CUBAN COCONUT POUND CAKE
Posted by Marlen (My Page) on Sun, Apr 13, 03 at 21:27
Really quite good. If you want to be decadent (and I do!), drizzle some chocolate sauce over it before serving. Ice cream will do fine as well.

2 sticks unsalted butter
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. almond extract
1/2 tsp. salt
2 cups sugar
5 eggs
3 cups flour, sifted
1 cup milk
7 oz. shredded coconut
1 cup almonds, thinly sliced

Preheat oven to 325 degrees
Prepare a 10" non-stick tube pan. Line bottom with buttered parchment or wax paper (buttered side up), cut to fit.

In the large bowl of an electric mixer, cream butter until it is soft and smooth. Add vanilla and almond extracts, salt and sugar and beat to mix. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until incorporated after each addition.

On low speed alternately add flour in three additions, scraping bowl with a rubber spatula and beating only until incorporated. Remove from mixer and fold in nuts and coconut.

Turn into prepared pan and smooth the top

Bake for 1-1/2 hours until top is golden brown and a cake tester comes out clean. Let stand on a rack for 15 min. Then cover with a rack, turn the rack and cake pan over, remove the pan cover with another rack and invert again, leaving the cake right side up. Let stand until cool.
When cake is cool, carefully peel off paper lining.
Wrap cool cake in plastic wrap. If possible, refrigerate overnight before serving. Or place in freezer for about 45 min. It must be cold when sliced or it will crumble.