Coconut Cake with Seven-Minute Frosting

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Sure! Here’s a big, beautiful, full-bodied recipe for a Classic Coconut Cake with Fluffy Seven-Minute Frosting – filled with history, love, method, and magic. 🌴💕

🥥 Coconut Cake with Seven-Minute Frosting 💕

💫 Introduction

Coconut cake is a timeless Southern American dessert, cherished for its light, tender crumb, subtle tropical flavor, and cloud-like frosting. Whether served on Easter, at weddings, or just a cozy Sunday gathering, this cake sings with old-fashioned charm. The Seven-Minute Frosting—a vintage marvel—tops it all with its meringue-like fluff, glistening with snowy sweetness. It’s a cake for lovers of coconut and lovers of nostalgia.

🧁 Ingredients

For the Coconut Cake:

  • 2½ cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • ½ tsp salt
  • 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
  • 1¾ cups granulated sugar
  • 4 large eggs, room temperature
  • 1 cup buttermilk, room temperature
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 tsp coconut extract (optional but recommended)
  • 1½ cups sweetened shredded coconut

For the Seven-Minute Frosting:

  • 3 large egg whites
  • 1½ cups granulated sugar
  • ⅓ cup cold water
  • ¼ tsp cream of tartar
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract

For Decoration:

  • 1½ cups sweetened shredded coconut (to press around the cake)

👩‍🍳 Instructions & Method

🍰 Making the Cake Layers:

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C). Grease and flour two 9-inch round cake pans. Line bottoms with parchment paper.
  2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
  3. In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy (about 3–4 minutes).
  4. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir in vanilla and coconut extract.
  5. Alternately add the flour mixture and buttermilk, beginning and ending with flour. Mix just until combined.
  6. Fold in the shredded coconut.
  7. Divide the batter evenly between pans. Smooth tops and bake for 25–30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
  8. Cool in pans for 10 minutes, then remove and cool completely on wire racks.

🍥 Preparing the Seven-Minute Frosting:

This frosting must be made right before you frost the cake. It doesn’t store well but is glorious fresh.

  1. In the top of a double boiler (or a heatproof bowl set over simmering water), combine egg whites, sugar, water, and cream of tartar.
  2. Beat with a hand mixer on high speed for 7 minutes (yes, really!) until stiff, glossy peaks form.
  3. Remove from heat and quickly beat in vanilla extract.
  4. Use immediately while it’s still warm and billowy.

🎂 Assembling the Cake:

  1. Place one cooled cake layer on a serving plate. Spread a thick layer of frosting on top.
  2. Place the second cake layer over the first and frost the top and sides generously.
  3. Gently press shredded coconut onto the sides and top of the cake, covering it like a fluffy cloud.

📜 History of the Cake

The Coconut Cake made its way into American homes in the 19th century when coconut became more widely available due to improved shipping from the tropics. It quickly became a Southern staple, symbolizing celebration and hospitality. The Seven-Minute Frosting, a marvel of early 20th-century kitchens, was a way to mimic marshmallow fluff before it was sold in jars. Made with just eggs, sugar, and heat—it’s a baker’s magic trick.

🧬 Formation of the Cake

This cake is all about balance:

  • The buttermilk adds tang and tenderness.
  • The shredded coconut adds texture and richness.
  • The seven-minute frosting brings in cloud-like sweetness.
    It forms a beautiful harmony of soft, moist layers with airy icing and the gentle crunch of coconut.

❤️ Conclusion

This Coconut Cake with Seven-Minute Frosting is a cake for dreamers, lovers, and old souls. It brings warmth to a table and smiles to every face. It’s soft and sweet, yet bold in flavor. Every forkful whispers stories of Southern porches, white lace, and joyful reunions.

💕 Lovers of Coconut, Unite

Whether you bake this for your beloved, your best friend, your grandmother, or just yourself—this cake is a love letter. Coconut lovers will swoon over the tropical richness, and frosting lovers will rejoice in the glossy peaks that kiss the tongue like silk.

🧑‍🍳 Methods for Lovers Who Bake Together

  • Play soft jazz in the background while whisking the frosting together.
  • Let one person pour while the other folds in the coconut—it’s a dance.
  • Sprinkle the coconut on top together, and steal a sweet kiss over the cooling cake.

Shall I write you a printable version too? 🍰

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