Halloween Coconut Layered Cake

Lately I've been obsessed with those amazing colored layered cakes that have been popping up on the internet! So, when our church was asking for people to donate cakes for the cake walk at our harvest festival I knew exactly what I wanted to make... but of course, it needed to be tested first :)

I wish I could be there when the family that wins the cake makes the first cut... at first glance you'd think it's just a normal cake with toasted coconut on top (I'm going through a MAJOR coconut faze).

But, after the first cut you realize there's a surprise inside!
Bright orange and brown layers! It's super simple to make - here's how I made it:

You'll need 1 box of yellow cake mix and 1 box of chocolate cake mix. For each mix you'll want to separate it into two 9 inch round cake pans and bake - so when you're done, you'll have four layers total. Before you bake the yellow cake mix, you'll need to add 2 oz of orange food coloring to it. Don't use the grocery store liquid kind, this will just water down your cake mix. You'll want to use the paste or gel kind you can get in the "professional" cake isle at the local craft store or online.

Once you have your 2 orange layers and 2 brown layers baked and cooled, you'll then want to slice off the tops of the cakes so you have even layers.

I then made the frosting you'll find here. BEST frosting ever!! For the frosting in-between the layers I added extra un-toasted coconut to the icing. This gave an amazing flavor and texture to the cake - although, it does make slicing the cake a little difficult!

After you have all the layers stacked, with frosting in-between each layer, you are ready to frost the entire cake! Add some extra toasted coconut to the top for decoration and chill it in the fridge a couple hours before serving.

And, just a warning, it's addicting!! Coconut fans, you'll go nuts of this one! Also, it's amazing what homemade frosting does to store bought cake mixes! You couldn't even tell the cake wasn't from scratch! Yummy!!! Maybe I'll be doing the churches cake walk, lol!