Coconut Cake

Your Black friends will eat this sh*t up. Unless you only have one Black friend and it’s me. In that case, I will eat this sh*t up.

Ingredients:

2 3/4 cups cake flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 3/4 cup sugar

1 cup butter

1 cup sweetened cream of coconut (You can often find this in the alcohol aisle. You can also make it from coconut milk and sweetened condense milk.)

4 eggs, separated

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup buttermilk

3 cups sweetened shredded coconut

1 additional egg white

1 additional tsp vanilla extract

Directions:

  1. Preheat the oven to 350F. Butter and dust lightly with flour two 9-inch round cake pans.

  2. Mix dry ingredients (flour, powder, soda, salt).

  3. Mix wets separately (sugar, butter, cream of coconut, 4 egg YOLKS, vanilla, buttermilk).

  4. Mix drys and wets together.

  5. Beat 4 egg WHITES into stiff peaks with a pinch of salt (or cream of tartar).

  6. Add about a spoonful of the whites to the cake batter and mix. Adding this little bit first lightens up the batter and helps keep the air in the rest of the whites.

  7. Add the rest of the whites in three batches, folding in carefully. To fold, run a rubber spatula along the side of the bowl and then drag it through the middle or the batter to envelope the lump of egg whites in the batter. The point is to mix the whites in evenly (like desegregation) without losing all the air that you just whipped in.

  8. Pour into the pans and bake for about 40 minutes in the middle of the oven. Once done, remove from pans and cool.

  9. Start on the frosting.

  10. In a saucepan, slowly boil the whole milk, sugar, and butter. This will take a long time (like 30 minutes). It will turn a light caramel color and be thick enough to leave a coating on the spoon.

  11. In a separate heat-proof bowl, beat 1 egg white until soft peaks. While still beating, add 1 tsp vanilla and then slowly drizzle the hot milk mixture into egg. Be careful not to go too fast and scramble the egg.

  12. Add shredded coconut to the frosting.

  13. Assemble the cake. There should be a layer of frosting on top of each layer and around the sides if you have enough.

dessertsSarah Youngrecipe