This past Sunday Adam turned 28. A month or so ago we were talking about cake and he brought up the idea of an Almond Joy cake, how I should try to make one, and how it should have coconut in it that had been chopped up really small, like in a food processor. I immediately cataloged this into “Possible Birthday Cakes.”

Hey, Birthday Boy

After extensive searching online, the only recipes for an Almond Joy cake were cop outs that used the candy bar, and those were few and far between. So I started brainstorming. Chocolate cake with coconut icing? Coconut cake with chocolate icing? Then one day this cake (Billie’s Italian Cream Cake) from the Pioneer Woman popped up on my  Google reader. It looked incredible and she spoke…err wrote…so highly of it, that I decided to make that the cake. It’s topped off with chocolate icing, the recipe for which came from the woman who cooked and cleaned for my grandparents, and, after around 40 years, became part of the family. Her name is Mattie and oh Lord can that woman cook. Anyway, cake recipe’s after the break!

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