Coconut Dream Birthday Cake

COCONUT DREAM BIRTHDAY CAKE

From: The Best of Martha Stewart Living Desserts and www.marthastewartliving.com (see recipe link below)

I think it's good to have a few great cakes in your baking repertoire for those occasions when you are lucky enough to have someone to bake a birthday cake for. My favorites include an ice-cream cake where the birthday boy or girls gets to choose his or her favorite ice-cream, a carrot cake that my mom made for me every year on my birthday (really I just like the cream cheese frosting and there was usually leftover--kept in a container in the fridge for me to eat with a spoon at my leisure), a German chocolate cake that my grandmother once made that I tried to sell for $1,000 (there's a picture of this little enterprise adventure for proof) and the coconut cake that appears here, which is a more recent but still delicious addition. There is something dreamy about the fluffy white cloud-like aspect of it and the way the little bits of sugar in the frosting crystallize in your mouth. Yum. And happy birthday.

I've been lucky enough to have had several people make this cake for me for one birthday or another. Steve made it for me during our second year in Louisiana and did something that perhaps only he could get away with. He took it to the restaurant we were eating at and asked if they would serve HIS cake to me in THEIR restaurant. They actually said yes! And this is a restaurant that serves dessert! Steve claims that the cake leaned dangerously to one side, a leaning tower of Pisa-like structure, due to the fact that he layered in the custard while it was still warm. I don't remember the cake being one that might have toppled over onto my plate at any moment, but I'm not sure I would have minded had it done so. The custard is achingly good when eaten warm with a spoon, and my sisters-in-law Tasha and Amora even ate it cold out of a container of extra that was in the fridge this past weekend. If you have leftover, it certainly won't go wasted, and if you are making it, be sure to slip a few spoonfuls of the custard in your mouth before cooling it. This year, it was Steve's turn to receive coconut cake for his birthday, and I was more than happy to have another excuse to bake.



The recipe link is here:

Cake Recipe

I use 2 nine-inch cake pans instead of the 3 six-inch pans Martha recommends. The cake won't be as high, but I am yet to get my hands on six-inch pans. Until then, the lower cake will do. Also, if you use eight or nine inch pans, don't bake the cake as long as she says to. I would bake it for 20 to 25 minutes.

Pictures of cake assembly (in reverse order from top to bottom):