Coconut cake, day 1

Day one actually happened a couple of days ago.

Day one was the day when I decided that I needed to make coconut cake.
So I go to the store, get myself some coconuts. The first store I went to didn't have the right kind of coconuts, but seeing as how somehow my town developed with 4 GROCERY STORES IN A ROW that wasn't really a big problem.

Get home, time to stab something sharp through their eyes.
Or...drill through them with a 1/4 inch drill bit on my awesome HAND-POWERED EGGBEATER DRILL (I love that thing too much. It's probably the best thing I ever bought) and drain out the water.

According to Alton Brown, the best way to then get them open is to bake them at 375 and then let them cool. It worked surprisingly well, because not only did the shell crack all over, but the meat of the coconut started pulling away from the shells.

And that was where things got difficult. It took my brother and I about 20 minutes of trying to force the meat out with paring knives (and I broke a paring knife, but it was the cheapest knife we own so wasn't a huge loss) without breaking it before we decided to get some needle-nose pliers. After that, I got all of the shell off in about 10 minutes.

After THAT came getting the husk (the little brown layer that sticks on the meat. I'm calling it a husk) off, and Alton Brown's suggestion of the vegetable peeler was the best ever.

And now came time to grate all of that. I pulled out the trusty box grater (We don't have a food processor. My mom broke the last TWO) and started attempting to grate 1/3rd of a cup for coconut extract, which takes the longest out of everything you need to make coconut cake.

...and two hours later, I had 1/3rd of a cut and a determination to buy a food processor.

And that was day 1. Maybe tomorrow I'll write about day 2 (which was today)