MangiaMore: COCONUT cake

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This year Easter was a little bit different. My parents were out of town (they left me) so I had Easter dinner with my boyfriend and his family. My contribution was cake, coconut cake.

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Coconut cake is one of those mildly typical Easter desserts, a holiday that symbolizes rebirth and ushers in the spring season. Coconut cake has that feeling as well; it’s not dark and cold, heavy with winter’s heavy spices, but coconut makes you dream of warmer temperatures and lighter days. This cake is so sweet, it reminds you that you are alive, and the creamy white frosting, studded with lovely coconut flakes reminds you what happiness is.

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RER 3.31.13

I chose this epicurious recipe for coconut cake, followed by a coconut cream cheese based frosting. The recipe was not extremely hard, though there was some separating of the eggs and scraping of the cream of coconut can, but nothing that this cake is not worth. I usually use a different recipe, one that is in some ways treasonous (boxed cake mix with addendums…), but this time, I went for the homemade kind, through and through. 

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RER 3.31.13

I think everyone was thoroughly pleased with the results. I know I can’t stop eating it…cold, room temperature, in a bowl, you name it. The cake, though, is rich, dense, sweet and luxurious, but in the end, it is cake.  Unlike the comments following the recipe, I did not encounter any problems; my cake did not end up being dry, or over cooked on the outside and raw in the middle, and I also did not have any frosting meltdowns (meaning thin, runny frosting, nothing a fridge can’t fix). The hardest part of all, was managing to get the sweet flaked coconut on the sides without ruining the aesthetics of the cake.

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In the end, it was a pretty cake that served its function of taming and coddling the sweet tooth in all of us. Baking the cake and participating in Easter dinner made me remember the haunting beauty of the story of the holiday, as well as the satisfaction of time with family.

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RER 3.31.13