Traditionally, coconut cake is lighter than air and sweeter than a marshmallow, which is not what I’m looking for in a cake. I’m looking for a cake that’s got a nice, firm texture, tastes like cake, and also has an intense coconut flavor. After the umpteenth online recipe told me to use boxed white cake mix to make the coconut cake fluffier, I Frankensteined this recipe together out of a couple of non-coconut sources.

Ingredients for the cake:

• 9″ round cake pan
• 1 2/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 stick butter, room temperature
• 1 cup white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup coconut milk
• 1 cup sweet flaked coconut (did I mention it’s supposed to be coconutty?)

Ingredients for the frosting:

• 3 ounces cream cheese, room temp
• 1/2 stick butter, room temp
• pinch salt
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 2 tablespoons coconut milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 teaspoon rum

For the topping, lots more sweet flaked coconut!

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Set oven to 350° F.

Mix together the flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl. Set aside. Cream together the butter and sugar. Then, beat the eggs into the butter/sugar mixture. Add part of the flour mixture, stir it in, add part of the coconut mixture, stir, and go on until it’s all combined. Finally add the vanilla and sweet flaked coconut.

Grease the baking pan and pour the batter in. Bake for about 30 minutes, but check on it early! The cake is done when a knife stuck in the middle comes out without chunks of batter on it.

Let the cake cool completely. Meanwhile, making the frosting couldn’t be simpler: put all the ingredients into a bowl and beat the heck out of them.

Once the cake is cool, turn it out onto the plate and frost. Sprinkle flaked coconut on top. Enjoy.

Here’s some photos of the process: