Kitchen Adventures; Coconut Cake with Berries

Have you guys read this blog? Not like she needs me to push for more followers, but Shutterbean.com may be my very favorite blog on the planet right now. Seriously.

And then she shared this cake recipe...

... and I may or may not have been dying to make it for weeks... I don't know. No one does.

Thursday night I got home from sunset yoga and hubs was playing video games. I sat down with him for a bit, but eventually got antsy and decided to bake something. I had bought all the ingredients for this cake days earlier, but was hesitant to make it - our first anniversary is on Monday and we've got our cake topper in the freezer ready to be eaten. It seemed like cake overkill.

Random thought on that: when should we move the cake top out of the freezer into the fridge for thawing? The day before we plan to eat it?

I decided "F it. He's playing video games. I'm gonna bake." ... healthy decision, right? It was something like 9:45pm at this point, which actually worked out well because this cake needs to sit in the fridge for hours on end before you can eat it.


I like doing ingredient gathering just so I can take a picture of everything all out and pretty.

If I weren't going to take a picture I would just get things out as they came up in the recipe-ing process. That's a thing I do.

Put ze egg whites, baking soda and a sprinkling of salt in a bowl and, using your trusty hand mixer, whip to soft peaks. Not a pretty picture here, but you get the idea.

Then wisk in los egg yolks. Once the egg yolks are evenly mixed in, slowly wisk in the sugar.

Fold in butter and coconut. (you can't see the butter because it sunk)

Fold in flour a little at a time. You're supposed to do this with a sieve or something, but I don't have one. *GASP* If you're like me, just make sure you mix it in really well - not leaving any big lumps of flour.

Then bake at tree fitty  in a 9x12 baking dish for 20 minutes. I think my oven runs a little cool because I always have to leave things in a few extra minutes.

While its baking, wisk sweetened condenced milk, coconut milk, and heavy cream in a bowl.

As soon as you take the cake out of the oven, pour this mixture all over and into your cake. It sounds weird. Just do it.

Let the cake and creamy mixture hang out and mesh for a little while. When it's cooled,  put it in ze fridge.

Go to sleep.

In the morning, get out a little bit of heavy cream (half a cup or a quarter cup or however much you like) and your hand mixer, again, and whip your cream. I highly suggest you add a little powdered sugar to your heavy cream before you whip. Sweetness = good. Seriously.

Oh, hey, can opener I left on the counter! Whats up?

Then get your cake out of the fridge, cut yourself a piece, and top it with your lovely fresh whipped cream and some yummy berries. I used all my other berries to make this cake last week, so all I had left were blackberries, which are delish.

Feel free to sneak a bite at the counter before sitting down at the table.

Here's an actual recipe, which I adapted a smidgey smidge from Shutterbean.

• 1 stick butter, melted & cooled
• 6 large eggs - separate yolks from whites
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• pinch of salt
• 1 c. sugar
• 1/3 cup flaked unsweetened coconut
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 c. heavy cream (1 for cake, 1 for topping)
• 1 3/4 c. (or one 14 oz. can) light unsweetened coconut milk
• 1 3/4 c. (or one 14 oz. can) sweetened condensed milk
• Approx 3 cups berries of your choice
• 1 Tbsp. powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9×13 inch baking pan. Set aside.

Whisk together egg whites, baking soda & salt with a hand-mixer until soft peaks form, 4 to 5 minutes.
Add your yolks to egg white mixture and whisk until completely combined. Slowly add sugar, and whisk until combined. Fold in the butter and coconut with a rubber spatula.
Add 1/4 cup flour onto mixture, fold to combine. Repeat with remaining flour, folding in 1/4 cup flour at a time.
Pour batter into your greased pan; bake until toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 18-20 minutes.
While it bakes, whisk together 1 cup heavy cream, the coconut milk and the condensed milk. As soon as cake is removed from the oven, pour the cream mixture over cake.
Let cake cool completely in the pan. Cover cake (I happened to have a cover, but if you don't, use plastic wrap), and refrigerate 5 to 8 hours.

When you're ready to serve, get your handmixer out again and whip heavy whipping cream with powdered sugar until soft peaks form. Then you can either spread it over the cake, or put a big glob on one piece at a time.
Add as many of any type(s) of berry you like. :)

Eat.