My Favorite Coconut Cake

Coconut Cake - made September 23, 2016 from Mrs. Fields' Great American Desserts

This is my all-time favorite coconut cake recipe. I know there are plenty of good ones out there and I’ve even tried a few of them but I always go back to this as my favorite. I’m re-posting the recipe and pictures from the last time I made this as the only time I’ve blogged about this was during the infancy days of my blog (7 years ago!) and I’m finding the search function doesn’t always go back that far when you search “coconut cake” in the search box. This recipe is too good to hide or bury!

Plus, back then, I was skimpy on the pictures and for some reason, thought one picture was good enough. *shakes head at my own naivete* This time around, my aunt and uncle were visiting and my aunt requested coconut cake. So I had an excuse to make it and an opportunity to take more pictures, including after I cut the cake so you can see the inside.

The cake texture is light and fluffy without being spongy and it’s not the consistency of chiffon or angel food cake. It’s not as dense as a pound cake either but somewhere in between. You don’t see a lot of distinction between the layers because I didn’t use a lot of frosting between each layer. Not just because I don’t like a lot of frosting but the full recipe of the frosting doesn’t actually make a lot of frosting considering it’s for a three-layer cake.

If you’re a frosting person, I’d advise making 1 ½ recipes of the cream cheese frosting so you have enough to fill between the layers and to cover the whole cake. One trick if you want 100% insurance that the layers will come out without breaking - in addition to greasing the cake pans, use those parchment circles to line the bottoms. Trust me, they're worth the investment for de-panning whole cake layers intact. Oh, and I served this at a family brunch of nine people, and the highest accolade from one of my relatives? “It’s good; it’s not too sweet.” There you have it.

Cake
16 tablespoons (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
2 cups sugar
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
4 large eggs, separated, at room temperature
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
Pinch of salt
1 cup buttermilk, at room temperature
1 cup shredded sweetened coconut, toasted until golden
¼ teaspoon cream of tartar

Frosting
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
4 tablespoons (½ stick) unsalted butter, softened
1 pound powdered sugar
1 cup shredded sweetened coconut, toasted until golden

1. Preheat oven to 350˚F. Lightly spray 3 8-inch cake pans and cover with parchment rounds at the bottom of each pan (you can use 9-inch pans for thinner layers but I like the 8-inch).
2. Put the butter and sugar in a large bowl and cream together until fluffy, 4 to 5 minutes, using an electric mixer on medium speed. Add the vanilla and beat until smooth. Add the egg yolks, 1 at a time, beating for 20 seconds after each addition. Scrape down the bowl.
3. In a bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture in thirds, alternating with the buttermilk. Beat for 45 seconds after each addition and begin and end with the dry ingredients. Scrape down the bowl. Add the coconut and beat on low speed.
4. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until frothy using the electric mixer on high speed. Add the cream of tartar, and beat until stiff peaks form. Fold the beaten whites into the batter until no white streaks remain. Divide the batter evenly among the 3 prepared pans and smooth the top of each.
5. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the centers comes out clean. Remove the pans from the oven to wire racks to cool for 10 minutes. Invert the pans onto the racks and let cool to room temperature.

Make the frosting:

1. Put the cream cheese and butter in a large bowl and beat until smooth using the electric mixer on medium speed. Scrape down the bowl. Beat in the powdered sugar, a little at a time, until creamy and smooth. Scrape down the bowl. With a rubber spatula, gently fold in the toasted coconut and combine well.

Assemble the cake:

1. Place a cake layer on a serving plate with strips of wax paper under the edges and spread the top of it with frosting. Add the second layer and frost the top. Place the remaining layer on top. Frost the sides of the cake, then the top. Garnish by pressing the toasted coconut gently over the top and sides. If desired, place large flakes of coconut over the top. Remove the wax paper.

Cinnamon Sugar Apple Cake

Cinnamon Sugar Apple Cake - made September 5, 2016 from The Pajama Chef

We're finally getting some fall weather, i.e. the heat wave appears to be over and the temperatures are finally dropping to the point where I might need to wear something over whatever sleeveless top I persist in wearing. So the fall-themed desserts continue.

I had the rest of the apples I’d gotten from our church friends to use and I went with this cinnamon sugar apple cake as it seemed like such a “fall” or autumn cake to make. Not to mention it was really quick to put together.

I didn't have a lot of apples left over so I skimped a little on how much I put into the cake. If you end up putting in more apples, just remember that fruit releases moisture into the cake during baking so you don't want to underbake this. Bake just long enough that the toothpick comes out clean when you poke the center. Otherwise, your cake might be gummy.

If you need a quick and easy coffee-cake-type cake, this is a good one to go with, especially when you use apples in season. It’s safe to go with tart apples like Granny Smiths since the cake has a sugar topping so more tart apples would keep it from being too sweet. This had a fluffy, cakey texture and is what my mom would consider “good with coffee”.

1 1/2 cups brown sugar
1/3 cup canola oil
1 egg
1 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups chopped apples

Topping
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon butter, melted

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Line a 9 x 13" pan with foil and lightly spray with nonstick cooking spray.
2. In a large bowl, whisk brown sugar, oil, egg and buttermilk. Stir in baking soda and vanilla. Mix in flour until just combined and fold in apples. Do not overmix. Pour batter into prepared pan.
3. In a small bowl, combine sugar, cinnamon and butter, mixing with a fork. Spread evenly over the batter. Bake for 40-45 minutes or until golden brown and a toothpick inserted near the middle comes out clean or with a few crumbs. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Bread Pudding with Streusel Topping

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Bread Pudding with Streusel Topping - made September 6, 2016 modified from King's Hawaiian

I’ve been so busy that it took me awhile to notice the days are getting shorter. At first, driving into work at 6 am to run at the gym was when it was starting to get lighter but now it’s still pitch black on my drive. Coming home at 7 pm also used to mean there was still another hour of daylight left. Ah, not any longer. 

To most people, that means it’s the start of fall and cooler weather. To a blogger, it means I often can’t take very good baking pictures during the week because there’s no natural light left by the time I get to the picture-taking part of the baking process after work. Usually that’s not a problem since I mostly bake on the weekends anyway. But I was meeting my nieces for dinner on a Wednesday night and I had promised to make this bread pudding for them and I wanted it as fresh as possible.

The upside of making bread pudding is you can prep it ahead of time and it’s actually better for it to soak overnight before baking. So it was easy enough to put together one night, let sit in the refrigerator for a day, then bake as soon as I got home the night before I needed to bring it with me to the dinner. The downside is it was already dark when I got home from work, it was dark when it came out of the oven and I had to wait for it to cool before dishing out a piece and taking pictures. Hence why the pictures may not be that great.

As bread puddings go, this was pretty good but I would probably make a few modifications next time. It needed more custard. The amount the recipe makes didn’t seem like enough for the amount of bread I used. Good bread pudding is soaked well in custard. Bad bread pudding is dry and doesn’t have enough custard to soak all the bread. 

If you make this, either cut back on the bread or make 1 ½ recipes of the custard. If you’re a cream cheese lover, you’ll like the layer of cream cheese in the middle. I’m not a cream cheese lover but my nieces are so I included it for them but if it was up to me, I’d leave it out. I also toasted the pecans beforehand for the streusel but next time, I wouldn’t toast them first since they’re going to bake on top anyway and you don’t want them to burn. I would also use more butter and make clumpy streusel instead of streusel sprinkles on top. Chunky streusel would crisp up in baking and provide more of a texture contrast to the soft bread pudding.  

1 cup milk
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
3 large eggs
2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 12 pack King's Hawaiian sweet dinner rolls or 1 16-ounce loaf challah, cubed

Crumb Topping
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 cup unsalted butter, cubed
1/4 cup chopped pecans, toasted
2 tablespoons confectioners' sugar

Cream Cheese Filling
8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
1/3 cup confectioners' sugar
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat cream cheese, sugar and cinnamon on medium speed until light and fluffy, 2-3 minutes; set aside.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together milk, pumpkin puree, eggs, pumpkin pie spice and vanilla.
3. Lightly spray a 9 x 13 baking dish with nonstick cooking spray. Place a layer of bread cubes evenly into the baking dish. Pour half of the pumpkin puree mixture evenly over the bread layer. Spread cream cheese filling evenly over the bread/pumpkin puree. Top with remaining bread cubes and pumpkin puree mixture to completely cover the filling.
4. Cover and refrigerate for several hours or overnight.
5. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. 
6. Make the crumb topping: combine flour, sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl. Add cold butter and toss to coat, working the butter into the dry ingredients with two knives or your fingers until it resembles coarse crumbs. Sprinkle topping evenly over the bread pudding.
7. Bake for 35-45 minutes or until golden brown. Sprinkle with pecans and confectioners' sugar, if desired. Serve immediately.

Apple Pie Pancakes

Apple Pie Pancakes - made September 5, 2016, modified from Averie Cooks

Some church friends were offering apples from their apple tree harvest and I took advantage of their generosity to help myself to a few apples, thinking of the apple-based recipes I’d pinned months ago, possibly from last fall when apples were in peak season and it was a good time to make apple desserts.

Or breakfast fare, as in this case. I didn’t quite follow the original recipe exactly and that may have been my downfall. For one thing, I don’t like a lot of spices so I only used cinnamon instead of the original cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves. I also decided to be generous with the apples and probably used more than I maybe should have. I chopped the apples into small pieces since the only way they were going to cook was over the griddle and I didn’t want crispy, uncooked apple chunks in my pancakes. I didn’t want mushy, overcooked apple pulp either but fortunately, the texture and doneness of the apples were probably the only thing I got right.

It isn’t like the pancakes were bad; they were….edible. They weren’t as fluffy as regular buttermilk pancakes but, perhaps because the apples I used weren’t very sweet or because my sweet tooth was left yearning, I didn’t think these had that much taste. I’m still trying to use up my cinnamon stash so I could upgrade to Penzey’s cinnamon but my current cinnamon isn’t very strong. I know pancakes shouldn’t be that sweet since the sweetness is supposed to come from the syrup you pour over it but I’m not one to drown my pancakes in syrup. (Have you read the calorie label on a syrup bottle? Who uses “1 teaspoon” of syrup?) Anyway, I didn’t love these nor did mine look like Averie’s so I suspect I lost the vision for these pancakes in my execution. Oops.

1 cup all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons brown sugar, packed
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
1 large egg
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup grated apple, peeled

1. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, brown sugar, baking powder, cinnamon and salt.
2. In a small bowl, whisk together milk, egg, melted butter and vanilla extract.
3. Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients and mix with fork until just combined. Do not overmix. Batter will be lumpy. Fold in grated apples.
4. Heat griddle or skillet on medium. Spray with nonstick cooking spray. When griddle is hot, pour 1/4 cup batter and spread into pancake. Cook for 1-2 minutes or until small bubbles form on the surface of the pancake. Flip. Reduce heat to medium low. Cook opposite side for another 1-2 minutes or until golden brown. Serve warm with maple syrup.

Levain Bakery-inspired White Chocolate Macadamia Cookies

Levain-Bakery-Inspired White Chocolate Macadamia Cookies - made dough August 27, 2016 from No Spoon Necessary

I’m not sure what Levain Bakery (my obsession with a New York City bakery I’ve never been to continues) has to do with this cookie recipe and it’s not really explained in the original blog post I got it from but I’m going to assume that Levain Bakery inspired this cookie because it’s meant to be oversized, chubby and freaking delicious.

In that case, inspiration hit a home run because that’s exactly what this was. I feel like I’ve been lucking out on some all-time great recipes for certain cookies. I found a new chocolate chip cookie recipe that’s become a favorite, I have new go-to favorite recipes for peanut butter cookies, double chocolate cookies and snickerdoodles. And now I add this white chocolate macadamia to the all-star list.

This was good from beginning to end. Not only is it easy to mix up but the dough is great to handle and portion into big cookie dough balls, not dry and crumbly or sticky but just right. Which makes portioning it out effortless. I like my cookies big (you knew that already, right) so I make generous scoops of dough and pat into thick discs. Then I freeze them overnight at least and bake them off from frozen dough. These do take a little longer to bake than the average cookie because of their size but 14-16 minutes ought to do it. I watched for the browning around the edges and took them out just when the middles were barely not raw.

You do want to let these set and cool completely or they’ll be too mushy. When completely cool, they’re be moist and chewy. If they had been “real” chocolate instead of being a vanilla-based dough, I would call the texture almost fudgelike. As it is, this is my new favorite white chocolate macadamia cookie.

3 cups (13.5 ounces) bread flour (do not substitute all-purpose flour)

1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup unsalted butter, cold
3/4 cup + 4 teaspoons (5.5 ounces) dark brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups white chocolate chips
1 cup macadamia nuts, roughly chopped

1. In a medium bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Whisk to combine; set aside.
2. Beat butter in the bowl of a stand mixer on medium speed for 1 minute or until creamy. Add both sugars and continue to beat at medium speed, scraping down sides of bowl as necessary, for 1-2 minutes, until well combined.
3. Add eggs, one at a time, and vanilla, beating until just combined. 
4. On low speed, add dry ingredients in 3 additions, beating until just combined each time. Do not overmix.
5. Add white chocolate and macadamia nuts, stirring in with a wooden spoon. Using a large ice cream scoop, portion dough into golf-ball-size dough balls and pat into very thick discs. Cover and chill or freeze for several hours or overnight.
6. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper and evenly space frozen dough balls, 2 inches apart.
7. Bake cookies for 16-20 minutes or until edges are golden brown and middles no longer look shiny or raw. Remove from oven, let cool for several minutes then transfer cookies to wire racks to cool completely.

Lemon Buttermilk Sheet Cake

Lemon Buttermilk Sheet Cake - made August 20, 2016 from Jay's Baking Me Crazy

Got buttermilk? Got lemons? Then you’ll find it really easy to make this lemon buttermilk sheet cake. I still had lemons from my sporadic lemon harvest and I also had buttermilk from when I made banana bread to bring to my relatives in Winnipeg. And you can’t go wrong with a sheet cake if you want to put together something quick and easy.

What “dresses up” this simple sheet cake is the lemon sugar on top. Which is basically lemon zest rubbed into granulated sugar. You reserve ¼ cup to sprinkle on top and put the rest into the batter itself. I recommend increasing the amount of zest (if you like lemon, you can rarely have too much zest) and capturing a good portion of that zest into the reserved ¼ cup for sprinkling on top. Otherwise you’re just going to have sugar on top of icing when you really want lemony sugar and sugared lemon zest instead.

This has a really nice crumb, light and cakey. It wasn’t as lemony as I would’ve liked though. Most of the lemon flavor came from the icing since I used lemon juice to whisk into the powdered sugar. That argues again for using more lemon zest in the batter. But otherwise, this is a nice summer picnic cake to help feed a crowd. When I have a lot of people to cover in dessert, while chocolate is typically the most requested flavor, lemon often comes in a very close second.

2 1/2 cups cake flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
zest of 3 lemons
1 3/4 cups granulated sugar
3/4 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 teaspoon vanilla
12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) butter
3 eggs plus 1 egg yolk

Glaze
3 cups powdered sugar
3 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons buttermilk

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Line a 9 x 13 pan with foil and lightly spray with nonstick cooking spray,
2. In a large bowl, combine cake flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt; set aside.
3. In a separate bowl, mix lemon zest and sugar together until moist and fragrant, about 1 minute. Transfer 1/4 cup of mixture to a small bowl and set aside,
4. In a liquid measuring cup, combine buttermilk, lemon juice and vanilla.
5. Add butter to remaining sugar mixture and beat until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.
6. Beat in eggs and yolk, one at a time, until combined.
7. Add flour mixture in 3 additions, alternating with buttermilk in 2 additions, mixing until just combined after each addition. Do not overmix.
8. Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs. Do not overbake. Let cake cool for 10 minutes.
9. Meanwhile, prepare glaze by combining ingredients together and whisking until smooth. Pour over warm cake and sprinkle with reserved lemon sugar.

"Best Ever" Peanut Butter Cookies

"Best Ever" Peanut Butter Cookies - made dough August 19, 2016 from Like to Cook It

If you ever wonder why I seem to make the same type of thing in relatively quick succession, chances are I was in the mood to make something, trolled pinterest and my baking books for recipes of that something and ended up with several that I couldn’t decide between. Such is the case with another peanut butter cookie.

It started when I was going to see my nieces one weekend and I asked them what they wanted me to make. They decided on peanut butter cookies. So off I go on my recipe trolling and came across at least 5-6 different recipes I wanted to try. Then come to find out the Costco-sized half jar of peanut butter sitting in my pantry has been sitting there long enough to have just expired a month before I meant to use it. I didn’t know if the “best before” date was more of a suggestion or a mandate but I never take those kinds of chances, especially since I’m not going to be the only one eating them. It was another week before I got to Costco to buy another 2-pack, ever optimistic that this time I’ll use both jars well before their sell-by date and I ended up making my nieces something else.

But I still had these recipes for good-looking peanut butter cookies on my pinterest board! I made one already and they were gobbled up at work before I could blink and that recipe became my favorite peanut butter cookie. But I’m afraid it’s going to have to move over and make room for this one. I normally don’t buy into someone else’s hyperbole about “best ever” but I may have to remove the quotes on this one. Or at least qualify it as “one of the best ever” peanut butter cookie recipes I’ve tried. Because it is.

Similar to the other recipe, this also didn’t spread much and had a wonderfully moist and chewy texture. It was also soft, almost fragile, especially if you underbake cookies like I do. For the chocolate, I chopped up a big slab of Cadbury milk chocolate whole hazelnut that I’d bought last time I was in Europe. I know, I don’t like nuts in my cookies, right? The hazelnuts actually worked in this cookie. They didn’t steam and soften but remained crunchy and paired well with the peanut butter. Go figure. So now I have two awesome peanut butter cookie recipes for you. Be creative with the add-ins. You can add chopped, toasted peanuts or plain chocolate chips or chunks, semisweet or milk. Just don’t overbake them.

Oh, and for anyone keeping score, these too disappeared rather quickly at work.

1 cup creamy peanut butter
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 egg
3 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup mini chocolate chips

1. In a large bowl of a stand mixer or using a hand mixer, cream the peanut butter, butter and sugar, until blended. Beat in the egg, milk and vanilla.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt.
3. Add the dry ingredients to the wet, gradually, and mix to combine. Form into golf ball-size dough balls, flatten slightly into thick discs, cover, and chill or freeze for several hours or overnight.
4. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper. Roll dough discs in granulated sugar and evenly space on cookie sheets.
5. Bake for 8-10 minutes. Do not overbake, even if they look undercooked. Cool completely on wire racks.