The Cupcake Courtesan

My husband's, my mother in law's, and my step grandfather's birthday party were all this last weekend. I of course, being tight on money as I am, opted for creating the gifts I gave... including baking.

I had previously made this oreo chocolate cake for my friend Julie's baby shower, but I made them into cupcakes. This cake was ridiculously thick and in retrospect I should have made it a two layer cake. I have also learned that baking cakes are the opposite of baking cookies. With cookies you start with liquids and add dry ingredients, but with cake you start with dry and add liquids. Very interesting.



I had never made a coconut cake before, but I decided that it was probably basically like the vanilla cake recipe I had, except I added a few extra things. Almond extract tastes really fruity, so it went really well with the coconut flavor I incorporated into the coconut cake by adding instead of buttermilk, COCONUT MILK! How incredibly decadent is that? Coconut milk is amazingly good. I made a coconut milk based frosting as well, and finally smushed shredded coconut into the frosting once I had finished laying it on. I just thought it was so PRETTY, I didn't want to cut into it.

We did, however, and man... I may have diabetes now.