Coconut Tea Cake

I've had my eye on this recipe for a while now, but never quite got around to making it, which is too bad because it's quite good and pretty easy to put together. One of the reasons I made it tonight was that I knew a friend of mine (Lauren) who frequently misses out on the goodies at work, will be around tomorrow and she likes coconut. Well, that and I had all the ingredients on hand. :)

This is basically a pound-cake with coconut milk and shredded coconut. The flavor that comes through the most is actually the rum which is fine by me. Like most pound cakes it's a touch dry, but Dorie seems to like them that way since she mentions in her notes that it's good with coffee, and after drying out a day or two, great dipped in the coffee biscotti style. It's not nearly as dry as the regular pound cake from the Dorie book, but it's got nothing on the best pound cake I have had to date -- JB's Sour Cream Pound Cake, which I have yet to make...

Overall it's a good recipe and worth repeating. When I get around to making it again though I will probably try one of the variations Dorie offers such as adding grated lemon, lime, or orange zest and juice or even toasted sesame seeds.

Ingredients:
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
1 cup canned unsweetened coconut milk (stir well before measuring)
1/2 stick (4 tbsp) unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces
4 large eggs, preferably at room temp
2 cups sugar
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
2 tsps dark rum
3/4 cup shredded coconut (unsweetened or sweetened), toasted or not

Preheat oven to 350. Butter a 9-10 inch (10-12 cup) Kugelhopf or Bundt pan.

Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together.

Pour the coconut milk into a small saucepan, add the butter and heat until the milk is hot and the butter melted. Remove from the heat, but keep warm.

Working with a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the eggs and sugar at medium-high speed until pale, thick and almost doubled in volume, about 3 minutes. Beat in the vanilla and the rum. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the dry ingredients, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed and stopping just when the flour disappears.

Keeping the mixer on low, add the coconut, mixing only until blended, then steadily add the hot milk and butter. When the mixture is smooth, stop mixing and give the batter a couple of turns with a rubber spatula, just to make certain that any ingredients that might have fallen to the bottom of the bowl are incorporated. Pour the batter into the pan and give the pan a few back and forth shakes to even the batter.

Bake for 60-65 minutes, or until the cake is golden brown and a thin knife inserted deep into the center comes out clean. Transfer the cake to a rack and cool for 10 minutes before unmolding onto the rack to cool to room temp.