Classic Coconut Cake with White Mountain Coconut Icing

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour two 9 inch round cake pans and set aside. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt and use a fork to mix them together. Pour the milk or coconut juice into a measuring cup and stir the vanilla into the milk.

In a large bowl, beat the softened butter with a mixer at medium speed until creamy. Add the sugar and continue beating, stopping to scrape down the sides, until the mixture is light and evenly combined. Add the eggs, one by one, beating well each time, until the mixture is thick and smooth.

Add about 1/2 of the flour mixture to the batter and beat well at low speed. Then add about half the milk to the batter, beating well. Continue beating as you add another third of the flour mixture, followed by the rest of the milk, and then the remaining flour mixture, beating well each time until the batter is very thick and smooth.

Quickly scrape the batter into the prepared cake pans, dividing it evenly, and place them in the oven. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until the cakes are golden-brown, spring back when touched lightly in the center, and begin to pull away from the sides of the pans. Watch closely - one may be done before the other.

Remove from the oven and cool in the pans on wire racks or folded kitchen towels for 10 minutes. Then turn out the cakes onto wire racks or plates, turn the layers top side up and cool completely.

Make White Mountain Coconut Icing; set aside.

White Mountain Coconut Icing

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup water

2 egg whites

Add the sugar and water to a small sauce pan and stir to dissolve it. Bring the mixture to a gentle boil and cook without stirring for 3 minutes. Then boil for 5 to 10 minutes, stirring often, until the syrup has thickened and will form itself into a thread about 2 inches long when poured from a spoon back into the pan. Beat the egg whites in a large bowl with a mixer at high speed until they are bright white, shiny and pillow into voluminous clouds. While beating at high speed, slowly pour the cooked syrup into the egg whites to blend them into a fluffy-white icing. 4 to 5 minutes.

To ice the cake, place one cake layer, top side down, on a cake stand or serving plate. Cover it generously with icing and sprinkle with some of the coconut. Place the second layer on top of the iced layer, top side up. Ice the sides to help keep the cake steady, and then spread icing generously over the top, completely covering the cake. Place cake stand or serving plate on a cookie sheet to catch loose coconut as you shower the cake. Sprinkle coconut all over the cake, and then gently pat handfuls of coconut onto the sides and top to cover the bare spots. Transfer leftover cocnut to a jar or plastic bag and store it in the freezer.