Happy birthday to Steve, Happy birthday to Steve, Happy birthday to Steeeeeevvvveeee…Happy birthday to Steve!!!!
Yes, I sang and made cake and helped make dinner, all for Steve’s birthday which was Monday. As is tradition, I decided to make a coconut cake. It was partially my excitement over wanting to make a coconut cake again mixed with Steve’s jealousy over seeing my birthday cake that helped me choose the cake I was to make…and like I said, tradition! I used the recipe from my coconut snowball cupcakes.
For this birthday cake, I mixed it up a bit and layered strawberries onto the cake before frosting it. It was such a fresh and summery tasting cake. I know it’s fall, but it’s still over 80 degrees here so I can still justify summery treats (to cut through all the pumpkin ones I’ve been making).
There were only two of us to eat this cake so I made it only a single layer. The best thing about that was all the extra seven-minute frosting I had to pop into the fridge. That turned out to be a great idea because I didn’t want to eat too much cake, but I love frosting so having the extra smeared on graham crackers was just perfection! Also, the acidity of the strawberries had eaten away some of the frosting by the next day, so it was good that I had extra to re-frost a piece I packed for Steve’s lunch. Awwwe, so sweet!
Tips if you plan to make your coconut cake into a fruit-layered cake too (peaches would be yum!):
~apply a thin layer of frosting before the strawberries so they stick to the cake and don’t lift away as you frost the top layer (this was a two-handed frosting job!)
~don’t forget to refrigerate the cake so you don’t have to toss the last sliver that’s left on the plate three days later
~eat the whole cake so there’s not a sliver left
~make it a double- or triple-layer cake even if there are only two people to eat it because there seriously is no such thing as too much coconut cake
~make way more frosting than you think you’ll need because it tastes so good: by the spoonful, on an apple, on a graham cracker with peanut butter and chocolate chips, on the left-over strawberries in the fridge…
That cake was soooo good!