I usually make this cake for birthdays but don't wait for a birthday. Every day is worth celebrating with this dreamy creamy frosting, and this cake is good enough to serve in bed. After all, any cake you eat in your birthday suit is birthday cake, right? (grin)

Here's what you'll need:

• Duncan Hines supermoist Dark Chocolate Fudge cake mix
• 3 large eggs
• 1 1/3 cups water
• 1/2 cup plus 1 Tbsp Extra Virgin coconut oil
• 16 oz. sour cream
• 16 0z. Cool Whip
• 16 oz. powdered sugar

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Pour cake mix, eggs and liquid coconut oil into mixing bowl and beat on medium high speed for 7 minutes.
   Note we are adding the same amount of water and same number of eggs recommended by the cake mix box but adding a bit more coconut oil. Extra virgin coconut oil is healthy so no need to skimp and we want this cake to be moist.
3. Grease the cake pans with solid coconut oil.  Coconut oil is solid at room temperature and liquid when it gets to 76 degrees. After you measure out the liquid oil, then place the jar in the freezer for 5 minutes to make it solid. No need to flour pans. Pans will be oily, not snowy white like Crisco. That's okay.
4. Pour the batter into 3 cake pans 8" or 9" in diameter. If you only have 2 cake pans, that's okay. It's better to make 3 layers if you can.
5. Bake for 25 minutes which is 10 minutes less than cake mix says. Test and see if the cakes are done by inserting a clean knife into the middle of the cake. If it comes out clean, they're done. If it comes out gooey, bake cake for 3 more minutes and check again. We want the cake to be as moist as possible without being gooey.
6. While the cake is baking, put a glass or metal mixing bowl into the freezer to cool. We'll use this bowl for the frosting.
7. Allow the cake to cool completely. This may take a while, so bake the cakes first and make the frosting while the layers cool.
8. While the layers are cooling, let's make the frosting.
   Add the sour cream and Cool Whip to the chilled mixing bowl and mix on high speed. Gently add the sugar while still mixing. Be gentle! You don't want a cloud of sugar in the air! Frosting will be fluffy and tangy sweet. Put frosting bowl back in the fridge while you prep the cake.
9. Prep the cake. So many people skip this step and wow does it make a cake taste like an amateur if you do. But you're gonna make a dreamy sensuous cake that tastes fabulous. Here's what you're gonna do. Gently touch the cake and make SURE it is not warm to the touch. If it's just room temperature, then transfer the cake to a dinner plate. Place the dinner  plate over the cake pan or cooling rack,  hold firmly with both hands, and flip the cake over to place it on the dinner plate. Look carefully around the perimeter of the cake and notice the dry edges that pulled away from the cake pan. These edges are hard and when we prep the cake, we're gonna remove them. Take a sharp knife and hold it at a 45 degree angle and gently cut off the outer edge of the cake. Once the cake is frosted, the rounded edges will be filled in with frosting, so don't worry!
10. Place the first layer on your cake plate, bottom side up. Smooth on a generous amount of frosting and smooth it out. The frosting in between the layers should be between 1/4 to 1/2 inch tall. Add the second and third layer and repeat the process. At this point, you may find the frosting starts to warm up and get a bit runny. Feel free to place the cake back in the fridge, and place the bowl of frosting back in the freezer for 5 minutes until it firms up. Set a timer! You don't want frozen frosting.
11. Once the frosting has firmed up a bit, use a spatula to smooth the frosting around the edges of the cake, filling in any gaps with frosting. This is a very moist frosting, due to the moisture in the sour cream. This is a good thing! Refrigerate the cake overnight and the moisture from the frosting will seep into the cake making this cake the most decadent moist cake you've ever put in your mouth.

The extra virgin coconut oil will add the taste and aroma of coconut to the chocolate cake. If you desire, you may add coconut on top of the frosting. If you choose to do this, buy Bakers' shredded coconut, pour into a bowl, and add a few drops of Borden Eagle Brand sweetened condensed milk and stir. This will make the coconut extra moist and help it to stick nicely to the frosting.

Serve well chilled and slice soon after removing cake from the fridge. This cake is a gorgeous showstopper at parties and the extra frosting can used as body paint for a more intimate party for two. (wink)

When it comes to food, it's not just the flavor, it's the texture. This is never more true than with dessert. The chef at Houston's J. Alexander's knows this well, and his key lime pie is sublime. Delighted Husband and I honeymooned in the Florida Keys, so I've sampled a lot of key lime pie, and I've never had key lime pie as sublime as this Houston rendition. Did I just use the word sublime twice in one article?
Yes ma'am I did.

The plate is simple and square and curves up at the tips as though it hugs something special. Pebbles of crust sprinkled over the plate trickle from the wall of crust that shores up the placid lemony layer topped by a tower of fresh whipped cream. I touch my fork to the cream first, watch the tower fall over as lift the first bite to my eager tongue. The cream is smooth and light and velvety and barely splashed with vanilla. The pie filling is so smooth and satiny it is almost slippery in my mouth. A startling tartness! Then the faintly sweet crumbly crust that is a hybrid of pecans and graham crackers. Each of the three is delightfully well executed, but the whole is FAR greater than the sum of its parts. Gestalt dessert! Whooda thought?