Momma’s Coconut Cake

This cake is a very showy cake, filled with lots of love

This is my momma’s coconut cake. She made me a coconut cake almost every year for my birthday. (She always made me a cake, usually coconut) This cake reminds the love and affection my mom had for me. On or near my birthday every year she would either show up at my house with a cake or call me and leave me a message that she had a huge cake sitting there for my birthday. I have several of those messages saved on my voicemail…. she was an amazing mom.

So today on my first birthday without my momma I present her delicious coconut cake.

3 sticks of soft butter
2 2/3 cups sugar
4 large eggs + 4 egg whites
1 can coconut milk
3 1/2 cups flour
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup packed sweetened coconut
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon salt

Turn your oven to 350* prepare 3 8-inch pans. Spray or grease then sprinkle with flour. set aside.

Pulse the coconut in a food processor till finely ground. Stir this into the flour and set aside.

Beat the butter and sugar in your mixer bowl till light and fluffy. Add the 4 eggs, 4 whites, vanilla, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Mix well.

Now put the mixer on low, add the coconut milk and flour. Mix till the flour is incorporated.

Divide the batter evenly into the pans.

Bake at 350* for 40 – 50 minutes, checking at 40 minutes then continuing till a skewer comes out clean. Cool completely.

Now while the cake is cooling it is time to assemble the 7 minute frosting. There are several ways to make a ” 7 minute frosting “. I will tell you the way I do it, you may want to do it another way, but this is my way.

1 1/2 cup sugar
6 large egg whites
2 Tablespoons light corn syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla

First you need to make a double boiler. I have a Kitchen aid pro (my mom’s) It has a 5-quart bowl, so I use a pan that will allow me to use my mixer bowl as my double boiler bowl.

when the cakes are cool, begin the frosting.

In the big pan, place water to about 3 or so inches, you do not want the water so deep that it will touch your mixer bowl, just enough to heat the egg whites and melt the sugar. Now add the egg whites , corn syrup and the sugar to the mixer bowl, set it on the water pot, then whisk it constantly till the sugar melts and the temp of the eggs is about 165* . You can dip your finger to the bottom of the egg whites and when you can’t feel any sugar granules it is ready to whip.

Move the mixer bowl to the mixer, add the vanilla. Put the whisk on the mixer, slowly move the speed to high and let it go till it gets fluffy and glossy.

When your frosting is done, place on cake layer on your plate, put a good layer of frosting on that layer, then continue with layer 2, then repeat with layer 3. Now frost the top of the cake, then the sides.

Now that your cake is frosted, (make sure you use all the frosting, it is light and fluffy and fun to use!) it is time to cover it with coconut. You can use regular coconut or you can also grind this coconut as you did for the cake, it is totally fine whichever way you choose to use it. I fill my hand with coconut and stick it on the sides of the cake , then the top of the cake till I have the cake completely covered.