Coco Lopez Coconut Cake

Last month, I went to an Avalanche hockey game in Denver where I tried a mid-game treat from the dessert cart.  Let me tell you, it was so hard to choose one dessert to try from all the yummy-looking, mouth-watering desserts.  Since my husband isn't a fan of coconut, I rarely make anything with coconut in it for home, so I just had to try their Coco Lopez Coconut Cake.

I should have taken a picture of it.  It was divine!  A tall four layered slice with vanilla cake flavored with coconut, a pineapple filling and a coconut cream filling.  Frosted with a whipped frosting and heavily garnished with toasted coconut shavings.

Once I got home, I decided that I had to replicate that cake, with a bit of tweaking.  While I enjoyed the pineapple filling, to me, it just didn't belong in that cake.  I found a great recipe on America's Test Kitchen's website.  Unfortunately, if you are not a paid member of that website, you can't access it.  Thankfully there are enough paid members out there who have reposted the recipe, that I was able to get my hands on it anyway.

If you would like this recipe, just do a quick google search and you will find many adaptations of it.

I baked the cake using 8" round pans, then torted them once cooled.  I filled the layers with an all butter buttercream I made using whipped cream, Coco Lopez cream of coconut, butter and other yummy ingredients.  I frosting the cake with the same buttercream, then generously added toasted coconut flakes to the top and side of the cake.  Added a few buttercream embellishments, and voila!  My version of the Coco Lopez Coconut Cake.