Food: Banana Coconut Cake - Recipe and Tutorial

My Mom's birthday is on Tuesday and unfortunately my son has a field trip that day. So I decided to bake her a cake and take it with me to our family dinner tomorrow.  My boys heard the word cake and demanded one of their own. I made two of these tonight.

 I didn't take pics of the process, but I'll share the recipe and explain each step as best I can.

First you will make the caramel-ish topping. You will need 3/4 cup of butter and a packed cup of brown sugar. Combine these in a small cooker {you may call it a saucepan} over medium heat for several minutes until the sugar is dissolved and the topping is bubbling.

Next get yourself a 9x13 inch thick metal baking pan and line it with wax paper. The bottom and edges should both be covered. Trim off the extra.

Now, pour the caramel-ish topping into the lined baking pan covering it evenly. Open your bag of shaved coconut and sprinkle it into the topping. You could add slices of bananas into the caramel before the coconut as well, but I opted out because my Mom is on dialysis and can't have actual bananas.

Set your pan of topping aside, pre-heat your oven to 325 degrees, and mix yourself up a box of yellow cake mix. You will need the mix, 3 large eggs, 1 cup of water, and 1/3 cup of vegetable oil. Add a box of Jello Banana Creme pudding mix in with the batter. After all this is mixed, pour it evenly on top of the coconut and caramel-ish topping. Bake the cake for 32-35 minutes. I test to see if mine is done by sticking a fork into the cake. If it comes out clean, it is done.

Remove the cake from the oven and flip it over onto a cookie sheet or platter. Doesn't matter as long as it is big enough for the cake to lay on. It should come straight out. There shouldn't really be any sticking. Carefully peel off the wax paper and there's your cake!

Enjoy!