TWD: Coconut Tea Cake

Hey! Hey look! I think I got my baking mojo back this weekend! After godknowshowlong, I finally baked bread again, made some fantastic currant scones, baked next week's TWD pick and this week's - coconut tea cake. All before noon on Saturday. Yeah, I'm awesome and you know it. Okay, maybe just flour-sugar-butter-eggs obsessed, but that's pretty awesome too, no? And out of all of these choices, you know the only one I was worried about turning out was this one? And the only one the fiance even cared to try was this one too? No pressure. No pressure for that returning mojo'o'mine.


Lucky for me, he doesn't like the oddly chewy, fibrous, and overly sweet taste of dried coconut, so that was skipped. And because I occasionally get tired of toting three cookbooks, five obscure ingredients, a KA stand mixer and two baking pans to Madison for the weekend (yes, I have done that before), I halved the recipe and baked it in a 9" round pan. Which after 27 minutes turned out quite an adorably squat little tea cake, barely scented with coconut but nicely light and moist. Knowing, however, that the fiance really does like the taste of coconut (he suggested we just buy a coconut, split it, and use the meat and milk in this tea cake - nuff said), I whipped up a coconut glaze to go on top. A couple spoonfuls of leftover coconut milk, a hefty pinch of salt, and enough powdered sugar to make a pourable glaze worked just right. It was oddly sticky and stretchy though, which may have been due to the different consistency of the coconut milk. Whatevs, I had fun gently coaxing it to dribble over the edges. It had to. That's my favorite part of glazed cakes!


Post-glazing, I announced to the fiance that not only was this staying with him, he needed to taste test it for me right then. How could I let him wait a day or two to taste it, during which it could potentially get dry?!? So ignoring the existence of a fantastically catered anniversary party being thrown by his company that very night, I forced him to eat a wedge. Well, I forced him to take a bite, because that was all he promised. Next thing I knew, he had mowed through the entire wedge. The cake was pronounced barely coconutty but very light and moist and sweet, and the glaze was judged to give just the right amount of coconut kick to the entire thing. Success! The baking mojo returneth!


Last Week: Dulce de Leche Cookies
Next Week: Mocha Walnut Marbled Bundt Cake (with a few tweaks...)