Birthday Cakes

My cakes bring all the boys to the yard. Depending on the day I may not be just be talking about my pastries. ;) But let's talk about cakes! So I recently celebrated my big 3-0! Can you believe that? I can't. I am still in disbelief that I just celebrated my 30th birthday. I guess you could say I'm basically an adult now. This milestone birthday got me thinking about all my previous birthdays and celebrations so I wanted to share with you all my cakes and since it would be very difficult to give you an actual slice of cake I am sharing a recipe instead. I am going to throw it way back and it's not even Thursday! Growing up and being the baby of the family for 6 years got me spoiled that is until my little brother, Jorge, came along. For the longest time I resented him for taking the attention from you. I was no longer the baby and the only boy, now I was a middle child. He was born at the end of March while I was born at the beginning of March so one day my parents had the idea to combine our birthday parties. I remember this day because it was such an impactful dramatic moment in my life. Granted I'm being a little over dramatic but as a little gay 7 year old any small thing can seem like the end of the world. That year we had the birthday party in the backyard, my parents invited our family members so my grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins all came. And you all should know that Latino families are huge, so needless to say there was a lot of people. Then the moment to bring out the cake came and that's where my little gay heart shattered. They had bought 2 cakes for the party one for me and one for my little brother and I'm sure you can guess whose birthday cake was bigger. That's right, it was Jorge's. I was so upset because he had this big cake with the words "Happy Birthday Jorge" written on it while I got a small coconut cake in the shape of bunny probably because it was close to Easter. Anyway, I was devastated! I'm pretty sure I cried because my cake was small, coconut flavored and didn't even have a candle on it. I know I probably sound like a brat right now but you gotta remember I was a little kid and I was having some serious sibling jealousy issues. I'm pretty sure I didn't have a birthday party after that. To continue reading about my favorite birthday cakes click here.

7th Birthday Toasted Coconut Cake

Cake:

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 cup coconut flour

2 1/4 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

3/4 cup unsalted butter room temperature

1 1/2 cup sugar

3 large eggs

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

1 cup coconut milk

Vanilla Buttercream:

3 sticks of unsalted butter, softened

4 cups powdered sugar

2 tbsp heavy cream

2 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup toasted coconut

Cake:

Preheat oven to 350F.

Grease and flour two 8 inch round cake pans.

Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt into a medium bowl and set aside.

Using a stand mixer or hand mixer cream the butter and sugar on med-high until it is pale and fluffy. Then reduce to medium-low speed and add eggs one at a time fully incorporating after each addition. Add vanilla.

Alternate adding flour mixture and coconut milk and fully beating it after every addition.

Bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out mostly clean.

Cool on wire rack.

Buttercream:

Using stand mixer cream the butter until it appears fluffy.

Add one cup of powdered sugar at a time and cream each addition until fully incorporated.

Add heavy cream and vanilla after 2 cups of powdered sugar have been mixed in.

Finish beating until it is creamy and fluffy.

If buttercream appears too dry add a bit more heavy cream, if it is too wet add a bit more powdered sugar.

Decorate cake with buttercream once it is fully cooked and top with toasted coconut.