If you didn’t know this about me, I’m a certified cake artist/baker! Seriously, I used to sell fancy fondant and naked cakes as a side gig before I created Home Beis. I’m self taught and have always loved baking. It’s a form of therapy for me. It’s one of those things that takes patience and focus- a great way to disconnect from all of your worries and stressors.

I often create recipes and even cake flavors based on things I’ve tasted or things I grew up eating as a kid. It’s nostalgic and it always brings me so much comfort and always brings me back to a specific moment in time. This cake is an ode to one of my favorite cookies growing up- Coconette! It’s a cookie my grandmother enjoyed with coffee in the morning or as a night cap for “cena” (dinner). It’s a cake like cookie that’s filled with coconut, raisins, and sometimes has rum like flavor.

I still remember Summers in Dominican Republic when I my grandmother would wake up before any of us did to enjoy some alone time. She’d put the Greca on the stove, serve herself some piping hot coffee and grab some fresh Coconettes from the little black and white striped bag that the Colmado (grocery/bodega) would send it in. I was always an early bird and would wake up and meet her in the terrace. She’d pour me some coffee too and share her Coconette with me. I miss those days!

My grandmother has been on my mind heavy these days and for some reason that one memory came to mind. Except I didn’t want a cookie and was in the mood for cake so I remixed my Coconette recipe to create this delicious pound cake. It’s yummy, boozy, and cocunutty. Doña Rosa would’ve loved it!

Here are the deets!

The only nugget I will share here is that your bowl has to be super clean before whipping your egg whites or else your egg whites won’t peak or turn into meringue. So clean and fully dry your bowl before whipping the whites.

Ingredients

1 stick of unsalted butter, at room temperature
1.5 cups and 2 tablespoons of all-purpose flour
3/4 cups of granulated sugar
2 teaspoons of salt
Half of a can of sweetened coconut cream, like Coco Lopez
2 eggs, yolks and whites separated
1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
1/4 teaspoon of baking soda
1/2 cup of full fat coconut milk
1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract
1/2 cup of Malibu Rum
1 cup of toasted sweetened coconut

For the Icing:

1/2 cup confectioners (powdered) sugar
1 Tablespoon of coconut milk
1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

First, toast your coconut flakes. Toast the coconut in a pan at medium to high heat toss every couple of minutes to ensure that all of your coconut flakes are toasting evenly and to prevent them from burning. Keep an eye on this to risk from burning.

First we cream our wet ingredients. Add your butter, sugar, and coconut cream into a mixer or mixing bowl and cream with your paddle attachment. Start at low speed and then increase gradually until light and fluffy. Scrap the sides of your bowl and then turn on your mixer again. Add in your egg yolks and combine. Keep mixing for about 5 more minutes until well combined and fluffy.

While the eggs are combining in your mixer, move onto the dry ingredients. Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

Now, we create our coconut milk mixture. In another bowl, combine the coconut milk and vanilla.

Now that the eggs are fluffy and combined with our creamed mixture, it’s time to bring the wet ingredients, dry ingredients, and coconut milk mixture all together. Gradually add in a third of the flour mixture and a third of your coconut milk mixture into your stand mixer (or mixing bowl) along with your creamed mixture until combined. Then, repeat another two times adding a third at a time until you’ve added in all of your coconut milk and flour mixture.

Scrape the sides of your bowl to ensure that everything is combined and then mix everything once more.

Pour the batter into a clean bowl and thoroughly clean your mixer bowl. You’ll want the mixer bowl to be super clean (and dry) as the egg whites won’t whip properly for the next step if any fat is left in the bowl.

Now, we whip our egg whites. Add your egg whites into your mixer bowl and whip the egg whites for about 8-9 minutes. Start by whipping at the lowest speed (speed 2) until you see bubbles forming then move up to the next speed (speed 4). Once you see the egg start to turn into a meringue (white foamy texture) crank up the speed to high until you get nice stiff peaks.

Now we combine the egg whites with the cake batter. Next, add your egg whites into the bowl along with the cake batter and fold the egg whites in gently into the batter just until combined. This technique will provide us with an extra fluffy and moist consistency for our cake.

Then, add in half of your toasted coconut and then gently fold the coconut into the cake batter as well.

Add the cake batter into a cake or bundt pan and bake for 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Turn the cake around in the oven at the halfway mark to ensure that your cake cooks evenly and that the egg whites in the cake don’t drop.

Remove the cake from the oven when it’s ready and allow for the cake to cool in the pan for about 10 minutes before removing from the baking pan.

Flip your cake over onto a plate or cake stand and while warm, brush the Malibu Rum on the cake.

Next, Pour your icing over the cake and immediately sprinkle the remainder of the toasted coconut.

Let cake fully cool and enjoy!