I was really excited to try this cake for my husbands birthday because him and his family really loves coconut and with all the great reviews I thought it was a winner. Well I was so disappointed. After following the recipe exactly I had a well beautiful but tasteless cake. I had bought a store mix cake for backup and I'm glad I did. My mother-in-law made me let her taste it and she agreed it was a nice presentation and said it was moist but no taste whatsoever. I recommend if you like coconut flavor perhaps use more coconut and coconut milk.
Very rich and yummy. It definitely needs some salt--I added 1/2 tsp. to the flour mixture. I also made it with canned coconut milk for extra flavor. Coconut milk for the frosting too: add enough milk or cream to whatever is left from the can of coconut milk used in the cake to make one cup liquid.
This cake is very good after some changes. My first cake was stodgy and lacked salt. I made it again this time using coconut milk (thanks to another reviewer's suggestion)in place of milk. I also added one half teasp. of salt to the flour mix. Then I used dessicated coconut in place of the soggy stuff. The result was a delicious coconut cake very moist and delightfully gooey. Next time I will use margarine instead of butter as the butter made it a bit rich. Well work making again with the changes.
Great cake! Since I was baking it as a gift I made a little 'baby' cake for myself. This not really a cake for beginners unless you're just lucky;-) I think that the the bakers who could not get the cake out of the pan simply did not let it bake long enough. The cake is done when it is golden brown. It should not be the color of coconut custard pie! Take the cake out ot the oven and let it sweat in the pan for 6 minutes. THEN remove it carefully and sit it on a rack to cool. Good luck! Recipe variation: I did add a little baking soda ( 1/2 tsp) only 2 tsp baking powder and I used dried buttermilk. I also used a 'right smart amount' of shorting and flour in my pans instead of spray.
I made this for my father-in-law's birthday. Everyone really liked it. I used only 3/4 cup sugar in the frosting and the next time I may use a little less sugar in the cake. Also I used 1/2 all purpose flour and 1/2 cake flour to make it more delicate. I will definitely make it again!
Made this cake for my Mom on her birthday was very disappointed.Although it looked great this was a very tastless cake however it was moist. Because of this I will try again only I will add coconut milk and coconut extract instead of regular milk and vanilla extract.
As per other reviews I added a pinch of salt and instead of milk I used coconut milk. The cake was delicious and very moist. I also used whipping cream instead of the frosting as I had some whipping cream left from a cake I made few days ago. I added in the whipping cream some sugar vanilla essence coconut flakes and the rest of coconut milk. It also turned up very well next time I'll try the frosting from the recipe.
I used coconut milk and I added crushed pineapple and garnished with pineapple rings marachino cherries and coconut flakes. The icing was out of this world!
The "cake" overall lacked flavor.
