A few weeks ago my daughter announced it was Fern’s birthday. She went on to tell me that Fern was 6 and we needed to buy her a present. I suggested we use something we had. She didn’t like that I idea. I suggested that we make her a picture. That idea was rejected. I suggested that instead of a present that Fern didn’t really need, we make some cupcakes and give Fern a party. She agreed because who doesn’t love cupcakes?
Fern is my daughter’s Bitty Baby. She is named after my great-grandma. My daughter is 4. She got Fern for her 1st birthday. If Fern was really going to be 6, she has some sort of growth disorder that makes her appear to be a baby regardless of her age. The more I thought about these things, the more disturbed I became so I focused, instead, on cupcakes.
After pouring over the recipe files, I decided that white coconut cupcakes were the exact right thing for the occasion. I had this idea to flavor some marshmallow frosting with Kool-Aid to get a vibrant color and flavor. At the grocery store, my daughter picked out Pineapple Kool-Aid because Fern likes yellow. The frosting was a somewhat failed experiment. The flavor was ok, but there were flavor crystals.
Some girls don’t like dolls and don’t play with dolls. My daughter is not one of those girls. When she barely 6 weeks old, we brought her up to meet my grandparents for their birthdays. Afterwards, we went to the outlet mall to do just do a little shopping. The baby was a bit fussy as we walked into the American Girl store. The minute we entered the store, she stopped crying. The girl loves dolls.
She’s been asking for outfits so she and Fern can match. When I arrived home from work on Monday, there was a box waiting for us. It contained fun things for our garden, some cute bags that match my knitting needle rolls she made, AND ducky pajama bottoms for my daughter and 2 of her dolls. My mom has been a very busy and crafty lady. We are grateful.
With this doll birthday party, I am hoping to make that same sort of good impression on my daughter. I’ll let you know how that turns out in 35 years.
Maybe she’ll appreciate the fact that I can make a cake from only a list of ingredients with no other instruction. Maybe she won’t even realize that it takes lots of experience to get that sort of skill (or maybe just an idea from a different cake recipe). For the purposes of giving you a full recipe with instructions, I used my cake making knowledge to fill in the blanks, but all timings are best guess only. This makes a lot of cupcakes. I remember there being at least 18, but there could’ve been more. We had 5 friends coming over, and everyone had one and there were leftovers. I ate cupcakes for days afterwards (and didn’t complain once).
I made this cake for Easter dinner last year, before there was a blog. I believe the cake was 3 layers with lemon curd between each of the layers. I included the “instructions” for making a cake instead of cupcakes, but, again, those are best guess and not truly tested.
For more great dessert ideas, try Chocolate Coconut Macaroons or my favorite Apple Butter Cake with Caramel Icing.
White Coconut Cake
Ingredients
- 2 Cups Sugar
- 1 Cup Butter
- 4 Cups Pastry Flour
- 2 tsp Baking Powder
- 6 Eggs Whisked stiff
- 1 1/4 Cup Coconut
- 1/2 tsp Nutmeg
- 1 Lemon juice and 1/2 grated rind
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350.
- Cream together butter and sugar.
- Sift together dry ingredients.
- Alternate adding dry ingredients and milk, scraping down bowl between additions.
- Fold in remaining ingredients.
- Bake cupcakes at 350 for about 35 minutes or until cake tester comes out clean. Bake cakes at 350 until cake tester comes out clean.
