Cake Doctor

At the end of the summer I was able to get boxed cake mixes for $.22 a box. These days I'm really more into baking from scratch, but knowing that I had Jack's birthday coming up a mere 6 weeks after giving birth, I thought some boxed mixes were in order. I have about 4 of those boxes left, and tonight when I got a craving for something sweet I set out to see what I could do with one of them.

I started with the side of the box, where it tells you what modifications to make the yellow cake mix into a pound cake, and went from there, according to what I had. If you know me, you know I'm obsessed with coconut, and currently oranges are right up there too. I decided the two would probably pair well, and went to work!

Almost Homemade Coconut Orange Cake

1 pkg yellow cake mix

1 pkg instant vanilla pudding (coconut pudding would be good too!)

4 eggs

1 C sour cream

1/3 C coconut oil (or any other oil)

1 C toasted coconut

1 T orange zest

1/2 C orange juice (about a whole orange)

Preheat oven to 350 and grease a 9x11 baking pan. Combine ingredients in a large bowl and beat at medium speed for 2 minutes. Pour into prepared pan. Bake 32-35 minutes, then cool for 25 minutes. Frost and devour.

 

Orange Buttercream Frosting (modified from the C&H Website)

2 C Powdered Sugar

1/2 C butter

pinch of salt

juice of 1/2 an orange

1 t orange zest

1/2 T meringue powder (optional)

approx. 3 T water (add until it's the consistency you like)

toasted coconut to top

Beat all ingredients in medium bowl until smooth and creamy. Frost cake and top with toasted coconut.

I spent too much time snacking on the coconut, so the top of my cake is a little sparse. Oops! :-)

 

And please don't tell my old Wilton cake decorating instruction that this is how I decided to ice my cake. By the time the cake cooled it was late and I was tired. :-)