Coconut cake

I'm a pretty decent home cook but cake baking isn't my thing.  (Much to John's chagrin.) I've had many expensive flops with "scratch" cake recipes over the years. Of course anyone can throw together a box mix, but we like dense, not excessively sweet cake.  And that "frosting" out of the can--ugh!

I made this cake on Father's Day from a Coconut Pound Cake recipe I found on the Internet. I changed the recipe slightly, not a good idea when it comes to baking, but this time it worked.  I thought I'd better get it written down on the blog so I can find it again someday :-)

Coconut Cake

4 eggs
2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup shredded, unsweetened coconut
3/4 cup soft butter
3/4 cup canned coconut cream
1 cup sugar
1 tsp. coconut or vanilla extract
3/4 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt

Preheat over to 325.  Mix softened butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. In a separate bowl, mix together dry ingredients.  Add the eggs one at a time to the butter/sugar mixture and beat well.  Add coconut extract, then add coconut cream, alternating with the flour dry coconut mixture.
Line 8-inch cake pans with parchment paper, grease well.   This recipe does not make a huge amount of batter, so it baked fairly quickly.  About 30 minutes.  Cool on a rack.

 And I think the best "icing" for a dense cake is plain whipped cream and toasted coconut.