Friday, July 20, 2007
A few weeks ago, Cheryl over at Gruel Omelet posted an ice cream recipe featuring coconut and strawberries, both of which I love. I was inspired to bake a cake for A Full Plate that echoed her ice cream. 
Strawberry Coconut Cake
1 cup butter
2 cups white sugar
4 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 3/4 cups milk
Up to one cup of coconut
Cream together butter and sugar. Beat in eggs and vanilla.
In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt. Add to creamed mixture alternately with milk. Add coconut and mix well. Pour batter into greased pans. I used two nine inch round cake pans.
Bake for 40 minutes, or until cake tests done. Cool.
Frosting
1 cup butter softened
1/2 cup coconut milk
4-5 cups powdered sugar
Beat butter at medium speed until creamy and smooth. Add coconut milk and powdered sugar one cup at a time, until you reach the desired consistency. (If you don't have coconut milk on hand you can use a two teaspoons of coconut extract and some regular milk.) Chill the frosting for about 20 minutes.
To assemble the cake, you'll need some strawberry jam or preserves. I used my favorite stratwberry jam from Trader Joe's.
Lay the bottom layer of cake on a plate. Spread 1/2 cup of the strawberry jam on the top of the cake. Lay the second layer of cake on top of the jam. Frost the cake with the chilled frosting, and sprinkle with coconut.
I think this is the perfect cake to cheer up my husband after a bad day he had.
Fantastic job!!
Here are some pictures:
http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c210/lightandfrothy/100_2478-1-1.jpg
http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c210/lightandfrothy/100_2478-1-1.jpg
Thank you for a great recipe!