Coconut Cake

Cooking has become such a joy for me. I'm no longer the 30 year old who wished they'd invent a perfectly healthy food in pill size, owing that cooking and eating were perceived as wastes of my valuable work time. Now, I find myself plotting how to extricate a recipe from a neighbor who brought me the most delicious chicken pot pie.  I must have that recipe. 
Here's a recipe that I had to research:

Dolester Miles, pastry chef at the Highland Grill in Birmingham won the James Beard Foundation Award for her coconut cake.
Of course it wasn't a simple 5 ingredient cake, but I like a challenge.

A chef once told me that great dish cannot start with average ingredients.  I've taken it to heart, attempting to source ingredients locally and organically and eschewing anything processed.  As I said I love a challenge!

And I love to learn new techniques.

Toasting coconut evenly is a skill.

Slicing cakes in half horizontally... equally tricky.

A cooked custard filling between the layers topped by whipped cream.

Now someone has to tell me what the easy way is to get the coconut up on the sides of the cake.  Patting it on didn't work.  I ended up toasting more coconut and throwing it at it.  It was a royal mess, but I have sous chefs always willing to mop up the floors.

I need an industrial kitchen... one with a big drain in the middle and a hose on the wall!