The Coconut Cake Experience

I love coconut! Coconut yogurt, cookies, pudding, pie, candy bars, curry, pina` colada's, syrup, you name it, I love it with coconut. Despite my love, I have been intimidated by the coconut cake. I have been drooling over the recipe posted on Martha Stewart, but cannot bring myself to make a cake with 10 sticks of butter! I would undoubtedly love it and then have to try to resist eating the whole thing. I found a recipe in a magazine that only required 2 sticks of butter. It also called for fresh coconut so knew I had to try it. Splitting this recipe over two days made it easier to make during the week. The first night I made the cake, cracked open the coconut, and ate a quarter of the coconut. The next evening I made the frosting and assembled the cake.

Using my cake leveler,  I leveled the cake and then cut it into two.

Sprinkle each layer with coconut water.

Then a layer of frosting.

Last a layer of fresh grated coconut. Then repeat.

 The cake was very good, I was impressed.

Toasted coconut shavings for the top complete this cake.

The frosting however was too sweet for me. It was a meringue frosting that tasted like marshmallow cream. I would have preferred buttercream for two reasons, one taste, and two ease of frosting. Buttercream sets up nicely and gives that snowy white, crumb free look. I believe this qualifies as an experience and next time I make a coconut cake, with my tweaks and adjustments, it is sure to be a hit!