TWD: Coconut Tea Cake

The older I get, the more I appreciate spring. I never really thought much about spring as a kid. My focus was always on getting to summer and more importantly, summer break. But, now that I don't have a summer break, I realize what a beautiful time of year spring really is.

After a cold, wet winter, we're finally getting warm, bright days and the trees and flowers are starting to bud out. The landscape is changing from brown to green and you can almost feel the excitement in everyone around you that it's finally spring. We deserve it. It's been a long winter.

This weekend, I spent all of Saturday and Sunday outdoors for the first time all season. And it was spectacular. A Saturday full of running and hiking and a Sunday with running and golf. It doesn't get any better than that.

Well, actually... it does... it gets better when you know you have a Coconut Tea Cake waiting for you at home to be sliced up and devoured. And there is something spring-like about a Coconut Tea Cake, as well. The light fruitiness of the coconut, the tenderness of the crumb. A perfectly dainty, but decadent (especially if you douse your cake in a coconut glaze like I did) cake to serve on a perfect, spring-time day.

Coconut Tea Cake

Recipe by Dorie Greenspan

Chosen for Tuesdays with Dorie by Carmen of Carmen Cooks

I halved the recipe and cooked it in a regular sized bundt pan. This would have worked out fine, I think, except I let the cake cook just a tad too long, so it was a bit on the dry side, even with dousing with a coconut syrup and the powdered sugar glaze. Great flavor though. I was out of vanilla extract so I used almond extract and a touch of coconut extract. The coconut extract really enhanced the coconut scent of the cake, but I'm not sure if it enhanced the flavor.

Click here for the recipe