Conference Weekend Coconut Cake

There's so much that I love about Conference Weekend, not only the inspirational messages that come with the event, but also my little traditions I like to incorporate. One of which is luxury cooking. Since the block of meetings means I'm bound to my home listening to the sessions, I have some extra time to spend in the kitchen. So I can experiment with new and much-loved recipes that take more time than I typically devote to cooking.

This conference I tried a new recipe: Alton Brown's Coconut Cake with 7-Minute Frosting. I'm a big Alton fan and after watching "The Coconut Cake Revival" episode of his show Good Eats, I just had to try the recipe.


This cake took hours to make, because it involved husking your own coconut, making coconut milk and coconut cream, and then "building" your cake from scratch to ensure the right texture. But because you complete the recipe in stages, it didn't seem to take too long. Now, you could use store-bought canned coconut milk and cream and a cake mix, but why not go all out every once in a while?

I followed Alton's recipe exactly, with one exception. Unfortunately I just didn't have any Vodka to spare, so I omitted homemade coconut extract. :). The coconut milk and cream turned out amazing, and it was worth all the effort just to learn how to make this.

When I tasted the masterpiece the day-of, I wasn't doing back flips. I thought the cake turned out a bit salty, so I'll use less salt next time. When it did, I thought the cream of tartar gave it too sharp of a taste, so next time I'll use a bit less. However the next day, I really liked it.

If you're feeling adventurous, you can try out the recipe for yourself. You'll find it here.