Quadruple Coconut Cake, or Happy Birthday James Beard

EDITED TO ADD: I have been alerted to a couple errors in my coconut cake recipe below. I have corrected them as of 9/17/09, but if you run into anything else, please let me know in the comments.

The James Beard awards last night were kind to the Bay Area, but getting a table at A16 will be harder thanks to Nate Appleman's win and I haven't been there yet. Dang. A little bird at Beard Foundation told me to cozy up to a slice of coconut cake to celebrate James Beard today, the day that would have been the gastronome's 106th birthday.

Well, I think James would be happy with this decadent coconut cake, even if it's not quite the same as Margaret Tingling's cake in Delights and Prejudices.

Quadruple indeed indicates four different types of coconut in the cake: unsweetened coconut milk in the batter, frozen (but amazingly fresh tasting) grated coconut from the Philippines in both the batter and the frosting, and then two types of toasted coconut showered over (and patted onto the sides) at the last minute.