Apr 06

Last-Minute Coconut Cake

At our house the regal coconut cake is anticipated two times a year – Christmas and Easter. Any other times it makes an appearance means someone who loves coconut cake is coming to dinner or mom must have a photo shoot coming up soon! Seriously, we love coconut cake but bake it far too infrequently. One version we love is the bake-ahead-three-days-and-stash-in-fridge coconut cake – that recipe in my first cookbook where you slather a runny sour cream frosting all over the cake and as the cake rests it soaks up the frosting and the result is the cool, collected refrigerator cake perfect for the very together hostess and list checker-offer. The second version is for the cooks who wing it, who look at the calendar and say, by golly, Easter is two days away, or Aunt Susan’s birthday is tonight and she loves coconut cake. You bake, frost, pile on coconut, then slice and receive a whole lot of compliments. This year has turned out to be more of the latter scenario at our house, so this Easter and spring we’re opting for the Last-Minute Coconut Cake. The recipe that follows uses my Cake Mix Doctor yellow cake mix that you bake with egg whites and sour cream. You can substitute another cake mix in your pantry or your favorite scratch cake, but just be sure and add coconut extract to the batter. And then frost with my creamy frosting, and pile on lots of coconut. It’s last-minute, but it’s lovely and regal and still anticipated.

Here is the recipe.