The best-laid plans...

So. Tonight, Gentle Reader, I was going to make a fabulous cake in order to welcome Super J home. Much like the game of telephone, I almost love how I got the recipe as much as how great it sounds.

Here's the recipe, swiped from Cryptic Jennifer's friend Chloe's blog (who made it into cupcakes and took the recipe from one of her friends, Mel, from whence I copied and pasted word for Mel's word, but she took it from Food Network, though she added tweaks of her own. Soooooo...it's blatant copying and pasting at its finest):

"Here's the recipe, taken from the Food Network website, and altered with a few of the suggestions taken from the recipe reviews.

Put the Lime in the Coconut Cake:

Cake: (don't you dare use a coconut flavored box mix. The cake is A-MAZING and not too time consuming to make from scratch.)

1 cup butter
2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon coconut extract
4 eggs
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup coconut milk

Lime Glaze

1 cup sour cream or yogurt
1 cup sugar
2 limes, zested and juiced
1/4 cup coconut milk
1 cup shredded coconut

Icing: (if you're making an actual layer cake, you may need all of the icing this recipe calls for. If you're just going to frost the top of the cake, 1/2 or even 1/4 of this amount will be enough.)

1 cup butter
4 ounces cream cheese
1 pound box plus 1 cup powdered sugar
1/4 cup coconut milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups shredded coconut

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and grease and flour 2 (9-inch) cake pans.

In an electric mixer or using a hand beater, cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Add coconut extract and eggs 1 at a time. In a mixing bowl or on a sheet of parchment paper, combine flour, salt, baking soda and powder. To mixer add coconut milk and flour to creamed mixture alternately, beginning and ending with flour. Pour batter into prepared pans and bake for 25 to 28 minutes. Allow to cool 10 minutes then unmold onto rack(s) over a sheet pan and allow to cool completely.

For Glaze: In a medium bowl combine sour cream or yogurt, sugar, lime zest and juice, coconut milk, shredded coconut. With a bamboo skewer, poke holes in cake and spread glaze on both sides of both cakes. Cover with plastic wrap, chill until ready to frost cake.

For Icing: In an electric mixer or using a hand mixer beat together the butter and cream cheese until well blended and fluffy. Add the powdered sugar gradually at low speed. Beat in coconut milk and vanilla. Frost cake. Coat top and sides with shredded coconut.

Invite friends over to eat this cake with you, because if you don't, you may just end up eating the whole thing by yourself."

Here's my take on it so far:

The people at my local Price Chopper have no clue where coconut milk is kept. I was pointed in the direction for the baked goods, where they have condensed milk, dry milk, evaporated milk, goat milk and soy milk, but no coconut milk. Then, after asking in customer service land, they pointed me to (ready?) the MIXED DRINK aisle. And maybe the Organic foods section. Okay. Mixed Drink aisle had some concoction of "Coconut Creme". Hmmmmm. Nothing in Organics. *I* finally found it near the Asian Food area...two different brands of "coconut milk." Crazy.

Still, I love to try a new recipe, so once I get my kitchen cleaned and put away all my other groceries and the pizza that I got from Costco for dinner tonight, then we should be good to go. But first I need to get the girls their showers and then get them to bed (do you see where this is going?).

So, maybe if I have energy, tomorrow after Swim Lessons, I'll start making Super J's welcome home cake.