Vanilla Wafer Cake

We were having a conversation about cakes at work a couple of weeks ago and one of my co-workers asked if I had ever made a vanilla wafer cake.  I had never heard of such a cake, and I was intrigued that crushed vanilla wafers were used in place of flour.  After doing more research online, it appears that many good southern kitchens have been baking this cake for generations.  There are two main versions of this recipe - one that uses butter and one that does not.  I opted to make the version with butter, although I would be interested to do a comparison with the butter-less cake as well.  The end result of this "research project" yielded a wonderfully moist, dense cake.  You would never know that there were crushed vanilla wafers in the batter!

VANILLA WAFER CAKE
Adapted from allrecipes.com

INGREDIENTS
1 1/2 cups sweetened flaked coconut
1 cup pecans, chopped very fine (I used a food processor)
3/4 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups white sugar
6 eggs
1 (12 ounce) package vanilla wafers, crushed very fine (I used a food processor)
1/2 cup milk

DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Grease and flour a 10-cup capacity bundt pan. I used a generous amount of baking spray with flour. Mix together the coconut and ground pecans; set aside. 

2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time. Beat in the crushed wafers alternately with the milk. Mix in the coconut and ground pecans. Pour batter into prepared pan. 

3. Bake in the preheated oven for 60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Allow to cool in the pan for 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.