Ok, time for a cake recipe. As promised.

I made this cake 2 weeks ago!!!! But I got so much stuff to do every day that I just didn’t get to posting it. Do you have a crazy schedule with tons of things to do each and every day?

I found a recipe for key lime coconut cake on Pinch my Salt blog, which she has adapted from Gourmet magazine. It has been a few years since I baked a cake with coconut in it. Hhmmm, come to think of it, it is time to make Tom Douglas’s famous triple coconut cream pie again (click the link to see the chefs and a how-to video). Do you love coconut cream pie?

I have changed the recipe a bit. The main thing is I omitted was the sugar glaze. I really can’t pour 1 cup of sugar over a cake which is what a sugar glaze is really. I don’t see much added value in a sugary “topping”, that’s my point of view. And this cake doesn’t really need it.

My family loved this cake. The kids went crazy for it. My son, the little guy who chooses gummy bears over home-made cake, ate 2 pieces. The baby kept pointing at the cake asking for a second slice. Where did she have room in her little chubby belly for all this cake right after a big dinner? Such a mystery.

Variations: Add chocolate ganache on top. A little whipped cream on the side never hurts either. But The Husband said it doesn’t need anything.

Ok, so did I do a good job selling you this cake?

Good.

Fluffy coconut cake

Adapted from Pinch my Salt blog and Gourmet magazine, March 2009

Makes a 9-inch cake

• ½ to 1 cup sweetened flaked coconut *
• 1 stick unsalted butter, softened
• 1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
• 1 tablespoon grated lemon zest
• 2 large eggs
• 1 3/4 cups self-rising flour
• 3/4 cup whole milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 3 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon rum or Calvados (or other liqueur)

Preheat oven to 350°F with rack in middle. Generously butter a 9-inch round cake pan and line the bottom with parchment paper.

Toast the coconut in a small baking pan in the oven, stirring once or twice, until golden, 8 to 12 minutes. Cool. Leave oven on.

Beat together the butter and sugar in an electric mixer until fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then add the lemon zest.

Mix together flour and 1/2 cup toasted coconut (reserve remainder, if using, for the topping). In a separate bowl, stir together milk, vanilla, and lemon juice. At low speed, add the flour and milk mixtures alternately into egg mixture, beginning and ending with the flour.

Smooth the top of the batter into the pan. Bake until golden and a wooden toothpick inserted into center comes out clean, 40 to 45 minutes. Cool a bit, then turn out of pan and discard parchment.

If using, sprinkle with remaining 1/2 cup of coconut on top.

* I toasted only 1/2 cup of coconut in the cake, and then used another 1/2 cup untoasted for the photos.

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Are going to make it?