Coconut Bundt Cake by Rachel

Summer is here!  Hooray!!

One of my favorite types of desserts for the summer is anything with coconut.  I recently bought a brand-spanking-new bundt pan and I was so eager to test it out.  So I combined my love for coconut desserts with the bundt cake pan and decided to make a coconut bundt!  It was delicious.

The recipe is a little more complicated and requires ingredients to be combined in separate bowls, but I promise you that the result is a fluffy and moist coconut cake that is a real crowd-pleaser!

Ingredients
Bowl 1:
1 1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

Bowl Two
1 stick of unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg, room temperature
1 can of un sweetened coconut milk
1 cup sweetened shredded coconut
1 tsp vanilla extract

Bowl 3:
2 egg whites
1/4 cup sugar
1/8 tsp cream of tartar

Toasted coconut topping:
1/2 cup of sweetened coconut
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 tbsp water

- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

- Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt and set aside.

- In a separate bowl, cream together the softened butter and 3/4 cup of sugar.  Let this beat together until the mixtures is a very pale, light yellow color.

- Add in the 1 egg and let it fully incorporate into the mixture.

- Mix in the dry ingredients a little bit at a time.  Then, mix in the coconut milk and the vanilla extract.  Fold in the sweetened shredded coconut. Set this bowl aside.

- In a separate bowl, mix together the egg whites, cream of tartar and 1/4 cup sugar.  Mix until soft peaks form.

- Carefully fold in the egg white mixture into the other cake batter.  Be careful not to overmix!  You want the egg whites to make the cake fluffy and overmixing will remove the air from the beautiful, soft peaks you created.

- Grease your bundt pan- you don't want all this beautiful cake batter to stick to the pan!  Make sure that it's evenly coated with oil so that your cake will turn out easily.

- Place into the oven for a 40 minute session.

- Remove the cake and let cool for about 10 minutes before your try to flip it out.  Flip it out onto a cooling rack.  If you flip it out onto a solid surface, the heat from the cake will make it soggy on the bottom so don't do that!

Et voila! :)

- Once the cake as FULLY COOLED, you can top it!  Combine the powdered sugar and the water.  Mix it- the texture should be a very thick syrup. 

- To toast the coconut, turn your oven onto a high broil.  Spread your shredded coconut out onto a baking sheet and put it into your oven for about 3-4 minutes, or until the coconut starts to brown.  This can burn easily so keep a close eye on it.

- Drizzle the powdered sugar glaze over the cake and sprinkle the toasted coconut on top.  Since the glaze it wet, the coconut should stick right to the cake.  You have your cake. :)