1.23.2009
Cara Wedding
4 tier coconut wedding cake in buttercream. Top tier is coconut cake with strawberry filling. Rest of cake made of styrofoam dummies.
This cake was a lot of work. I had never peeled my own coconut before... and by the time I figured out where to buy big coconut flakes, it was too close to the wedding (not to mention the insane price). So I hauled myself down to the store, bought seven coconuts, and started hacking away with a hammer. The best way to open a coconut is to let it sit in a 400 degree oven for about 10 minutes. Take it out and push on the coconut's eyes to find the softest one. Pound a decently thick nail into the softest eye with a hammer and shake the coconut milk out (I use the coconut milk in my coconut cake, just make sure you boil out the impurities and strain out any skin that might have gotten mixed in there!). Then wrap the coconut in a hand towel (to prevent coconut from flying all over the place) and smack the coconut hard with a hammer. Take the wrap off, and WA-LA, a beautiful white, meat filled coconut awaits your peeling. I just use a regular ol' potato peeler. With the coconut warm, the meat should peel off a little more easily. The more pieces of coconut you break your coconut into, the easier it is to peel due to its concave nature.
The cake here also has regular long (or large, depending on the store) coconut shavings on it as well.