Chocolate Chip Coconut Cake

Yesterday was my birthday and I honestly almost forgot about it. I mean, I knew it was coming up, but the days are going by so fast, being that this is the busy time of year for our business. Which also explains my lack of posting. But my birthday was great thanks to my wonderful husband Scott. He planned an entire meal for me and a couple of friends and he did such an amazing job. 

He spent a good part of the afternoon picking up all the ingredients and preparing a seasonal feast without asking for my help at all. He even made appetizers! I was impressed, as well as our guests. He even had me asking for the recipe of a particular salad that included roasted cauliflower, endive and kidney beans in a flavorful balsamic vinaigrette dressing.

He said he was planning a dessert for the evening too, but at the last minute I told him I was going to make a cake that I had been craving since I saw it a few weeks earlier.  I think he was fine with that. And after seeing everything he made I'm really glad I jumped in to help, but I mostly really enjoy making my birthday cake anyways.

I've said it before, I'm really not a traditional birthday cake person and prefer less frosting and cloyingly sweet anything. This coconut cake sounded like it was right up my ally, with only a few personal changes made to the original recipe.

The cake itself is far from sweet, there's not very much sugar in the batter, but I love the contrast of the sweet coconut flavor and the bittersweet chocolate. It's more of an everyday cake you might enjoy with a cup of tea or coffee, but that's kind of my style.

The recipe called for 1/2 cup butter, but I thought coconut oil seemed more appropriate and went with that. The original recipe also had only all purpose flour, but I used whole wheat pastry flour for partial instead. I was a little worried it might come out dry because of the whole wheat flour substitute, but it still had a nice moistness to it. I think if I make it again I will add in more coconut milk to help make it really moist, but below I wrote the amount I used.

Chocolate Chip Coconut Cake
Adapted from Bon Appétit

8-12 servings

1 cup whole wheat pastry flour

3/4 cup unbleached all purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon fine sea salt

1 cup unsweetened shredded coconut

3/4 cup cane sugar

1/3 cup coconut oil

2 large eggs, at room temperature

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 cup canned unsweetened coconut milk

6 ounces bittersweet chocolate, broken into 1/2-inch irregular pieces, divided

1/2 cup sweetened coconut flakes

coconut drizzle

3/4 cup powdered sugar

2 tablespoons coconut milk, plus more if needed

1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease or butter a 9-inch-diameter cake pan with 2-inch-high sides; dust pan with flour, shaking out excess. 

Sift flours, baking powder, and sea salt into medium bowl. Stir in unsweetened shredded coconut and set aside. 

Cream together the sugar and coconut oil in large bowl until light and fluffy. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla. Add flour mixture in 3 additions alternately with coconut milk in 2 additions, beating just until blended after each addition. Fold in half of bittersweet chocolate pieces. 

Spread batter evenly in prepared cake pan. Sprinkle remaining chocolate pieces over batter, then sprinkle with sweetened flaked coconut. 

Bake cake until golden and tester inserted into center comes out clean, tenting with sheet of foil if coconut  on top cake starts to brown too quickly, 45-60 minutes. Transfer cake to rack and cool in pan.

To make the icing, whisk powdered sugar, 2 tablespoons unsweetened coconut milk, and vanilla in small bowl to blend well, adding more coconut milk by 1/2 teaspoonfuls until mixture is thin enough to drizzle over cake. 

Carefully run small knife around sides of cake to loosen. Invert cake onto platter, then carefully invert again onto another platter, coconut side up. Using small spoon, drizzle powdered sugar mixture decoratively over cake. Cool cake completely on platter. The cake can be made up to a day ahead. Cover cake and let stand at room temperature.