Yet another recipe contemplation...

Only organic milk in Amanda's house! This brand is quite good.

Amanda coats the inside of a tube pan (our bundt pan was in use) with butter and an even coating of cocoa powder.

Getting the ingredients all laid out -- they go into the mixer in quick succession.

Amanda digs in the cupboard for something we've forgotten (not unusual).

Adding the dry ingredients a little at a time.

Once all of the ingredients are incorporated, you beat the cake for 4 full minutes. This gives the cake its unique, dense texture.  

While the batter mixes, we survey the dish situation. Not too bad for this late in the day!

Pouring batter is fun!

It looks so dark and mysterious once it's in the pan.

And even more so when it comes out of the oven.

Here we pause, mid-cake extraction, for Amanda to tell a shockingly funny story about her childhood. What happens at food52 stays at food52.

Removing a cake from a tube pan can sometimes be a three-person job.

Thanks to Amanda's excellent method, the cake slips right off the tube. Et voila!

Merrill buttered the pan and dusted it with cocoa.

Weighing chocolate -- we put plastic wrap down so it doesn't dirty the scale. (One of us is a Virgo.)

Our "mess" en place.

Merrill pours coconut flakes -- unsweetened! -- into the cream cheese and eggs. Our flakes were super big so Merrill buzzed them in the food processor to make them more the size of confetti.

Sarah took this photo because she said it reminded her of a Jane Austin novel, the women busy together at home. (That's Kristen on the left!)

The chocolate and shortening, melted. (We didn't show you the batch that Amanda burnt. Do this in the microwave if you can.)

Merrill beating coffee into the chocolate mixture. Amanda whisking the dry ingredients to aerate them a bit.

An alien with 3 eyes! No, that's just the chocolate mixture and eggs.

Amanda is *very* excited to use the hand mixer Merrill gave her. Vrrrroooommmm!

Maiden voyage was a success -- and fun!

First you pour half the batter into the cocoa-dusted pan.

Then you plop in the coconut filling.

Then you pour in the rest of the batter and stare, puzzled, as the coconut rises to the surface.

Low moment. Low, low moment.

You can't outwit us, Mr. Cake! We had a photo to take -- the cake was going to look beautiful no matter what!

Ha! Back in the pan!

Chocolate + hot cream = ganache. (Formula for life happiness.)

Whisking the ganache.