Toto is a Jamaican coconut cake, and it is supposed to be heavy. Not a light sponge: a dense, moist, spiced cake where the coconut flakes stand right out. Jamaican cooks bake it on a Sunday evening, often from the coconut left over after making coconut milk for the rice and peas.
Ingredients
Amounts here make one cake of about 12 slices, in a rectangular pan, a round tin, or a cast iron skillet.
Cuisinart Power Advantage Plus 9-Speed Hand Mixer, 220W Motor, Electric Mixer with Dishwasher-Safe Beaters, Storage Case, HM-90BCS, Brushed Chrome
Belizean cake recipes, fruit cake and rum cake and polvorón, call for creaming butter and sugar to ribbon stage. A multi-speed hand mixer is what every home kitchen reaches for.
The coconut
- 2 cups (170 g) grated coconut or coconut flakes, including the coconut trash left from making milk.
- 1 cup (240 ml) rich coconut milk.
The batter
- 2 cups (250 g) all-purpose flour.
- 1 cup (200 g) brown sugar, or granulated.
- 1/2 cup (110 g) butter, margarine, or coconut oil.
- 2 tsp baking powder and 1/2 tsp baking soda.
- 2 eggs, contested, see below.
Spice and flavouring
- 1 tsp cinnamon powder.
- 1 tsp freshly grated nutmeg.
- 1 tsp mixed spice: ginger, mace, allspice, cloves, cinnamon.
- 1 tsp vanilla.
- 2 tbsp (30 ml) white or dark rum, optional.
- A few drops rose water and almond essence, optional.
Instructions
- Cream the butter or margarine with the sugar until well mixed and the sugar grains have broken down.
- Combine the flour, grated coconut, spices, baking powder, and baking soda in a separate bowl.
- Work the coconut milk, vanilla, and the rum and essences if you are using them into the creamed sugar and fat.
- Bring the wet and dry together into a thick batter. It should be heavy, not pourable.
- Pour into a greased pan, rectangular, round, or a cast iron skillet.
- Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 45 minutes to an hour, until set through.
- Cool at least 20 minutes before slicing. A hot toto crumbles.
Heavy Is the Point
The most useful thing a first-time baker can know about toto is that it is not meant to be light. One cook says it plainly: coconut toto is not supposed to be light like cake, it is supposed to be heavy. If yours comes out airy, something has gone wrong.
The coconut is what carries that weight, and it should be visible. In a proper toto the coconut flakes stand right out in the crumb, and they are what keep it moist rather than dry.
Which is why the batter should look thick going into the pan. Toto batter is closer to a heavy pudding mixture than a cake batter, and thinning it to something pourable is the fastest way to lose the texture the dish is judged on.
The Sunday Coconut Trash
The neatest thing about toto is where the coconut comes from. Making fresh coconut milk leaves behind the squeezed grated flesh, which Jamaicans call coconut trash, and toto is what that becomes.
The rhythm is a Sunday one. Coconut milk gets made for the rice and peas, the trash is set aside, and a toto is whipped up quick and fast on the Sunday evening from what would otherwise be thrown out. A slice with a cup of tea sent children off to school the next morning.
If you are squeezing your own milk, this is worth planning for. Blend the fresh coconut, hand-squeeze the liquid through a strainer for the stew peas or the rice, and keep what stays in the strainer for the cake.
Where the Cooks Split
Eggs are the real disagreement. One cook states outright that no egg is needed. Another uses two. An egg-free toto is denser and keeps the coconut more forward; with eggs it lifts slightly and reads a little more like a conventional cake.
The pan divides them too. One insists on a cast iron skillet. Another says a rectangular pan is typical but any cake pan will do. Cast iron holds heat harder and gives a firmer crust at the edges, which suits a cake that wants density.
Additions are the third split. Most keep it strictly coconut; one adds raisins and cranberries. And one cook finishes with a glaze of melted butter and honey brushed over the top, then returns the cake to the oven for five minutes for a golden finish, which none of the others do.
Storage and Make-Ahead
Toto keeps better than a light cake because of the density and the coconut fat. Four to five days in an airtight container at room temperature, and it stays moist rather than staling into dryness.
It is arguably better on day two, once the spices have settled and the crumb has firmed. That makes it a genuine make-ahead for a week of lunchboxes or a pot of tea, which is close to how it is actually eaten.
Slices freeze for up to three months, wrapped individually. Thaw at room temperature rather than warming, since reheating dries the edges of a cake this dense.
Tips and Variations
Cream the sugar properly. One cook uses a hand mixer specifically to break the sugar grains down, and undissolved sugar is a common cause of a gritty crumb in a cake that has no fine texture to hide it.
Rum, rose water, and almond essence are all optional and all traditional in some kitchens. Belize makes dense coconut sweets in the same spirit: our cassava pone is the closest relative, coconut and nutmeg baked heavy, with grated cassava standing in for the flour and giving it a chew that toto does not have.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Jamaican toto?
A dense, moist Jamaican coconut cake, spiced with nutmeg and cinnamon and made with grated coconut and coconut milk. It is also simply called coconut cake, and it is deliberately heavy rather than light.
Why is my toto light and fluffy?
Then it is not really toto. The cooks are explicit that it should be heavy. Usually the batter was thinned too far or over-aerated; toto batter should be thick, closer to a heavy pudding mix than a pourable cake batter.
What is coconut trash?
The grated coconut left in the strainer after you squeeze fresh coconut milk. Rather than discard it, Jamaican cooks use it in toto, which is why the cake so often follows a Sunday pot of rice and peas.
Does toto need eggs?
Cooks disagree. One says no egg is needed at all; another uses two. Without eggs it is denser and more coconut-forward, with them it lifts slightly.
How long does toto keep?
Four to five days airtight at room temperature, and it stays moist because of the coconut fat and the density. Slices freeze for up to three months.
What size cake does this make?
One cake of about 12 slices, from 2 cups (250 g) of flour and 2 cups (170 g) of grated coconut. It fits a rectangular pan, a round tin, or a large cast iron skillet.
About Joe Post
Joe Post is the founder and editor of Belize News Post. He grew up in Corozal Town, Belize, on the Caribbean sea with a view across Corozal Bay to Cerro Maya. He has lived in Costa Rica, Kenya, England, Spain, and the United States. He grew up cooking alongside his mother and grandmother, and has personally tested the vast majority of the recipes on this site. He started BNP in the early 2000s as one of the few independent Belizean news sources online. Over the years, the food became the stickiest thing. News comes and goes. Food stays.
