Toasted Coconut Pound Cake

If you’ve been following this blog for a while, then you’ll know that every year, at around this time of year, I engage in a little tradition where I bake myself a cake for a special occasion, of sorts.

The occasion is my birthday.

While it’s not something that typically gets a lot of fanfare or to-do, about ten or so years ago I decided that I would be intentional about ‘celebrating’ my birthday, myself, and the new year that I was able to see by making myself a new cake. I did it the first year and enjoyed it a lot more than I initially expected to, so I did it again the next year, and the next, and after that, it just stuck for good.

I think that birthday cake is something that tends to get generalized as being either ‘white,’ ‘chocolate’ or ‘funfetti’, and as a result it sometimes gets a bad rap. But I’ve found that it can also be a Blank Canvas Recipe where you can experiment to your heart’s content.

In other words, ANY cake at all can be a Birthday Cake if you want it to be.

I’ve adapted this philosophy for my ‘Birthday Cakes’ for over ten years now, and it’s resulted in some pretty tasty results. While I won’t share them all, I will share a highlight reel of some of my personal favorites:

Although I definitely have my favorites and taste preferences, I do try to be intentional about trying something completely new when I make my birthday cake, kind of in honor of and in keeping with the fact that I’m entering into a new year and a a new age that I’ve never ‘tried’ before.

As it turns out, every year that I’ve done this has also brought a lot of new material change in my life (and most of it for the better), so I figure, why not keep it going?

Pound cake is certainly nothing new on this blog, or in my life. I’ve made (and probably eaten) hundreds of pound cakes. What is different, is a certain ingredient that I’ve recently tried and been experimenting with: toasted coconut.

I’ve mentioned it on here before, but it bears repeating that growing up as a kid, I was never a coconut person. It was a textural thing for me. The white sugary coconut you see intaking aisles and in most desserts was just really unappetizing to me because of the texture: I thought it tasted like wet paper (and I still kinda do).

However, as I’ve grown up, I’ve come to appreciate the actual flavor of coconut a lot more than I used to as a kid. Taste buds are funny like that. And I’ve also recently discovered a neat little trick to nix that tricky and unappetizing texture problem that I have with it: toasting the coconut.

It’s a quick and simple extra step that makes SUCH a difference, both in texture AND in flavor and I’m kinda annoyed that it took me this long and at my big age of 35 to discover it.

Coconut itself has a very light and subtle taste, but when it’s toasted it takes on a rich, caramel-y flavor that is hard to describe, but very addictive. I first realized this a few months back when I folded toasted coconut into the dough of this Pineapple Cookie Tart, and I knew even back then that it would be a perfect addition to another Blank Canvas Recipe like pound cake.

This pound cake has toasted coconut in every way one of it’s components: toasted coconut and a coconut emulsion/extract is mixed into the dough, coconut milk and extract is mixed into the icing, AND toasted coconut flakes are sprinkled on top. Coconut on coconut on coconut.

It made for a delicious birthday cake and present to myself, and I think it would make a wonderful birthday cake/present to any coconut lover out there, or a cake for any occasion at all.

Toasted Coconut Pound Cake

Recipe Adapted from Allrecipes.com

Ingredients

For Cake

3 cups white sugar
2 cups (4 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
6 large eggs
4 cups all-purpose flour
⅔ cup milk
1 tablespoon coconut emulsion or extract
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups toasted flaked coconut (the toasting really does matter here. If you need instructions as to how to toast coconut, see here)

For Icing

1 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspon coconut emulsion or extract
A few tablespoons coconut milk
1-2 tablespoons toasted flaked coconut

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease and flour a 16 cup bunt cake pan and set aside.

In a large bowl, combine the flour with the flaked coconut and set aside. In a glass measuring cup combine the milk with the extracts and set aside.

In the bowl of a large standing mixer, or using a handheld mixer with the paddle attachments, beat the butter with the sugar until light, fluffy and creamy.

Add the eggs one at a time, mixing just until combined.

Add the flour mixture alternatively with the milk mixture in batches, starting and ending with flour.

Spread batter in bundt pan. Place a half sheet pan and bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cakes comes out clean, about 70 minutes. (Internal temp of the cake should be between 195-200 degrees F.)

Allow to cool in pan for about 25-30 minutes before turning out an allowing to cool completely on a wire rack.

To make icing: combine the first three ingredients together in a small bowl. Using the tines of a fork, drizzle the icing over cake in desired pattern, then sprinkle desired amount of toasted coconut on top.

Allow cake to sit for about 15 minutes to allow icing to harden.