Coconut Cream Cake

The coconut flavor in this cake is wonderful!  And yes indeedy, this recipe from allrecipes.com does use a box mix which pretty much goes against everything I believe in but it is heavily doctored so I can rationalize.  I suppose if you're a purist, you can use a recipe for white cake in place of the mix.  The coconut flavor in this cake is wonderful!

Just don't tell me about it.  I have enough guilt in life.

1 (18.25 ounce) package white cake mix

3 eggs

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1 cup water

1/2 teaspoon coconut extract

1 (14 ounce) can coconut cream (found with the drink mixers at the grocery store. It's an ingredient for Pina Coladas!)

1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed

milk

1 cup heavy whipping cream*

1 tablespoon white sugar*

1 cup flaked coconut*

1)  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9x13 inch pan or two 8 or 9 inch rounds.

2)  In a large bowl, mix together cake mix, eggs, oil, water and coconut flavoring. Beat for 2 minutes and pour into 9x13 inch pan. Bake for 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean.

3)  While cake is baking, in a medium bowl, combine coconut cream with sweetened condensed milk and stir until smooth. When cake comes out of the oven, immediately poke a LOT of holes into it using a large fork, bamboo skewer or chopsticks. Pour milk mixture over, a little at a time, allowing it to soak into the cake.

Let cake set on the counter until it reaches room temp.  Then refrigerate, covered, for several hours or overnight.

4)  In a large bowl, whisk cream until soft peaks form. Add sugar and continue whipping until stiff. For a 9x13 pan, just spread over cooled cake.  Sprinkle top with flaked coconut.  For the rounds, top each one, sprinkle on the coconut and then stack as pictured. 

* If you're not in the mood to whip your own cream or the cake has to set out for a length of time and you're worried about the whipped cream melting, you can use Cool Whip.