Lilac Coconut Cake, exclusively Skirt in the Kitchen
This is not just some ordinary cake. It’s got vintage appeal with pale lavender lilac blooms baked in the cake batter with virgin coconut oil and shredded coconut over the frosting. There’s no better time to make this with Mother’s Day right around the corner. Just remember to bake with unsprayed blooms and from bushes that are not near a roadside because of the fumes of pollution from vehicle exhausts. Yet, we picked the Sand Hill plums along the sandy roads in Kansas… lol, but fond memories for the love of jelly made from those Chickasaw plums.
Lilac blossoms accentuate the flavors of coconut and pure almond. The three make a nice balance for this cake.
Bring to room temperature 1 cup whole milk
and 4 large eggs. Have the oven preheated to 350º.
Sift 3 cups cake flour and 1 tablespoon baking powder. My sweet Australian Shepherd puppy, Rosie…
You might think these are too many blooms to pick for a cake, but they aren’t. Pluck all or most of the lilac flowers of one cluster from the green stems and toss the pretty petals into the cake flour.
Go ahead and fluff them into the dry mixture. It’s spring and summer in the look and feel of it. Set aside to begin beating the butter and creamy coconut oil.
Beat 1/2 cup softened, but not too soft, unsalted real butter and 1/2 cup creamy virgin coconut oil–before it can quickly and naturally melt into its oily liquid. Don’t waste time. The butter needs to be slightly over what is considered softened so that it keeps the creamy coconut oil together, that the two bind together harmoniously into one before the coconut oil breaks down into liquid form. You want solidity.
Here’s what it will look like–beautiful.
Add 2 cups granulated sugar.
Beat in the eggs, one at a time. Mix in 1 1/4 teaspoon pure almond extract.
Alternate the cake flour and the milk into the batter. Either incorporate with a spatula
or with the mixer on low speed.
Coat the baking pans with creamy coconut oil, then dust with flour. The outside of the cake will not darken too much when greasing with coconut oil.
Fill the pans and bake just until tender-ready and when a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean–no crumbs attached. Cool completely in the pan on a rack, then turn out onto the rack. Transfer to a frosting plate.
For the frosting, beat 1/4 cup plus 1 teaspoon creamy coconut oil and 1/4 cup softened unsalted butter. Slowly add 4 cups powdered sugar and a teaspoon or two, at a time, of whole milk, then 1 teaspoon almond extract. Not very much milk is needed. Double the recipe if you want the sides frosted and if a thick cover of frosting is desired.
Rosie cake
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