1-Ready to dive into baking this Raffaello Cake? It’s a layered beauty with almond cake, coconut custard, and Swiss meringue buttercream that comes together in about 2 hours and 35 minutes. I’ll guide you through each step, keeping things light and fun, just like chatting with a friend in the kitchen. Start by preheating your oven and gathering your tools trust me, once you see that fluffy result, you’ll be hooked.

2-First, preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C) and prep three 6-inch pans by greasing them or lining with parchment. In a bowl, mix the almond cake ingredients: whisk together 140g almond flour, 100g all-purpose flour, 1 tsp baking powder, and 1/4 tsp salt. Then, cream 115g unsalted butter with 200g sugar until light, add 3 eggs, 1 tsp vanilla extract, and a couple drops of almond extract, and finally stir in 90ml milk to form a smooth batter.

3-Pour the batter into your pans and bake for about 35 minutes until a toothpick is mostly clean. While that cools, make the coconut custard: heat 3/4 cup of the canned coconut milk with 1 tsp vanilla, then in another bowl, whisk the remaining coconut milk with 1 egg yolk, 75g sugar, and 1 tbsp cornstarch. Combine and cook until thickened, then chill it. For the buttercream, heat 4 egg whites and 200g sugar to 160°F, whip to stiff peaks, and beat in 230g butter along with coconut milk powder and almond extract until smooth.

4-Now for the fun part: layer the cake with buttercream, pipe a dam, add custard and sliced almonds, and repeat. Frost the outside, coat with shredded coconut, and top with buttercream dollops and garnishes. If you’re looking for more baking inspo, our butter pecan layer cake offers similar layering techniques that might spark your creativity.

5-1. Prep and Bake Mix and bake almond cake layers

6-2. Make Custard Cook and chill coconut custard

7-3. Prepare Buttercream Whip Swiss meringue buttercream

8-4. Assemble Layer and decorate the cake