Celebration Coconut Layer Cake (Plus Book Giveaway)
I’m usually not the sort of person to succumb to depression but these past few weeks can only be described by that melancholy word. Tears were a daily companion, sleep was an infrequent friend and I lost interest in everything I usually take so much pleasure in – including blogging and baking. Thankfully my stubborn work ethic forced me to haul myself out of bed and off to work on a regular basis. Oh mom, you taught me well when you said I should never shirk my responsibilities!
You’re probably wondering why I was so glum and the reason is pre-natal test results. Five weeks ago the hospital called us to say that one of our screening tests indicated there might be a serious problem with the baby, so within days I was in the doctor’s office preparing for an amniocentesis. It was nerve wracking to say the least, but it wasn’t until the past few weeks, as the much dreaded yet eagerly anticipated day we’d discover the amnio results came closer, that I began to sink into sadness. What would we do if the test results were bad? Granted there was only a 5% chance that the baby had the problem the doctors were looking for, but still, 5%! Much as I tried to focus on the 95% chance that everything was OK my mind kept racing with scenarios that would jolt me out of bed at 2AM and cause me to spend the rest of the morning on the couch trying to distract myself with HBO on Demand.
Then this past Friday at just over 22 weeks of pregnancy our doctor called my husband’s cell phone. My husband was home getting ready for work and picked up without my knowing – only to burst through the bedroom door moments later to excitedly tell me “The baby is OK! He’s OK!” Never in my life have I been so happy. In fact, my husband and I both agree that getting that phone call beat out our wedding day on the scale of happiness – hands down.
After spending some 30 minutes crying with relief we finally pulled it together and got ready for the day, exhausted from weeks of worry and wondering in the back of our minds if that phone call had really happened or if we’d just imagined it. My husband later posted on Facebook:
Best day ever!!! After a !month! we finally got back the amnio results (longest and most stressful month of my life, haven’t slept well in weeks) and our baby is perfect!!!!
(after we were told there was a 5% chance of a serious problem based on some of the screening tests, hence the amnio 5 weeks ago). I never cried tears of joy before but I did today, full out, while making breakfast after the dr called! Life is beautiful! Tonight we celebrate!!!! And I felt the baby kick!
So that is where I have been these past few weeks and why the other day I Twittered about being happy for the first time in weeks. I hope you won’t hold my being MIA against me. I’m feeling much better now!
Now where does this coconut layer cake come in? Well, this is a celebration cake that I made with my brother’s girlfriend last Friday for two reasons: first, for my brother’s birthday, and second, as an indirect celebration of the good news I’d received that morning – which is to say, I was able to have someone over and actually enjoy baking again. That evening my husband and I went out for a nice Italian dinner to celebrate and over the weekend we ordered our nursery furniture. Now that everything is OK, life is moving forward again.
The picture at left is from our trip to the apple farm about a week and a half ago. I’m 21 1/2 weeks pregnant here and trying so hard to be happy. Little did I know that good news was only six days away. 
More posts soon! In the meantime, I’d like to spread the happy feeling by giving away a copy of Hello, Cupcake!: Irresistibly Playful Creations Anyone Can Make, which is one of the highest rated cupcake books on Amazon. To enter to win this book simply comment on this post and answer this question: What is your favorite kind of cupcake?
Coconut Layer Cake with Homemade Frosting
Reprinted with permission from Southern Cakes by Nancie McDermott.
This is a two layered, moist sugar cake with fluffy frosting that’s generously sprinkled with shredded coconut. If you’re not a coconut fan you could easily replace the frosting with chocolate or vanilla.
Ingredients:
For the cakes:
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup whole milk
- 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
- 2 cups sugar
- 4 eggs
For the frosting:
- 1 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup water
- 2 egg whites (I actually used 3)
- About 3 cups sweetened shredded coconut
Heat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour two 9-inch cake pans and set aside. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt, and use a fork to mix them together well. Stir the vanilla into the milk.
In a large bowl, beat the softened butter with a mixer at medium speed until creamy. Add the sugar and continue beating, stopping to scrape down the sides, until the mixture is light and evenly combined. Add the eggs, one by one, beating well each time, until the mixture is thick and smooth.
Add about one third of the flour mixture to the batter and beat well at low speed. Then add about half the milk to the batter, beating well. Continue beating as you add another third of the flour mixture, followed by the rest of the milk, and then the remaining flour mixture, beating well each time until the batter is very thick and smooth.
Quickly scrape the batter into the prepared cake pans, dividing it evenly, and place them in the oven. Bake at 350 degrees F for 25 to 30 min until the cakes are golden brown, spring back when touched lightly in the center, and begin to pull away from the sides of the pans. (Note: I had to bake my cakes for 40 minutes before they achieved these characteristics.)
Remove from the oven, and cool in the pans on wire racks or folded kitchen towels for 10 minutes. Then turn out onto wire racks or plates, turning the layers top side up, and cool completely. You could also split the layers horizontally to make 4 thin layers of cake.
To make the icing, stir the sugar into the water to dissolve it. Bring the mixture to a gentle boil, and cook without stirring for 3 minutes. Then boil for 5 to 10 minutes more, stirring often, until the syrup has thickened and will form itself into a thread about 2 inches long when poured from a spoon back into the pot. Set syrup aside.
Beat the egg whites in a large bowl with a mixer at high speed until they are bright white, shiny, and pillow up into voluminous clouds. (Note: When separating your eggs make sure not even one speck of yolk gets into the whites. If any yolk gets in there it will change the chemical structure of the whites and they won’t take on the billowy appearance you so desire. Also, bring your eggs to room temperature before using them.) While beating at high speed, slowly pour the cooked syrup into the egg whites to blend them together into a fluffy white icing, 4 to 5 minutes.
To ice the cake place one cake layer, top side down, on a cake stand or serving plate. Cover the top with icing and sprinkle with coconut. Place the second layer on top of the iced layer, top side up. First ice the sides to help keep the cake steady, and then spread icing generously over the top, completely covering the cake. Place the cake stand or serving plate on a cookie sheet to catch any loose coconut as you shower the cake. Sprinkle the coconut all over the cake, and then gently pat or fling handfuls of coconut onto the sides and top to cover any bare spots.
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146 Responses to “Celebration Coconut Layer Cake (Plus Book Giveaway)”
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Ari, congratulations on the good news. May the rest of your pregnancy be free from all worry. Altho my baby is 44, I can still remember both pregnancies and the pleasure of those months. The very best to you and your husband at this time.
Favorite cupcake – fudge brownie-like chocolate with espresso/chocolate frosting – just thinking about it put 10 lbs. on in all the wrong places.
Phew…good news Ari…just brilliant! Am so glad for you! What a relief…xoxo. I have this book. It’s a very creative one!
My favorite cupcake is german chocolate with my moms homemade frosting! YUM, I always got them around my birthday in the fall!
Ari,
Very, very big congrats on the good news! I don’t know how I’d handle it if I were in the same situation. I read the beginning of your post and started to really worry, so it was a relief just reading about your husband bursting in with the verdict.
I have two favorite cupcakes! One is white cake with whipped cream frosting and fresh strawberries, and the other is white cake with chocolate buttercream.
Ari, so glad to know that you are feeling a lot better.
Congrats on your great news!!
Hmm… favorite cupcake – just one?? I would say chocolate/buttercream frosting.
I love coconut cake, and I’m so glad to hear the good news! Enjoy the remaining weeks!!
I can’t begin to tell you how many people I know that this have had this happen to them. Prenatal testing is a mixed blessing. I’m glad that you can get back to enjoying your pregnancy.
Hello there !
My fav cup cake is a plain vanilla cup cake and frosting. I tried you traveller’s choc muffins..came out really good !!
The cake looks awesome. I’m so happy your baby is healthy!! I hope the rest of your pregnancy goes well
My favorite cupcake is either a simple vanilla/vanilla or a chocolate peanut butter!
Hooray for the good news!!
I would say dark chocolate, but this time of year pumpkin sounds good, too.
Ari — wishing you all the best — don’t forget to breath and exhale . . . my favorite cupcake is a chocolate w/chocolate frosting, cold glass of milk — life is good!
Oh, I’m sorry you had to go through that! I don’t think OB’s do a good enough job of giving you enough information to make an informed decision about the seemingly simple screening tests–there are a LOT of false positives.
My husband and I elected not to do the basic screening test (AFP) for either of my pregnancies becuase conditions (especially advance maternal age) made there be a very high possibility of a false positive and we would not terminate the pregnancies in any case (very difficult for me to even become pregnant due to infertility). We did basic screenings via ultrasound so that we could be aware of anything possibly fixable in utero, but otherwise we did not do AFP or amnios.
Turned out to be a good decision for us. Our youngest has a condition that would certainly have triggered a positive AFP for sure, but the condition itself would not have really been detectable in utero (Noonan’s Syndrome) at that time and I would have worried myself sick for the rest of the pregnancy, instead of enjoying it as I did. Her condition is not life threatening, not difficult to deal with, and I am grateful for the peaceful, blissful pregnancy I had with her.
Wishing you bliss for the rest of your pregnancy. Enjoy those kicks and wiggles–every one tells you your baby is fine and–for this very brief time in the scheme of things–you can keep your child safe and warm and meet all of his or her needs.
Any chocolate cupcake with a thick layer of homemade butter cream frosting!
OMG, Ari.
Congrats and I’m so glad everything worked out fine. What a stressful time to go thru. Thank goodness everything worked out fine and I hope the rest of your pregnancy is stress and worry-free.
My fav. cupcake is vanilla with homemade butter cream frosting.
Wonderful news on the baby!!! When you talk cupcakes I’ve decided that I needed to make a filled cannoli cake cupcake last week. I used (gasp) a yellow cake mix cause I was in a hurry and had one on hand, along with traditional cannoli ricotta cheese filling and whipped cream butter cream. Oh so yummy!!! Not a single one was left.
I am so relieved for you. Please go forth and enjoy this pregnancy.
My last child was born several years ago when I was pushing the riper side of 36. I was already a high-risk mommy with Type I diabetes. Just as I did with my first pregnancy, I refused all prenatal tests. I knew this refusal would help me be a calmer mother-to-be, and with the second pregnancy, would allow me to take better care of my first-born. Please know that I’d made up my mind to welcome my children, regardless of physical conditions. Turns out I nearly had to fight the peri-natalogist to carry my second to full term, in spite of the fact that we both were healthy!
I am very glad I chose not to undergo those tests. I don’t think I could have survived the worry that you just endured. You and your husband are strong. All shall be well and you will be overjoyed when this new person arrives. Congratulations!
I am so very happy that all is well now. Only happy thoughts for the remainder of your pregnancy!
I think my favorite cupcake is chocolate with chocolate icing bute coconut is right up there too!
What a relief. I’m so glad your baby is OK. The coconut cake looks decadent, I’ll definitely have to try it! My favorite cupcake is white cake with lemon frosting.
So happy to hear the good news. I went through a similar experience when I was pregnant with my now 16 month-old son who is healthy and happy. As a coconut lover, I cannot wait to try this cake!
Glad to hear everything’s ok, and to see you back!
Fave cupcake = yellow cake with chocolate frosting.
Chocolate cupcake with chocolate frosting!
Carla
cpullum(at)yahoo(dot)com
Congratulations on the happy news – and that everything will continue to be great. My favorite cupcake is chocolate.
Great cake, and great great news
I’m glad everything is going well. Congratulations!
My favourite cupcake… maybe vanilla with chocolate frosting.
I am so very happy about the GREAT baby news. Life is beautiful isn’t it?!
My favorite cupcake is Applesauce Spice with Raisins! Any time of day too!
Stay well.
Wow…congratulations on the GREAT news! I can’t imagine what life has been like for you the past few weeks. At least you can relax and enjoy preparing for your baby now!
My favorite cupcake is a super moist vanilla cupcake with LOTS of frosting.
What a relief…so happy for you! I can’t imagine how long these weeks have been for you guys…
Chocolate cupcakes are my favorites for celebration.
Kisses from Argentina
I am happy that everything is back on board for you and your little one…unfortunately, worry and depression can often take hold even when we try our hardest not to succumb! Never an easy task. In any event, you are in my prayers for a continued safe pregnancy!
As for my favorite cupcake I have to say that there are soooo many to choose from but for today I will go with a german chocolate cupcake with cream cheese filling!
Regards!
I’m so happy to hear that your baby is okay!
My sister and I have sort of a default cupcake that we go to for friend’s birthdays and celebrations, based on a cake we made for her birthday about three years ago. It’s a chocolate cupcake filled with raspberry whipped cream and topped with cream cheese ice cream– delicious, and bursting with memories of happy get-togethers with every bite.
Hi! How are you? I just wanted to say, although I know its kinda late, Congratulations!!! I’m so happy that you and the baby are ok and I wish you and your family the best.
My favorite cupcake is carrot and no frosting.
I’m not sure I could name a favorite, but yellow cake with a dark chocolate ganache (maybe with nuts or coconut sprinkled on top) would be way up there.
I love vanilla with chocolate icing. Glad ou had good news.
I didn’t say before what my favorite cupcake is – white on white with jam filling and as much coconut on top as it can hold. Thanks.
chocolate! chocolate! and more chocolate! Love… YUM!
Chocolate cupcakes with chocolate frosting!
So nice to know that the tests results were clear and that you and your husband can now enjoy the pregnancy with a very happy heart and mind.
All the very best for the future.
Mystica
I’m so thrilled for you, that everything is okay with the baby. That’s sure a cause for celebration!
)
My favourite cupcake is a carrot cupcake with cream-cheese icing!
Great baby news!
I like vanilla cupcakes with chocolate frosting
Aw geez, I’m crying. I had a high-risk pregnancy and bedrest, and ended up with a spectacularly healthy, perfect baby boy. Well, a baby who is 12.
I do know how wrenching that kind of worry is, and I am so happy for all three of you that I don’t think anything will bring me down today.
Thank you Annie! What a beautiful comment, I really appreciate your sentiments. *hug*
I’ve just discovered your website today (thanks to Foodgawker, I think) and read about your pregnancy worries. I’m going to chime in here and agree with many of your other commenters. All of those tests done during pregnancy are great BUT they sure add to your stress levels! We were also told during our first pregnancy that there was a chance of a problem based on our ultrasound and so I spent the last number of months on pins and needles… and in the end, everything was fine. During my second pregnancy I vowed to avoid tests and ignore any suggestions of problems and my second pregnancy was so much more calm and peaceful.
Live and learn, as always.
I’m really enjoying your website, have bookmarked a number of recipes to try including Baked Ziti. I’ve never had Baked Ziti but when I used to watch The Sopranos they were always talking about it. My husband will be excited to finally taste it!!
All the best to you and thanks for sharing your life and your recipes.
Oh, and as for family members… appreciate the ones you have and don’t worry about the others. No doubt good friends will make up for lack of family… again, I speak from experience!!
Well the cupcake book and that coconut cake look wonderful but not as wonderful as you in that picture and the words in your story…now I have to go thro your blog to see if you’ve had the baby yet! how great…I came to enter the chocolate and roast a lamb contest and look where I wound up!