In our book, coconut anything is the way to go-coconut ice cream, cupcakes, sorbet, macaroons, even water. So the combination of a light coconut cake, topped with coconut cream cheese frosting is, let’s be real, unbeatable. This cake made for a festive Christmas Eve dessert, and we see the recipe working perfectly in cupcake form for New Year’s Eve–or any eve for that matter. We were planning to stick to the queen, Ina Garten’s decadent recipe, but one of us couldn’t stomach the idea of 5 sticks of butter in the cake and frosting. So we tweaked a few recipes and came out with an equally delicious, (slightly) healthier version.
Ingredients (cake)
3 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 sticks butter
4 cups powdered sugar
4 egg yolks
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup shredded coconut
4 egg whites
Steps
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Combine flour, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl
In a separate bowl, cream the butter and gradually add the sugar, followed by the beaten egg yolks
Alternate gradually adding the flour mixture and the milk to the cream mixture, stirring well throughout.
Add the coconut and vanilla, fold in the egg whites
Pour mixture in to two greased cake pans, bake ~30 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean
Set aside to cool and begin making the coconut cream cheese frosting. mmmm…
Ingredients (frosting)
8-ounces cream cheese, softened
1 stick butter
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
6 cups confectioners’ sugar
8 oz sweetened coconut flakes (save some for sprinkling)
Steps
Beat cream cheese and butter until smooth
Add vanilla extract, gradually add the sugar until smooth
Stir in the coconut
Frost!
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