Easter Coconut Cake with Coconut Buttercream Frosting

I just need to take a break from schooling the kids at home, having the kids under my toes all the time and social isolation to pause and remember that Easter is less than a month away and this Easter coconut cake tastes amazing.

The stores the other day reminded me that time doesn't slow down. Everything in my life currently may have, but Easter is still coming.

Whether or not I'm ready for it, or it feels like Easter is coming, it's coming. And it's less than a month away.

The store had ham's out this weekend and I made sure to grab one. But that's about as festive as I've felt towards the holiday.

This weekend social isolation seemed to hit the kids pretty hard so we decided to get out of the house and do something besides hikes. We've taken lot's of hikes and the effect has worn off so we instead hit the driving range to hit some golf balls and let them take out some aggression. They just needed it. There comes a point you feel like you are going to go crazy being cooped up and not having an outlet for some of the emotions you are feeling. And we were definetely at that point.

The kids are fairing well but definetely have their moments and this weekend was one of their moments.

How are you fairing with social isolation? What activities do you do that have helped--especially teenagers! I am SO sick of them spending all day studying in front of their computers than spending the other half of the day on their phones and computer games. They do pause and take an hour to exercise and do some of their sports workouts but most of the day is devoted to being in front of the computer screens. It's driving me crazy!

Because of the stress of everything being "boring" to the teenagers and trying to keep them off computers, social media, etc I'm probably eating way more of this cake than I should.

My justification for eating so much of it is I made this with all natural ingredients and it is absolutely delicious. It's also forcing me to get outside to exercise it off. The dog isn't complaining about having to go outside more. So during social isolation....eat more cake!

Easter Coconut Cake with Coconut Buttercream Frosting

• 1 cups sugar (can use natural cane, Swerve, coconut, etc)
• ¼ cup butter, melted (can substitute dairy free)
• ¼ cup oil (can use canola, olive or coconut)
• 1 cup flour (gluten free okay)
• 2 tbsp cornstarch or arrowroot powder
• ½ tsp baking powder
• ¼ tsp baking soda
• Pinch of salt
• ½ cup milk (can use dairy free)
• 3 eggs
• ½ tsp coconut extract
• ¼ tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup shredded coconut (unsweetened or sweetened okay)

For the Frosting:

• ¾ cup butter, softened (can use dairy free)
• 2 ½ cups powdered sugar
• Pinch of salt
• 3 tbsp canned coconut cream
• 1-2 tbsp water

To Make the Cake: Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Lightly grease a six inch round pan and set aside. In a mixer set to low, mix together the sugar, butter and oil until smooth. Stir in the flour, cornstarch or arrowroot powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt until stirred well. Stir in the milk, eggs, extracts, continuing to stir until smooth. Fold in the coconut.

Pour batter into the pan. Bake at 325 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Remove the cake from the oven and allow to cool for 15 minutes before removing cake from pan and cooling on a cooling rack. Frost cake when cool.

To make the frosting: In a mixer, whip together the butter, sugar, salt and coconut cream. Add 1-2 tbsp as needed to frosting. Tint with natural gel food color if desired. Frost the cake, then decorate.