Tahini Apple Coffee Cake

Okay, so I have SO MANY NEWSES!

·      15 days until Thanksgiving

·      16 days until the Gilmore Girls reunion

·      6 ½ weeks until Christmas (woah…)

·      WE HAVE A NEW FAMILY MEMBER—Mr. Raleigh, the handsome little Chihuahua terrier, is the newest man in my life…and I’m obsessed beyond words with him! He loves walks, playing with his Cat In The Hat toy, peanut butter, puzzle pieces (learned that when I found one in his mouth…).

·      Oh, and hey, here’s a new recipe for you below!

It’s been quite a week if I must say. It all started with last Thursday when I went to the animal shelter to just look, and then I fell in love with Raleigh and adopted him right away! I may have just called Roberto and been like, hey dear...I got a dog...that okay? THANKS! I mean, little Raleigh was hugging my arm, yes hugging my arm. I didn’t know dogs could do that, but he did and I never want him to let go!

Yes. I am one of those dog obsessed people, and this is the first pup I’ve gotten outside of family dogs, so I’m even MORE excited! Prepare for Raleigh to be in every single post, all over Instagram, all over everything! I just can’t get enough of his little face and snuggles.

Okay, well, besides all of that excitement, I start a new job today—hello 4am baking shifts, woo! If ya’ll are ever in Atlanta, check out Little Tart Bakeshop, so jazzed to be a part of this incredible team! Hmm, I also am part of that annoying Puts Christmas Decorations Out on November 1st club. So yeah, what’s up Nutcrackers, Christmas lights, pine tree candles, Christmas Spotify…we’ve got it all here in this apartment! I totally appreciate Thanksgiving and all it has to offer, but I want to enjoy the entire holiday season for 2 months…so I basically throw up holiday music, decorations, food, you name it, until January 1st!

So, my friends, now let’s get to the slightly less exciting part of the post—this coffee cake! I only say less exciting because I want to continue to talk about Raleigh for another 500 pages, please.

This all started when I saw tahini at Trader Joe’s and decided to get over my fear and just buy it. My darling culinary school girlfriend, Alex, is obsessed with this. I mean, maybe it’s because she’s Armenian, or maybe it’s because it’s SO freaking good! I was a hater for years, and then after eating a spoonful of this, I yelled at myself for missing out on it for so long. Next I thought I would spice this up, literally. After receiving my copy of Molly On The Range—her blog, and cookbook, are must reads!—I was inspired beyond belief to make some hawaij and use it in something (the recipe for it below can be found in her cookbook!).

Note: hawaij is a beautiful combination of every good spice that you can imagine! Literally, think of holiday spices, and boom, you've got hawaij! The combination of nutmeg, cardamom, cloves, ginger and cinnamon will make you believe in love.

So, that’s when tahini + hawaij = DING DING coffee cake!

There are also some apples throughout it to add another level of flavor and moistness. This cake is totally different from your typical coffee cake…but it pretty much is a perfect match with coffee (kinda like Raleigh and me!). But don’t worry, there is still that crazy buttery, sugary, yummy crumb that should be in and on every coffee cake ever—I could never leave that out!

Now, as we celebrate all of the exciting things to come in the next 7ish weeks, you have this new recipe to try out as well! It will pair amazingly with any Thanksgiving table, Gilmore Girls party, holiday gift shopping breakfast, brunch…oh I can go on and on! So stop being an idiot like I was so long, get a few jars of tahini, and get to baking!

crumb ingredients

Flour—2 oz, or 1/3 C

Brown Sugar—1.15 oz, or 2 TBL

Salt—1/8 tsp

Hawaij (see below)—1 tsp

Butter—3 oz, or 6 TBL

Oats—1.5 oz, or ½ C

process

In the bowl of your mixer, combine the flour, brown sugar, salt, hawaij, and oats.

A tablespoon at a time, add the butter.

Mix until the butter is about hazelnut size.

Set aside until ready to use for the cake.

hawaij ingredients

Nutmeg—½ tsp

Cardamom—2 TBL

Cloves—½ tsp

Ginger—2 TBL

Cinnamon—½ tsp

process

Combine all ingredients and store in airtight container until ready to use.

cake ingredients

Butter (room temperature)—4 oz, or ½ C

Tahini—3 oz, or 1/3 C

Sugar—6 oz, or ¾ C

Eggs—2

Vanilla Extract—1 tsp

Yogurt—4 oz, or ½ C

Flour—8.25 oz, or 1 ½ C

Baking Soda—¼ tsp

Baking Powder—¾ tsp

Salt—½ tsp

Hawaij—½ tsp

Cinnamon—1 tsp

Apples (sliced)—2

process

Preheat your oven to 375˚ F.

In the bowl of your mixer, cream the butter, tahini and sugar.

Once light and fluffy (after about 5 minutes), add in the eggs and extract.

Make sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl after each egg addition.

In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, hawaij and cinnamon.

Alternating with the yogurt—I use full-fat—add in the flour.

Once all of the ingredients have been added, spray a loaf pan with nonstick spray.

Put about half of the batter in the bottom of the pan.

Sprinkle with some of the crumb that was made before—about ¼ of it.

Lay half of the sliced apples on top of the crumb.

Use whatever your favorites are! I used a Granny Smith and a Gala, a nice contrast of tart and sweet.

Sprinkle about another ¼ of the crumb on top of the apples, followed by the remainder of the batter.

Layer the rest of the apples on top and sprinkle with the rest of the crumb.

Place in your preheated oven for 35 minutes.

After the 35 minutes, cover the pan with aluminum foil so that the top will not brown any more, and just the cake will bake.

Bake for another 25 minutes—test with a toothpick to check doneness.

Remove from the oven, allow to cool completely on a cooling rack, and enjoy with a lovely morning or afternoon cup of coffee!

Bon Appétit!

Candy Cookie Cake

Happy Halloween, my friends!

What are your plans?! Trick-or-treating? Passing out candy? Ridiculous parties? Or, if you’re like me, you'll be devouring all of the candy you had to buy, knowing that no one will come up to your apartment door ringing the bell…

Yes. That’s me. I can’t resist the candy aisle for any holiday, and when you can get an assorted bag of all of the best mini-size chocolates, you go for it! As a chocolate-obsessed gal, I just can’t help myself and I’m not ashamed. Funny story—I recently did a small “about me” for my job’s website and had to write about my favorite foods…all I could think of was, well, chocolate…

Yes, Katie’s favorite food is chocolate…who am I?!

ANYWAYS! Back to this glorious cookie cake. As I mentioned in my post here, cookie cakes are just like a dream of mine—and I always am tempted to buy one when walking past Mrs. Fields. So, of course, challenge accepted, and I had to make this, especially since I’m trying to use the pounds of Halloween candy that I bought so I don’t binge eat it every night.

I also feel like, if I was to get actual Trick-or-Treaters and if handing out baked goods was acceptable, this would be the most incredible treat ever!! Like, oh yeah, if you go to Katie’s house, you can get slices of a cookie cake that is stuffed with candy…basically a 2 for 1! Ahh in my wildest dreams…

AND what I love so much about this is that you can put anything you want in it—yum! I mean, Kitkats, Twix and Snickers are the best chocolates to choose, but I won’t judge if you chose something a little less exciting and wonderful. So, if you’re like me and you bought way too much candy, this is a perfect way to use it! Bake up a few of these cakes, invite over some friends, watch Hocus Pocus, or even Saw, drink so wine—really there’s nothing you can do wrong with this candy-filled cake. While I do sometimes miss the weeks of costume making and end up wearing basically a black dress with cat ears, this new tradition I have of putting on big sweats and stuffing my face with candy and wine (maybe “Crazy Dog Lady” is this costume?) is something that I can get on board with!

cookie ingredients

Butter—4 oz, or ½ C

Brown Sugar—3 oz, or 1/3 C

Sugar—1 oz, or 2 TBL

Eggs—1

Vanilla—½ tsp

Flour—6 oz, or 1 C

Salt—½ tsp

Baking Soda—½ tsp

Halloween Candy, chopped—3 oz, or ¾+ C

process

In the bowl of your mixer, cream together the butter and sugars until light and fluffy.

Add in the egg and vanilla.

Sift together the flour, salt and baking soda. Slowly add this into your creamed mixture.

Scrape down the sides of your bowl.

Add in your chopped candy (reserve a small handful)—whatever you like best!

In terms of Halloween candy, I chose chocolate because, to me, that goes yummiest with this cookie cake! From there, pick your favorites. Mine happen to be Twix, Snickers and Kit Kats, but the candy aisle is your oyster!

Spray a spring form pan or a tart pan with nonstick spray.

Press the cookie dough in the pan, leaving about ½ an inch around the edge so that the cookie can spread slightly.

Sprinkle the remaining chopped candy on top of the cookie dough.

Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes so that it will firm up.

When you are ready to bake, preheat your oven to 350˚ F.

Bake your cookie cake for about 20 minutes, until the edges are slightly golden.

The center may look underbaked, but it will finish baking from the heat of the pan outside of the oven.

Allow to cool completely before decorating!

buttercream ingredients

Butter—2 oz, or ¼ C

Shortening—0.5 oz, or 1 TBL

Confectioner’s Sugar, sifted—5 oz, or 1 C

Cocoa Powder, sifted—0.5 oz, or 2 TBL

Milk—0.5 oz, or 1 TBL

process

In the bowl of the your mixer, cream the butter and shortening until smooth and fluffy.

Sift together the confectioner’s sugar and the cocoa powder.

Slowly add this into the mixer, scraping down the sides when necessary.

Add the milk in about a teaspoon at a time—you may need more if you want it a little creamier.

Scrape down the sides of the bowl, and then turn the mixer up to medium-high to give the buttercream a nice, final whip.

When your cake is completely cooled, you can begin to decorate with the buttercream!

Put it into a piping bag with whichever tip you’d like to use—a star tip will make nice rosettes or a rope, but it’s whatever look you’re going for.

Pipe around the outside boarder, decorate with some sprinkles or some more candies of your choice, and devour!

Bon Appétit!

Raspberry Rosé Cake

You know how they say that you shouldn’t go to the grocery store hungry, because then you’re just going to buy all of the bad food? WELL! That’s sorta, kinda how this recipe stumbled into my head…

I was, as always, craving cake, but then also the day was pretty spectacular—the warmth of the summer sun was upon my skin, the sound of birds chirping was all over, the flowers were blooming gorgeously, and people were just happy. It’s days like these that no matter what, I can’t be brought down—and then I thought why not add a little rosé wine into the mix?!

And so I did.

I went to the store and bought too many bottles for a little taste-testing afternoon. No regrets!

…Except maybe the fact that I have been missing out for a whiiilllle. Like, can someone please tell me why I’ve never been a rosé drinker? Because I sure can’t! I’m a true Riesling gal in the warm months, I can’t get enough of it—but this cake has led me rethink my summer beverage choices. The crispness, slight sweetness, with just the hint of a red wine, there are no bad qualities to this wine!! Well, maybe the fact that I drank an entire bottle while perfecting the recipe—hey, what can you do!?

So, along with the glorious addition of wine to this recipe, fresh fruit also shows its face. Like, hellooooo juicy and luscious raspberries. Gosh, I am so obsessed with this season and all of the beauty it produces, fruit will be making many, many appearances over the next few months for sure! Et voila my friends, a masterpiece was created, and just in time for the true start of the summer—Memorial Day Weekend!

Yes, a barbeque, a big fruit salad, some cold beers, that may be your go to, but I promise that this cake will 1. Be a huge hit, 2. Fill up those alcohol filled tummies and 3. Get people to switch to an ice-cold glass of rosé…quite a classy BBQ if I do say so myself!

Oh, and did I mention that I soak the raspberries in the wine as well?! You’re welcome.

…And now we are at the end of this nice long rant about my newfound love for pretty pink wine. So see, my hunger made me want cake, which made me step out into the beautiful sunshine to pick up some fresh fruit, then some rosé, and then I made a beautiful, Welcome Summer cake. Not all cravings are bad, and I sure hope that this one satisfies yours!

cake ingredients

Butter, room temperature—4 oz, or 8 TBL

Sugar—8 oz, or 1 C

Eggs—2

Vanilla—2 tsp

Flour—12 oz, or 2 C

Baking Powder—2 ½ tsp

Salt—½ tsp

Milk—4oz, or ½ C

Lemon Juice—3.5 oz, or ½ C

Lemon Zest—2 medium

process

Preheat your oven to 350˚ F.

In the bowl of your mixer, cream the butter and sugar.

Once light and fluffy, add in the eggs and vanilla. Scrape.

In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder and salt.

Alternating between the sifted ingredients and the milk/lemon juice, slowly add to the mixer in 4-5 increments.

Add in the zest.

Once you have all of the ingredients combined and mixed together, pour into 2-6” cake pans that have been sprayed with nonstick spray and lined with parchment or a light dusting of flour.

Bake the cakes for 35-40 minutes, until the top springs back slightly when touched.

*Note: if you do not have 2-6” cake pans, cut the recipe in half and just make in two separate batches!*

Allow to cool completely before building your cake

buttercream ingredients

Butter, room temperature—12 oz, or 1 ½ C/3 sticks

Confectioner’s Sugar—18 oz, or 4 C

Vanilla—1 tsp

Rosé Wine—2 oz, or 4 TBL

process

In the bowl of your mixer, cream the butter until very, very smooth.

In a separate bowl, sift the confectioner’s sugar, and then slowly add to the creamed butter.

When all smooth and incorporated, add in the vanilla, and then slowly stream in the rosé.

Optional—if you want a light pink color, add in just the smallest drop of red food coloring!

Turn the mixer up to high and whip the buttercream for about a minute, this will make it light, fluffy, and easy to apply to the cake!

filling ingredients

Raspberries—6 oz, or ~1C

Rosé—2 oz, or 4 TBL

process

In a small bowl, combine the berries and the wine.

Smash a little bit with the back of a spoon, and allow to marinate just slightly before putting them in between your two cake layers.

assembly

Once both of your cake layers have cooled completely, trim off the tops of each of the cakes so that they are flat in both sides.

Place one cake layer on either a plate or a turntable, whatever you are going to decorate on.

Fill either a piping bag, or a plastic baggie that seals shut, with the buttercream; make a moat around the outside edge of your cake, about ½” thick—this will help make sure that your cake is level, and the filling will not ooze out of the cake.

Take a dollop of buttercream and spread evenly inside of the moat you just made.

Slightly strain the wine soaked raspberries, and add on top of the buttercream.

Place your second layer of cake on top of the first, making sure to press just slightly.

Take another big spatula-full of buttercream and place on the top of your cake, smoothing it out.

Now, some of that will go over the sides, which is great, and you can just use it to cover the sides of your cake as well.

Once you have finished and are satisfied, you make decorate however you would like—naturally I went for the star sprinkles—and take a nice big piece to enjoy.

Bon Appétit!

Peanut Butter and Jelly Cake

Question—have you ever realized that you had all of these quirky habits as a child and then one day, as an adult, you’re like well what happened to them?! When did I become this semi-normal grownup?

WELL, my sweet baking friends, that happened to me the other day and I just couldn’t get it out of my head!

I woke up the other day simply craving a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. All I wanted the entire day was my simple PB&J&C. We will get back to the C shortly. Sadly, as a sort of adult, I don’t usually make myself a good old childhood sandwich—I’m constantly thinking about what the best nutrients for my body are, how I can fuel myself each day so I’m not falling asleep by noon or waking up with a stomach ache from too much ice cream.

Adulting is way too hard.

Back to my ever so important craving.

I used to come home most days after school as a child to either an empty house, or my stepdad working, aka Katie makes her own snack time. Now, Roberto will make fun of me until the end of my life for this—but here it is, out in the open for the world to see—the two top afterschool snacks I would make myself.

1. Either about half of a box of noodles with butter and cheese,

Or 2. A toasted peanut butter, jelly, and chocolate chip sandwich.

Carbs and I were, and still are, BFF’s. Just picture this though, warm, toasty bread, melty peanut butter and chocolate chips with cold jelly…I mean come on! It doesn’t get much better than that does it?!

Lately though, I have just been needing one of those sandwiches, which is where the inspiration for this cake came about! So, I give you an ever so rich peanut butter cake matched with even more moist and delightfully light strawberry cake, all sandwiched together with smooth dark chocolate buttercream.

It’s my childhood dream of a cake! …I will still take that sandwich though…

While maybe some days we aren’t feeling young enough to pack up this old favorite in a little baggy, cut into cute triangles with a side of sliced apples, this cake is my more adult version. I swear, put it out for your friends, kids, families, young, old—all will like it, my 25 year old self guarantees it!

peanut butter cake ingredients

Butter, room temperature—2 oz, or 4 TBL

Peanut Butter—3 oz, or ¼ C + 2 TBL

Sugar—8 oz, or 1 C

Eggs—2

Vanilla—2 tsp

Flour—12 oz, or 2 C

Baking Powder—2 ½ tsp

Salt—½ tsp

Milk—8 oz, or 1 C

process

Preheat your oven to 350˚ F.

In the bowl of your mixer, cream together the butter, peanut butter, and sugar.

Once smooth, add in the eggs, one at a time; and then the vanilla.

Scrape the bottom and sides of your bowl.

Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt.

Alternating with the milk, slowly add this to your mixer while it is on low.

Once all of the ingredients have been added, scrape down one final time to make sure that all has been incorporated evenly.

Prepare an 8” cake pan by spraying with nonstick spray and then either lining the bottom with parchment paper or sprinkling a light coat of flour on it.

Pour the cake batter into your pan and bake for 40-45 minutes until the top springs back when touched.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely before assembly!

strawberry cake ingredients

Butter, room temperature—4 oz, or ½ C

Sugar—8 oz, or 1 C

Eggs—2

Vanilla—2 tsp

Flour—12 oz, or 2 C

Baking Powder—2 ½ tsp

Salt—½ tsp

Milk—6 oz, or ¾ C

Strawberries, cut—5.5 oz, or ½ C

process

Preheat your oven to 350˚ F.

In the bowl of your mixer, cream together the butter and sugar.

Once smooth, add in the eggs, one at a time; and then the vanilla.

Scrape the bottom and sides of your bowl.

Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt.

In a separate cup, combine the milk and strawberries.

Whether you want to use an immersion blender or regular blender to combine the fruit and milk is up to you—this will make sure that the berries are added evenly by blending them!

*If you do not have a blender, very finely chopping the strawberries will work just as well!*

Alternating with the strawberry-milk, slowly add this to your mixer while it is on low.

Once all of the ingredients have been added, scrape down one final time to make sure that all has been incorporated evenly.

Prepare an 8” cake pan by spraying with nonstick spray and then either lining the bottom with parchment paper or sprinkling a light coat of flour on it.

Pour the cake batter into your pan and bake for 40 minutes until the top springs back when touched.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely before assembly!

chocolate buttercream ingredients

Butter, room temperature—8 oz, or 1 C

Confectioner’s Sugar—15.5 oz, or 3 ½ C

Cocoa Powder—2.5 oz, or 1 ½ C + 2 TBL

Vanilla—2 tsp

Milk—2.5 oz, or 5 TBL

process

In the bowl of your mixer, cream the butter until very smooth and light.

Scrape down the sides of your bowl and the paddle.

Sift together the sugar and cocoa powder.

When the butter is ready, slowly add in your sifted ingredients.

Add in the vanilla and the milk.

Once everything has been added, scrape down the sides of the bowl and the paddle.

Turn the mixer on high for about 5-10 seconds, just to get a nicely whipped and smooth buttercream.

Now it is ready for assembly!

assembly

This cake can be assembled in oh so many ways, or just slather on a bunch of butterceam onto an entire cake and eat it that way—but I have decided to do checkerboard.

To do this it is simple.

First, cut off the tops of each of your cakes to make sure that they are even and flat.

Next, cut each cake in half—giving you 4 layers total (between both cakes).

To make the checkerboard, use a large circle cutter—or I used a 6” cake pan—to cut out the center of each cake.

Next, using a smaller cutter, cut the center out of the larger circle you just cut out.

Now you should have cut each layer into 3 sections.

To put back together, take a larger circle of one flavor, the middle sized circle of another flavor and then the smaller circle to match the outside flavor.

Example—large PB cake, medium strawberry cake, smallest PB cake.

Do this with each layer, although it is easiest to assemble when you are frosting each layer.

Next, coat the bottom layer with buttercream, spread evenly and put the next layer of checkerboard cake on top.

Do this until you have used all of the cake layers.

For the top and sides, I have left this cake a little messier than usual—because it is a peanut butter and jelly cake and we all make ours a little differently!

Once assembled how you would like, cut a nice large slice for yourself and enjoy.

Bon Appétit!

Irish Coconut Cake

What do you get when you add Baileys Irish Cream, chocolate and toasted coconut together?

Heaven!

I never thought that I could love a cake so much. Love may not even be a strong enough word to express the feelings I have towards this cake—it’s every sort of mood booster that one could need, even with this doesn’t-make-sense-of-a-week coming up.

My sweets loving friends, have you ever heard that “March comes in like a lion and out like a lamb” saying? Well, let me just tell you, March has been coming in like a lion on vacation or something, this entire next week will be in the 70’s. Yes. Basically beach weather and I am still deeply in my winter tan mode—you know, when you’ll burn at even the mention of warm sun. Do I believe that St. Patrick’s Day is in less than two weeks? Nope! That Easter is at the end of the month? Not even possible.

So here I am, trying to decide whether or not to keep our fleece sheets on the bed, whether iced coffee is the route to go these days, and what light spring jacket I should be wearing at the beginning of March! Seeing as those decisions are way to difficult for this season-confused girl, I put it all on pause, put on my cropped jeans and decided to make a season-confused cake!

I know you all knew something with Baileys Irish Cream was coming—I mean it is March and I love any excuse to put Baileys in anything! And then I was like, well, if I have the option to show my pasty, clear legs to the world this week in shorts, I better toast some coconut for this cake to add some more craziness to the month!

And here you have it—my very confused Irish Coconut Cake that has vanished in the yummiest of ways after only 3 days!

We start with a very simple, very moist, deliciously simple Baileys vanilla cake. I have recently discovered coconut butter (yes, please!), so I subbed some of the butter for that, which is optional of course. So, if you only take a few bites of this ridiculously good cake batter before baking, you will have a beautiful 8” cake all ready to be smothered in buttercream!

Between the layers, I used coconut milk in place of a simple syrup, also optional, to bring even more moistness to the cake as well as coconut flavor. Then bring on the Baileys Chocolate Buttercream and the snowstorm of toasted coconut and you have yourself THE cake of the month!

Luckily, I have friends and a fiancé who just as cake obsessed as I am and devoured 90% of the cake—I mean I am sweatin’ for the wedding…

Hah.

So, while we are all just slightly confused by the lack of snow in this beautiful month of March, why not make a cake that is just as unique in flavors, but, luckily enough, is absolutely delicious—and basically heaven!

cake ingredients

Flour—10 oz, or 2 C

Baking Powder—½ tsp

Baking Soda—½ tsp

Salt—½ tsp

Butter, room temperature—5 oz, or 10 TBL

Coconut Butter*—1 oz, or 2 TBL

Sugar—10 oz, or 1 ¼ C

Eggs—2

Yolks—2

Milk—4 oz, or ½ C

Baileys Irish Cream—2 oz, or ¼ C

process

Preheat your oven to 350˚ F.

In a large bowl, sift together your flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.

In the bowl of your mixer, cream the butter, coconut butter and sugar until light and smooth.

*You do not have to use coconut butter, this is 100% optional. You may just replace with regular, unsalted butter*

Slowly add in your eggs and yolks, one at a time, and making sure to scrape after each addition.

When all of your eggs have been added, alternate adding the dry sifted ingredients and your wet ingredients, making sure to end with the Baileys/milk.

Mix until just combined.

Prepare an 8” cake pan by spraying with nonstick spray and then either lightly coating with flour or with parchment.

This recipe makes exactly 1-8” cake.

Bake in your preheated oven for 35-40 minutes—it is done when the cake springs back when you touch it.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely before decorating.

buttercream ingredients

Butter, room temperature—4 oz, or 1 stick

Confectioner’s Sugar—7.5 oz, or 1 ½ C

Cocoa Powder—1.25 oz, or ½ C

Baileys Irish Cream—2.5 oz, or 1/3 C

Milk—1 oz, or 2 TBL

Coconut Milk—for brushing on the bottom layer

Toasted Coconut—1-2 C, optional for decorating

process

In the bowl of your mixer, cream your butter until smooth—about 5 minutes.

In another bowl, sift together your confectioner’s sugar and cocoa powder.

With the mixer on low, slowly add in your sifted ingredients to the butter.

Once all added, scrape the sides of the bowl.

Slowly stream in the Baileys Irish Cream, and then the milk, making sure to scrape the sides as needed.

Once all of your ingredients have been added, turn your mixer up to a medium speed and whip for about 10 seconds, just to make it nice and smooth, very easy to work with!

to decorate

Once your cake has cooled completely and you have removed it from the pan, trim the top of your cake, making it flat.

Now, cut your cake into to even layers.

With the first layer on your cake stand, or even a plate, brush on a nice, thin layer of the coconut milk—this will seal in any crumbs and keep this layer from drying out too much.

Coconut milk is completely optional as well. If you would prefer a simple syrup, Baileys, other alcohol, that is up to you!

Put on a good-sized dollop of your whipped buttercream and spread evenly over the bottom later.

Sprinkle with toasted coconut.

Place the second half of your cake on top.

Put the rest of your buttercream on top of the cake, spread evenly on the top and sides of your cake.

It helps to spread evenly on the top of your cake first, allowing some of the buttercream to fall over the sides, and then you can just use that to smooth out the sides of the cake with!

Now you may either leave like this, or make it extra amazing by covering the rest of your cake with the toasted coconut—all over the top and the sides.

To toast the coconut- preheat your oven to 300˚F, spread the coconut on a sheet pan and toast for about 8 minutes. Every couple of minutes, check on the coconut, re-spreading it around so that it browns evenly! You will know it is finished by the wonderful smell!

Cut whatever sized slice you would like and enjoy!

Bon Appétit!