Coconut Birthday Cake

My new favorite cake is coconut cake. Delicious!

Our November challenge was to make a coconut cake. Thank you Tori! It is my birthday today so I had planned to make this as my birthday cake. My friend and fellow HTC baker, Michelle, was coming over to bake it with me. We decided to half the recipe since I only had one cake pan available. We would have had to wait forever to make three layers so we went with one. We used a Paula Deen recipe.

The cake was pretty easy to make but beating the butter at first proved a bit challenging. It climbed all over the beaters and was really thick. The electric mixer struggled a bit but in the end made it through. The best part was the frosting. I had never made frosting from scratch so this was a first. The frosting came out so shiny that Michelle was laughing that the camera flash was bouncing off the cake. We had fun frosting the cake and then covered it with coconut. The cake looked heavenly white and hairy with coconut. The recipe had mentioned that the frosting can turn grainy if the boiling water hit the bowl and ours did. We didn't even notice it while eating the cake. We were only aware when we scooped out remaining frosting and accidentally dunked our fingers in it :)

I took one look at the cake and said "Can we just cut it into 4 and call it a day?" Yes, we each ate 1/4 of the cake and it was good. I think I cursed after the first bite in a good way. I love this cake. I would have never ever thought to make it so thank you Tori for the challenge.

I'm posting the original recipe that yields 3 layers.

Basic 1-2-3-4 Cake:

• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, at room temperature
• 2 cups sugar
• 4 eggs
• 3 cups sifted self-rising flour
• 1 cup coconut milk
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

A little tip about self rising flour is that you can make it yourself. There is no need to buy special flour. The ratio of ingredients is usually about 1 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder per cup of flour with a pinch of salt.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Grease and flour 3 (9-inch) cake pans. Using an electric mixer, cream butter until fluffy. Add sugar and continue to cream well for 6 to 8 minutes. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Add flour and milk alternately to creamed mixture, beginning and ending with flour. Add vanilla and continue to beat until just mixed. Divide batter equally among prepared pans. Level batter in each pan by holding pan 3 or 4 inches above counter, then dropping it flat onto counter. Do this several times to release air bubbles and assure you of a more level cake. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until done. Cool in pans 5 to 10 minutes. Invert cakes onto cooling racks. Cool completely and spread cake layers with your favorite frosting to make a 3-layer cake.

7-Minute Frosting:

• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar or 1 tablespoon white corn syrup
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 cup water
• 2 egg whites
• 1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Place sugar, cream of tartar or corn syrup, salt, water, and egg whites in the top of a double boiler. Beat with a handheld electric mixer for 1 minute. Place pan over boiling water, being sure that boiling water does not touch the bottom of the top pan. (If this happens, it could cause your frosting to become grainy). Beat constantly on high speed with electric mixer for 7 minutes. Beat in vanilla.