I had a lady contact me a couple of weeks ago to get a price on a 25th anniversary cake. She said that she had tasted of a coconut groom's cake that I did and she wanted her cake to be coconut as well, but once she looked through some books, she picked a wilton design that is covered in fondant. I'm assuming that I can't cover the outside of a cake with coconut and then cover it in fondant. Is this true? But, if I can't do that, I was thinking that I could flavor the layers coconut and put some kind of coconut filling between them, and that should give her plenty of a coconut taste. She wants a sample of what I plan to do, and we are planning to get together this weekend. Sooooo....I need help. 
Any ideas, suggestions, recipes? TIA 
This is the cake she wants, except tiered and only three layers.
I would go with a coconut cake (with real shredded coconut in the batter), with a coconut buttercream filling (made with coconut extract). If she wants a contrasting, yet complimentary taste in there too, then raspberry or strawberry preserves go great with coconut. If she really wants to go OTT with coconut, you could knead coconut extract into the fondant too!
Thanks, I like the idea of strawberry or raspberry perserves and I hadn't even thought of flavoring the fondant. Anyone have any good recipes for coconut layers or filling?
Was the groom's cake coconut or was it another flavor with shredded coconut on the outside? If it's the latter, and she wants to sample first, and your thinking about doing coconut flavor in the cake and the fondant I would go lightly so altogether it'll be a mild to medium flavor. I think a pineapple filling would go very well with this; raspberry and strawberry are nice to0, but I can just taste the pineapple.
That's a good point. I believe the cake was french vanilla with buttercream icing that had shredded coconut mixed it, so you're right, she's probably thinking of a milder coconut flavor. Thanks for pointing that out....and the pineapple does sound great.
Martha Stewart had a guest on this summer who owns a bakery that ships these coconut cakes all over the place. I think she said they were $100 cakes (10" round!!) I haven't tried it but I figure if people are willing to pay $100 bucks for a 10" round cake to be shipped across the country its probably pretty darn good. Theres a video to watch, coconut filling cocunut icing and cocunut cake batter recipes.
http://www.marthastewart.com/portal/site/mslo/menuitem.fc77a0dbc44dd1611e3bf410b5900aa0/?vgnextoid=a95264c02a752110VgnVCM1000003d370a0aRCRD&vgnextfmt=default&rsc=dl_home01
I forgot to mention, since she's probably expecting a milder coconut taste like the groom's cake, but you don't want to give her the exact same cake, how about a pineapple cake with the coconut buttercream filling and vanilla/coconut bc. Another suggestion is to do a pine/van cake with pine/shredded coco filling (pine/coco mixed with bc or without) and a coco/van bc.
I had a bride to ask for coconut cake with no coconut! So I used coconut milk and coconut extract and the filling was pineapple curd. She loved it! So I think that ou can make a good coconut cake without the actual coconut in it, it is a milder flavor though.
Here is a recipe for coconut cake! It was a big hit at my sister's work and I had to make another one. I also used a buttercream icing instead. I used half coconut cream coffee creamer in place of half of the milk and coconut extract in place of almond extract (I still included vanilla and butter extracts). It was very good. I also poked holes in the cake and mixed an equal amount of cream of coconut and sweetened condensed milk and poured it over the cake. You could easily skip this and have a delicious cake. I hope this helps!
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/102696
Thanks for so many good ideas. Now the only problem is, I don't know which one to go with. 
I was wondering if maybe a WASC could be turned into a coconut cake. Any thoughts on that? Maybe replace the almond extract with coconut extract and/or add coconut milk or cream?
Thanks for so many good ideas. Now the only problem is, I don't know which one to go with.
I was wondering if maybe a WASC could be turned into a coconut cake. Any thoughts on that? Maybe replace the almond extract with coconut extract and/or add coconut milk or cream?
I've actually used the WASC recipe with a coconut cake mix. It was yummy. I did use coconut extract instead of the almond extract and for the filling I put a coconut flavored buttercream mixed with caramel and shredded coconut. It was yummy.
Hi everyone! Just wanted to give an update on my coconut cake delimma and share the good news. I got so much good advice from here that I wasn't sure which ideas to go with, but I decided to use the WASC recipe with a coconut cake mix instead of white. I also used coconut extract instead of almond. For the icing, I made my usual buttercream recipe, but replaced the milk with cream of coconut. I also gave her the option of a couple of fillings.
I got an email today that read "The sample was AWESOME! She has decided she wants the pineapple filling. That was delicious!!! Oh, and she also wants to increase her number of servings by 75."
So, she loved the cake, went with a filling that she didn't think she wanted until she tried it, and increased her order. Did I mention that I love Cake Central?
Thanks for all the help.
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