Frosting My Birthday Cake

My cake stood in naked glory perched upon its stand this morning.  I hadn’t quite decided how to adorn it when I went to bed, but this morning I remembered a pingback from another blogger.  Her blog collects old-fashioned family recipes and she had added my tapioca pudding recipe as a related recipe.  Her post that day had been for a coconut pecan frosting, and this morning, that appealed to me.  Her recipe uses flaked coconut and chopped pecans; I decided to toast both largely because my husband Kurt has “texture issues” with flaked coconut.  (It’s a long list of who doesn’t like to eat what in my family– flaked coconut, mayonnaise, melons, bananas– it’s a wonder I ever get a menu together for our holiday get-togethers).

I have never made a boiled frosting; I’ve poured hot sugar over egg whites and yolks to make buttercream, but I’ve never made a frosting where you boil everything together.  The directions were a little sketchy– “cook until thick about 12 minutes.”  Does that mean boil or simmer?  And “beat until thick enough to spread.”  I’ve already added the chopped pecans and coconut, so will the beaters totally break that up into some weird mash of frosting, nuts and coconut?  I guess I’ll wait and see.  If it doesn’t work, my back up is powdered sugar.  So here we go; you can get the recipe here.

I toasted the pecans and coconut:

Toasting will bring out another layer of flavor

Put the pecans and coconut into a separate bowl.  Mix everything else into a pot.  Bring to a simmer, and cook, stirring frequently, for 12 minutes or until thick.

I kept the liquid at a quick simmer

Pour the hot liquid over the pecans and coconut.

Pour quickly (but carefully, it’s hot)

Beat with a hand mixer on low until mixture has reached icing consistency.

Thick yet spreadable

Lo and behold!  I quickly realized (duh) that this was the same icing for German chocolate cake!  It’s a sweetaholic’s dream– thick and gooey, loaded with roasted nuts and coconut.

I decided to split my cake and put some of this goodness between the layers as well:

Definitely NOT what my sister would call a “friendly” food…

I can’t wait to try this when we come home from the restaurant; it’s probably going to be sugar over-kill, but hey, it’s my birthday!

My birthday cake!