Lemon Coconut Wedding Cake (GF,DF)

I had the pleasure of making my cousins wedding cake this past weekend and was pleasantly surprised at how it turned out without doing a practice bake. My cousin can't have gluten, dairy, or refined sugar and requested that I make a recipe from one of her favorite books, the Sweet Laurel Cookbook. She loves the book so much she even has two copies of it!

I used the recipe for her Fluffy Lemon Coconut Cake which uses almond flour, coconut oil and maple syrup in place of flour, butter and sugar. I ended up doubling the cake batter and making five 6-inch rounds. I only used four layers for the final cake because I was happy with the height... and the last layer was slightly damaged after removing from the oven. Don't worry, my family and I got to taste test and we were happy to say it got our stamp of approval.

The filling then consisted of a homemade lemon curd and whipped coconut cream frosting. I made the curd the day before which made it a lot easier when it came time to assemble on the day of the wedding. Coconut whipped cream doesn't pipe the same as regular buttercream, so I used a piping bag to make it a little easier to decorate. I went for a more rustic "naked" cake look by just adding the coconut cream to the filling. Then I added the final touches of some flowers and quickly captured some pictures before it was devoured with the rest of the dessert table treats. It turned out so beautiful and I can't wait to make it again!