My husband and I visited a restaurant in Florida a few years back and given that it's the land of the palms, this particular restaurant had coconut cake on its menu. Neither of us are huge coconut fans but it sounded intriguing so we gave it a shot. It was astoundingly good. I loved it so much that I tried, unsuccessfully at first, to replicate the recipe at home. I went through the laborious effort of making it from scratch using a recipe I found online, but it never tasted the same as the cake I got at that restaurant. Then I developed a hybrid recipe using a box cake and homemade frosting. That one hit the mark! I made this again at Christmas for a family gathering and added some raspberries as a garnish to make it more festive. It was a big hit!
Coconut Cake
Cake:
1 box of white cake mix
3 eggs
1/2 cup canned coconut milk, unsweetened
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
Frosting:
1 stick of butter, room temperature
1 cup of cream cheese, room temperature
4 cups confectioners sugar
1 bag of sweetened coconut flakes
1/4 cup cream of coconut
4 tablespoons milk, cream or half and half, warmed
1 pint raspberries (Optional, for garnish)
Cake preparation:
Heat oven to 350. Line two 9-inch round cake pans with parchment paper and grease. Sprinkle greased pans lightly with flour. Blend together the cake mix with the rest of the ingredients and pour into the pans. Bake 25 minutes at 350 or until toothpick insert into center of cakes comes out clean. Let cool.
Frosting preparation:
Blend the cream cheese, butter and half of the cream of coconut until smooth. Alternate the sugar and milk in small batches until the icing reaches desired consistency (you want it to be thick enough to spread, but not too thin). Warming the milk first, either on the stove top or in a microwave, will help make the frosting more spreadable. You can add more or less cream of coconut to taste. Frost the cake layers and then press coconut flakes over the top and sides. Garnish with raspberries.