the surface as a garnish. It runs through the middle as caramel. Softening the ganache, never competing with it. The cocoa keeps its bitter edge all the way through the slice. Ever thought a chocolate cake was one flat note? Here is the argument against that.
Prestige or Tropical
The Tropical Coconut Cake works the opposite way round. Delicate vanilla sponge, a silky coconut filling, caramelised pineapple on top. The fruit does the heavy lifting. The cake reads bright, and slightly sharp.
Put simply: Prestige for someone whose favourite dessert is chocolate, Tropical for someone who orders fruit. If the recipient sits between the two, look at the Dulce Caramel. It pairs chocolate sponge with dulce de leche, condensed milk cooked slowly down to caramel. The Snow White goes the other direction entirely, vanilla and white chocolate.
Sizes, servings and the price
Every flavour in the specialty layer cake range shares one price ladder. A 15cm is $95 and serves 12 to 15. A 20cm is $120 and serves 20 to 25. A 25cm is $165 and serves 30 to 35. Choosing the Prestige over the Thunder Chocolate costs nothing extra.
Count heads. Do not estimate. These cakes serve more than they look like they will, and ordering one size up out of caution is the most common mistake we see.
Taste a slice before you commit
The Prestige is one of the flavours we sell by the slice, so you can eat a slice before committing to a whole cake for somebody else's celebration.
Do it with the other person involved in the decision. Order the Prestige and one other slice between two of you. Halve both and swap. Watch the second forkful: one of you goes back to the chocolate and stays there. Twenty minutes at a table settles which cake the recipient will actually love. The tasting costs less than the guessing. A pleasant way to spend part of an afternoon, too, which is not a small thing when you are organising somebody else's milestone.
Coconut elsewhere in the range
Coconut runs through our travel cakes too. Sturdy bundts and loaves, built to be carried without delicate frosting. The Anthill Coconut Cake, known in Brazil as Bolo Formigueiro, is a coconut sponge folded through with chocolate sprinkles. They melt slightly in the bake, giving it that spotted look. They also leave dark streaks on a clean knife. The Pineapple Coconut Cake is a moist pineapple cake topped with tres leches and coconut. Both come as a 20cm loaf serving 8, or a 25cm bundt serving 16.
The Pineapple Coconut is also one of three cakes where a no added dairy preference can be selected at checkout. Because the standard cake is topped with tres leches, that preference is a different build of the cake, not the same one with a topping lifted off. Our kitchen is small and without exclusive production areas for all of our different recipes, so traces may occur, and nothing we make is guaranteed safe for severe coeliac disease.
Getting it to the table
The Prestige is made to order on a two-day lead time. You choose the collection date and time at checkout. The picker only shows dates the kitchen can genuinely meet for what is in your cart. Sizes, storage and allergen notes live on our frequently asked questions page, and the birthday cake page shows the range together.
Collection only, from our patisserie inside The Welder at 20-26 Welles Street, Christchurch Central. The cake is handed over assembled in its box, so picking it up the day before is the unhurried option. A night in a fridge in our packaging changes nothing about taste or texture, and our guide to choosing, storing and serving covers the rest. Doors open 10am to 9pm Tuesday to Saturday.
