Pineapple Coconut Cake

I recently had occasion to bake a cake. And what a fun cake I baked! It was only the second cake I’ve baked in my whole adult life. The last one was a modification of the same original recipe.

Because I don’t bake cakes often I didn’t want to bake one totally from scratch. I was doubtful I could get it moist and perfect on a first try, and I didn’t want the left over ingredients - when would I use cake flour again? But I didn’t want to just open a box and not really contribute to the deliciousness process either. So I started with a recipe that starts with a boxed mix, but with lots of add-ins. I changed the recipe to better suit my tastes and the ingredients I had. Like the pineapple-coconut layer: I had the ingredients available so why not? And why use pecans when I could use almonds?

Pineapple Coconut Cake

1 box white cake mix

1 stick butter, softened

1 cup fat free milk

¼ cup fat free plain yogurt

3 egg whites

1 tsp vanilla extract

½ tsp almond extract

¾ cup crushed pineapple, drained

¾ cup sweetened flake coconut

2 cups chopped almonds

2 cans cream cheese dressing

Preheat oven to 350. Mix the first seven ingredients really well. Mix in ½ cup pineapple, ½ cup coconut, and 1 cup almonds into the batter. Pour into two 8 inch cake pans, sprayed with oil. Bake about 30-35 minutes.

Let cool. Cut each cake in half, flatways to make 4 disks.

In a small bowl mix the remaining ¼ cup pineapple, ¼ cup coconut and ¼ cup super fine ground almond, set aside. In another bowl mix the frosting with the remaining almonds.

Put a few pieces of wax paper on your cake plate. Put a slice of cake in the center, cut side up. Spread some frosting on it. Place a cake slice on it, cut side up. Spread on the pineapple mixture. Place a cake slice on it, cut side down. Spread some frosting on top. Place the last cake slice on it, cut side down.

*Place a round plate on top as a guide, and use a large serrated knife to trim the cake sides. Remove plate and excess cake.

Using not too much icing, ice the side and top of the cake and put it in the fridge for at least an hour. Once well chilled and set, use the rest of the icing to ice the whole cake. Sprinkle with some of the remaining coconut.

Carefully pull the pieces of wax paper out from under the cake, to instantly clean the whole thing up.

*This trimming step is only necessary if you have a wonky oven such as myself and end up with a very over-cooked on the outside, perfect on the inside cake.  If your oven heats evenly, this step is only necessary if you want a smaller cake.