This showstopping cake comes courtesy of Alton Brown and Good Eats.  I admit that a good deal of my culinary training comes from logging many hours of watching Food Network.  

1 coconut, water reserved and shelled
For the cake:
14 1/4oz cake flour
1 1/2t baking powder
1t salt
1/2c coconut milk
1/2c coconut cream
8oz butter, unsalted, room temperature
16oz sugar
1t coconut extract
4 egg whites
1/3c coconut water

For the frosting:
3 egg whites
12oz sugar
1/3c coconut water
1/2t cream of tartar
1/4t salt
1t coconut extract
1/2t vanilla

For Garnish:
10 oz grated coconut

Preheat oven to 375.  Place coconut on a sheet pan and roast for 15 minutes.  Cracks should form along the surface of the coconut.  Remove outer shell with a dull knife and peel the inner brown skin off with a vegetable peeler.  Rinse off the white coconut meat and shred with a food processor grater disk.

Coconut milk and cream:
Bring 1 cup of milk to a boil.  Place 2oz of coconut in a small bowl and 4oz of coconut in another small bowl.  Pour half of the milk in one bowl and the other half in the other bowl.  Cover and let sit for 1 hour.  Pour contents of a bowl into a blender and puree for 1 minute.  Strain through cheesecloth and squeeze to remove as much liquid as possible.  Discard solids.

For the cake:
Preheat oven to 350 F.  Grease 2 9″ cake pans.  Line pans with parchment paper rounds, grease paper then flour pans.  Whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl.  Combine coconut milk and cream in another small bowl.  In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat butter for 1 minute with the paddle attachment.  Gradually add sugar at low speed.  Scrape down and crank up the speed to medium and beat for 3 minutes.  Stir in coconut extract. Set mixer to low and alternate adding flour mixture and coconut milk mixture in three turns until just combined.  Beat egg whites until stiff peaks form and fold into the cake batter until just combined.  Evenly fill both cake pans and gently tap and shake pans to level batter and eliminate bubbles.  Bake on the middle rack for 40 minutes or until cake internal temperature reaches 200 F.  Out of the oven, let cakes cool in the pans for 10 minutes then transfer cakes to a wire rack to cool completely.  Slice cake rounds in half to create four layers.   Brush cake layers with 1/3c coconut water.

For the frosting:
Place 2c water in a 4 quart sauce pan and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to medium.  Place egg whites, sugar, coconut water, cream of tartar and salt into a medium bowl and place over the sauce pan.  Using a hand mixer, begin immediately mixing the mixture on low speed for 1 minute.  Increase the speed to high and mix for 5 minutes.  Take frosting off the heat and add the vanilla and coconut extracts and mix for an additional minute.  Let frosting sit for 5 minutes.

Icing the cake:
Place one layer of cake on a cake stand and put 3/4c frosting on and smooth out to cover the layer.  Add 1/2c shredded coconut evenly distributed over the icing and add the next layer.  Repeat with the remaining layers.  Use remaining frosting to ice sides and top of cake.  Sprinkle with shredded coconut and refrigerate before serving.