Coconut Cake Gone Rogue

I know it sounds silly to call it Coconut Cake when clearly that is a strawberry cake in the picture, but like most things in my life there's a back story.  A coworker brought this amazing coconut cake for us all to share one afternoon.  I work for the state and nothing motivates a group of groggy state employees through the afternoon like free cake.  So Ms. J brought this cake that I was sure took her all morning to make. It has been my experience that a good coconut cake takes several hours, and 7 minute frosting takes a heck of a lot longer than 7 minutes. Turns out that is was so easy and delicious, so I am going to share it with you.  I'm sure if she ever reads this she will see that I took out a good deal of the sugar, half in fact, and helped the recipe go rogue a time or two.

Coconut Cake

1 Butter recipe yellow cake mix
1 cup coconut
1 16 oz container of sour cream
1 8 oz bowl of whipped topping
1 cup of sugar

Prepare the cake mix according to the directions. I like to divide the mix into 3- 9 inch round pans, but you can see I have made it in 1- 9x13  pan cut into 2 layers before.  Bake and let cool.  Whisk together  16 ozs of sour cream and sugar in a large bowl until sugar is no longer gritty.  Add coconut to the mixture and reserve 1 cup for frosting for between the layers.  Fold the 8 ozs of whipped topping into the remaining one cup of sour cream and coconut mixture and frost the top and sides of the cake. 

 

Viola!!! That's it I promise.  Now for the rogue part. If I am using a 9x13 and I am not worried about supporting the weight of several layers, I don't reserve any I just mix it all together like the rebel I am and go to frosting.  I know...I'm a wild woman right? We have an amazing bakery in Baton Rouge that is known for their strawberry cakes.  I got to thinking this would be great with strawberries.  I cut the 9x13 in two layers, then sliced a container of washed strawberries with my PC (pampered chef) egg slicer and folded them into the frosting instead of coconut.  Boy howdy was it good! Sorry local bakery but this one was so good and cost so much less.  I could have gotten out the pastry bags and made fancy edges and wrote goodbye to the coworker I whipped this up for, but sometimes you need to keep it simple and tasty.  

Oh one more thing, in a hurry once I mixed up half a batch of frosting with blackberries that I frosted onto a Sara Lee frozen pound cake sliced lengthwise.  I am telling you the possibilities are endless. Enjoy, and remember to share with a friend.