Bibingkang Espesyal

Bibingkang Espesyal - made May 24, 2014 from Jun Belen

A Filipino coworker was asking me to troubleshoot her bibingka recipe because hers was coming out too dense. I didn't know what was in her recipe but I went through the bibingka recipes on my pin board with her to show the ratio of dry to wet ingredients. Oftentimes when a cake is too dense, it may not have enough liquid as compared to dry ingredients. Or it isn't beaten enough to incorporate air or there isn't any or enough chemical leavening like baking powder in it. Or it's been overbaked. It's hard to tell without seeing the recipe but going through the ones I'd pinned in earlier times inspired me to try one of them.

First, though I had to go to the Asian grocery store to get a few ingredients. 99 Ranch is the one closest to me but I hate going to this particular one because the parking is tight and the spaces are all meant for compact cars the size of Mini Coopers. Which I don't have. But I'll do anything for baking so I braved the parking lot and made my way into the store. 99 Ranch is what I consider a hardcore Asian grocery store; my hardcore Asian friends would laugh at me for that since they consider 99 Ranch the Americanized Asian grocery store. But, as an Americanized Asian, I'm often lost in the store and I have the hardest time finding anything because I can't read 90% of the packaging. They have some items from the Philippines and those I can read just fine but many of the items sport Chinese (or Japanese or Thai or Korean) characters without any English translation. So I easily get lost. And on this trip, in my confused meandering down the aisles, one of the food demo ladies started speaking to me in Chinese. I smiled lamely and looked blank but she still kept talking. I still kept not understanding what she was saying so I politely refused whatever she was offering (assuming that's what she was saying) and tried another aisle.

Even though it takes me twice as long to get a few items, I eventually end up finding what I need. There are some things I can only get at an Asian grocery store and usually their prices can't be beat which is why I go. Case in point, I needed banana leaves. Technically, you don't need to line the pan with banana leaves when making bibingka but I like the authentic touch. I eventually found the banana leaves in the freezer section - a whole slew of them for 79 cents a pack. Score. I also bought a can of coconut milk from Thailand ($1.79) for this recipe. I know mainstream grocery stores sell coconut milk in cartons but I only ever bake with the canned stuff. Don't ask me why; it just feels more authentic.

The bibingka I was planning to make is served with grated fresh coconut and I found a pack of that in the freezer aisle as well for $1.79. Since I was already there and I didn't want to have to come back (truly, I hate their parking), I also picked up a pack of frozen grated cassava ($1.49) and a small pack of tapioca flour ($.79) for other recipes I wanted to make in the future. Total purchase came to $6.15. This is why I make myself deal with the confusing abyss of 99 Ranch - it's cheap.

There are many types of bibingka. This is the cakey kind (as opposed to the sticky kind I'm more fond of). Traditionally, this cakey version of bibingka is baked with slices of salted duck egg and cheese on top. Filipinos often like that salty and sweet combo so I've left that in the directions below but I confess, I'm not one for the salty/sweet nor do I like duck egg or cheese in my cakes. Instead, I do the Americanized version - no duck egg and no cheese. So that makes this mostly a vanilla butter cake, slathered with melted butter when it's hot out of the oven, sprinkled with granulated sugar and covered in grated fresh coconut. Authentic or not, it's still good.

The whole point of this kind of bibingka is to eat it while it's still warm, the butter is melting on top, the sugar is crunchy and the grated fresh coconut adds texture and flavor. I wouldn't recommend substituting sweetened flaked coconut or shredded coconut for the fresh grated coconut. Grated coconut is how they serve it in the Philippines and while I was willing to forego the duck egg and cheese, I couldn't break that far from tradition and do anything less than fresh grated coconut; it's a much better taste and texture - another reason I had to brave 99 Ranch as that's the only place I've found it available.

If you're not going to serve this immediately but are baking it ahead of time, I advise not doing the topping until you do serve it. Right before serving, warm it up slightly then brush the top with melted butter and sprinkle the sugar and coconut (in that order) over it. This is still good at room temperature but the sugar will absorb into the butter the longer it sits and you'll lose the crunch. Instead the top will have more of a "wet" texture. So if you're going to try cakey bibingka for the first time, thrill your taste buds and eat this warm and freshly made.

Banana leaves, cut into two 10-inch circles

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
3 eggs
1 cup sugar, plus additional for sprinkling on top of cakes
1 1/4 cups coconut milk (I used canned)
2 tablespoons butter, melted, plus additional for brushing on top of baked cakes
1 salted duck egg, sliced thinly, optional
1/4 cup grated Edam or cheddar cheese, optional
grated fresh coconut

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Line two 9-inch pie pans or round cake pans with banana leaves
3. Whisk together flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl; set aside.
4. Beat eggs in a bowl using a mixer on medium speed. Add sugar, 1/4 cup at a time, beating well after each addition.
5. Alternate adding flour and coconut milk to the egg and sugar, mixing on medium speed after each addition. Add melted butter and mix well.
6. Divide batter equally into the two pans. Bake for 15 minutes then take out of the oven, lay slices of salted duck egg on top and sprinkle generously with grated cheese (skip this step if you're not using egg or cheese). Continue baking until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean, about 10 minutes more. Turn the broiler to low and broil the cakes to brown the tops. Watch carefully to prevent burning.
7. Remove cakes from oven and brush with softened butter. Sprinkle with sugar and grated fresh coconut. Serve warm.

Happy Memorial Day - Vanilla Layer Cake

Vanilla Layer Cake - made May 26, 2014 from Baking by Flavor by Lisa Yockelson

I had another post planned for today but in honor of Memorial Day, I decided to make this Vanilla Layer Cake to showcase the red, white and blue sprinkles to commemorate the day. There's nothing "Memorial Day" about this cake other than the sprinkles but I wanted something to mark the day to honor the men and women of our armed forces. Memorial Day isn't just a day off but a time to honor those who serve. It's also a good reminder that, if you're inclined to make charitable donations, there are a lot of worthy organizations out there that serve our veterans and active service personnel.

Just a few examples (note: I'm not affiliated with any of these organizations other than donating to them in the past):
Fisher House Foundation
Wounded Warrior Project
Gary Sinise Foundation

As for the cake, this can be as simple or as fancy as you choose. If you're a vanilla lover, I'd keep it simple to stay true to the vanilla flavor. The original recipe called for frosting it with chocolate buttercream but I wanted to keep it purist vanilla so I made up my own vanilla frosting recipe. My frosting came out just a trifle too sweet, maybe because I'm not a frosting person even though I have sugar running through my veins. So I kept the frosting layer very thin. Because this was all about the cake. It was delicious. Light, fluffy and exactly the cake texture I've been trying to replicate in my quest for the perfect banana cake. But this was in vanilla form and I loved it. Once again, Lisa Yockelson's Baking by Flavor reigns supreme when it comes to fabulous recipes.

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup cake flour
1 3/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
10 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
seed scrapings for 1/2 vanilla bean
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 large eggs
3/4 cup milk blended with 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons heavy cream

Vanilla Frosting
12 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
2-3 cups powdered sugar, sifted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
enough milk to achieve desired spreading consistency (1-3 tablespoons, more or less)

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly spray the inside of two 8 or 9-inch round cake pans with nonstick cooking spray and line the bottoms with parchment rounds.
2. Sift the all-purpose flour, cake flour, baking powder and salt together; set aside.
3. Cream the butter in the large bowl of a freestanding electric mixer on moderate speed for 3 minutes. Add the sugar in three batches, beating for 1 minutes after each portion is incorporated. Blend in the vanilla bean seed scrapings and vanilla extract; beat for a minute longer. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, blending well after each addition.
4. On low speed, alternately add the dry ingredients in three additions with the milk-heavy cream blend in two additions, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula to keep the batter even-textured.
5. Spoon the batter into the prepared cake pans, dividing it evenly between them. Smooth tops witha small metal spatula.
6. Bake the layers for 25 to 30 minutes or until set and a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.
7. Cool the layers in the pans on racks for 5 minutes. Invert each layer onto another cooling rack, peel off the parchment round then invert again to cool right side up. Cool completely before frosting.
8. Frosting: Beat butter and powdered sugar until smooth. Add vanilla extract and enough milk to beat smooth for your desired consistency.

Browned Butter Cinnamon Caramel-Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies

Browned Butter Cinnamon Caramel-Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies - made dough May 16, 2014 from Cooking Classy

The original recipe from Cooking Classy called for dulce de leche but I had a jar of caramel from Angelina that I had bought in Paris that I wanted to use. I'm no stranger to stuffing chocolate chip cookies with something gooey and I have a deep abiding love for caramel. Especially caramel from Paris.

I modified the recipe slightly to make stuffing the cookies easier. I chilled the jar of caramel first. You don't want it liquidy and soft or it'll just flow around and make getting the cookie dough around it more difficult. Use a high quality caramel of course. And please make it real caramel, not caramel topping or butterscotch sauce. Caramel. I also used mostly mini chocolate chips and only a handful of regular-sized semisweet chocolate chips. With stuffed chocolate chip cookies where you encase the caramel inside the dough, larger chips become a liability because they create potential gaps around the cookie dough that the caramel stuffing can escape from. You don't want that. In this case, you also don't want too many chips, regardless of size, for the same reason. If you're the type of person who likes enough chocolate chips just to barely hold the dough together, instead of making these as regular "drop" cookies, place the dough in a ramekin, drop a dollop of caramel over it, cover with more dough then bake. That way you don't have to worry about the caramel leaking out and hardening during baking on a cookie sheet.

Caramel leakage --> misshapen cookie

If you prefer the more traditional stuffed cookie, just make sure you use enough dough to cover your filling completely and seal all the cracks. Once I had the cookies all stuffed, I froze them overnight. Don't even think about baking these from warm dough or they'll spread too much and your caramel has a higher likelihood of leaking out. Even with those precautions, I only had a 50% success rate in the caramel not leaking out during baking. I think I should've skipped the regular-size chocolate chips and stuck only to the mini chocolate chips. Still, these were divine. The cinnamon added a slightly different flavor than the standard chocolate chip cookie and of course, I loved the caramel. From Paris.

1 cup butter
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons cornstarch
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups packed light brown sugar
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs
2 cups mini chocolate chips
1 cup dulce de leche or caramel, chilled

1. Brown butter in a medium saucepan until fragrant. Remove from heat and pour into a bowl. Cover and refrigerate until cool.
2. In a mixing bowl, whisk together flour, cornstarch, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda and salt; set aside.
3. Pour cooled brown butter into the bowl of an electric stand mixer, using a rubber spatula to scrape out any excess. Add light brown sugar, granulated sugar and vanilla. With the paddle attachment, whip on medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 4 minutes. Add in eggs, one at a time, mixing after each addition until combined. 
4. With mixer on low speed, slowly add dry ingredients until combined. Stir in chocolate chips. Chill dough in refrigerator for 30-60 minutes until firm. Scoop 2 1/2 tablespoons of dough, flatten into a thin bowl shape and add a heaping teaspoon of dulce de leche or caramel to the center of the dough. Wrap dough around dulce de leche, fully enclosing within the dough. Repeat with remaining dough.
5. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line baking sheets with parchment paper. Place stuffed dough balls evenly spaced on prepared baking sheets. Bake 10 - 12 minutes. Cool several minutes on baking sheets then transfer to wire racks to cool completely.

Restaurant Review: Roy's Hawaiian Fusion, Anaheim, CA

Roy's - dinner on May 7, 2014, 4-star rating on yelp, 702 reviews

On my last night at our annual convention, I went with a few of my coworkers to Roy's Hawaiian Fusion. Roy's is also within easy walking distance from our hotel and I'd gone there last year for the first time. Ironically, there's one much closer to me at home than a business trip a plane ride away but I've only gone to the I'm-on-a-business-trip one.

Appetizers at Roy's include a free plate of spiced edamame - it's like their version of a bread basket but healthier.

Edamame

However, we opted for lobster potstickers from the appetizer menu too. They were good but I'd have to give the nod to the lobster ravioli at The White House for being a tad bit better in terms of lobster filling and flavor. Still, it was a good choice for an appetizer.

Lobster Potstickers

One of my coworkers opted for the Butterfish. She'd been at Roy's the night before with her team, had gotten it then and got it again when we were there. I had a taste of her butterfish and had to admit I could see why she had it two nights in a row - it is good. The sauce they pour over it caramelizes in the cooking and it was delicious. The butterfish was also tender, not soft like a sole (I don't like soft-fleshed fish) but nowhere near as firm as a swordfish or halibut. From a Goldilocks and Three Bears standpoint, it was just right.

Misoyaki Butterfish - $34.95

Another coworker got the Lobster Pot Pie. My only brush with lobster pot pie was the one at Michael Mina's in Las Vegas and that one was $85 so I didn't get it. Roy's lobster pot pie was a bargain in comparison at less than half that price. I had a sample taste of that one as well and thought it was also good. They seemed pretty generous with the chunks of lobster in the pie and who doesn't like pie crust, whether it's a sweet or savory pie?

Lobster Pot Pie - $38.95

As for my own entree, I ordered the halibut. I love halibut and this one came with risotto. This was also tasty but I have to admit, compared to the butterfish, the halibut comes in second. The sauce and flavor of the butterfish was superior to the halibut. It was still a delicious choice but next time I go to a Roy's, I'm getting the butterfish.

Alaskan Halibut - $34.95

Pineapple Upside Down Cake

There were two desserts on the menu that our server said had to be ordered ahead of time and we opted to get both of them: the pineapple upside down cake and the molten chocolate cake. I expected the molten chocolate cake to be my favorite and it was good but, surprisingly, the only non-chocolate dessert we got, the pineapple upside down cake, turned out to be the winner for me. The cake itself was delicious, the baked pineapple was the perfect complement of tart yet sweet and it was served warm, yum. The accompanying pineapple-shaped cookie was cute but it was soft, not crisp so it wasn't to my taste. I'd go back to Roy's just for the pineapple upside down cake if that gives you an indication of how much I liked it. That and the butterfish.

Molten Chocolate Cake

The third dessert that the four of us split was the Kona Chocolate Bread Pudding. I like bread pudding and I love chocolate but, another surprise, this came in third for me. I don't know if it was the Kona flavor or what but I didn't love this bread pudding. I liked the texture but wasn't enamoured of the taste. No matter, that meant I could focus more exclusively on the molten chocolate cake and the pineapple upside down cake.

Kona Chocolate Bread Pudding

Roy's is another place that isn't cheap but it's nowhere near as expensive as Morton's and if you want somewhere a little nicer in the mid to high price range, it's a good option. Our server was extremely friendly, not to mention passionate about her job and the food she was serving which is always nice to see. The place does get crowded though, at least it was when we were there, so I also recommend making a reservation, either through Open Table or by calling them directly.

Slow Cooker French Dip

Slow Cooker French Dip - made May 16, 2014 from Shugary Sweets

I've been slacking off lately on the cooking but I have killer microwaving skills. And my crock pot expertise is right up there with my microwaving genius so I occasionally manage to feed myself without falling back on takeout.

But at last, a savory, non-dessert recipe I can post. However, as always, it's still a production for me to put a dish together, even something as simple as throwing stuff in a crock pot. I didn't have grill seasoning so I just went without and added more salt and pepper. I managed to get the right cut of meat (I think). But the really ridiculous moment is when I had to get beer. Bear in mind I don't drink. At all. The closest I come to alcohol is Kahlua cake. I do occasionally use wine or sherry in cooking if the recipe calls for it but I cook so sporadically that oftentimes the wine or sherry bottle gathers dust before I use the contents again. So imagine my trip to Target to buy beer.

Actually, I had planned to get the beer at Trader Joe's but I was at Target first to get something else and they had an end cap of beer so I figured I'd save myself a trip. But....did you know there are many different kinds of beer? And brands. Pale Ale. Stout. Guiness. Light beer. Some fruity something or other. But nothing that said, "I'm just beer. Buy me." The recipe called for "dark beer" so I figured something labeled "pale ale" or "light" wasn't it. So that took out 25% of my choices but what about the remaining 75%? Honestly, I think I spent 10 minutes circling that end cap like it was some exotic animal and I was trying to decipher its tag but it was written in code. A code to which I had no cipher. It would've probably been faster if I'd grabbed a college student and had them pick for me. So then I fell back on the millions of advertising dollars beer companies spend every year and figured I should go with Budweiser because I like those Clydesdales when I watch the Superbowl every year. Except there wasn't any Budweiser on that end cap. And I wasn't trusting the other brands which may or may not have been some form of beer. I finally settled on Heineken because I knew that was beer. I don't know if it was good beer but at that point, I didn't care.

So, if you don't drink, the hardest part of this recipe is getting the beer. After that, it's back to easy street again with throwing ingredients in the crock pot, turning it on low and walking away for the day. I ended up cooking this for over 10 hours before I was satisfied that the meat was tender enough. The au jus was pretty liquidy (as it should be) and there's no beer taste at all in the finished product (whew). There's no pretty picture of this dish, at least not the way I cooked it. They were just pieces of meat. But I have to admit when I melted some cheddar cheese on top of the beef, sandwiched it in a whole wheat bun and dipped it in the au jus, it really did taste like honest to goodness French dip. It would probably have looked more like it if I had better knife skills or sliced the meat when it was raw but taste-wise, this was pretty good. My mad crock pot skillz still reign.

5 pounds beef rump roast
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons grill seasoning
1 1/2 teaspoons onion powder
2 teaspoons garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 tablespoons beef bouillon granules
2 tablespoons minced onion
1 1/2 cups beef stock
12 ounces dark beer

1. Place roast in large crock pot. Season with salt, grill seasoning, onion powder, garlic powder, pepper, beef bouillon and minced onion. Add broth and beer to crock pot, cover and cook on low for 8 hours or until fork tender.
2. Take out the meat and slice or shred it. Strain the au jus so there are no clumps or meat or fat. Serve on French bread with cheddar cheese and side of au jus.

Over the Top Reese's Peanut Butter Cookies

Over the Top Reese's Peanut Butter Cookies - made dough May 16, 2014, modified slightly from Real Mom Kitchen

I have so many friends whose favorite flavor combination is chocolate and peanut butter. I'm indifferent to peanut butter so I typically only eat it paired with chocolate but I'm in the minority on that. I can usually count on any type of chocolate peanut butter combo being a crowd pleaser when I make it. As was the case with these cookies. I needed something to put in goodie bags for a lunch with our church friends, to serve for some family company in town and the rest I baked off to bring to work the next day. No matter the occasion, these went over very well.

Think of this as a good peanut butter cookie classed up to greatness. In large part due to the peanut butter cups on top. I must say I thought it was genius of Real Mom Kitchen to add these on top after baking. Such a simple yet powerful visual and taste appeal. I think I may need to do that with all peanut butter cookie recipes from now on.

Cut up the peanut butter cups into quarters (chill them first for easier cutting if it's warm out) and when you take the cookies out of the oven, immediately and gently press the peanut butter cup chunks randomly on top. Be generous with them too. The residual heat from the cookies will melt the peanut butter cups just enough to adhere to the cookie tops but not so much to melt them shapeless. You do need to let these cool completely before trying to stack them or else the softened peanut butter cups will smear into each other. The nice thing is while these cookies do spread, they don't spread that much (bake from frozen dough) so they retain a nice thickness for which to carry the peanut butter cups.

2 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup butter, softened
1 cup peanut butter
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 1/2 cups milk chocolate chips (I used semisweet)
32 mini Reese's peanut butter cups, each cut into 4 pieces

1. Whisk flour, baking soda and salt together. 
2. Cream butter and peanut butter until smooth. Add sugar and brown sugar until blended. Add eggs and vanilla.
3. Blend in dry ingredients just until combined. Fold in chocolate chips.
4. Portion dough into balls and chill for several hours or overnight.
5. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Bake cookies for 10-12 minutes.
6. Remove from oven and lightly press 8 cut-up Reese's peanut butter cups over the top of each cookie. Cool completely.

Restaurant Review: Morton's The Steakhouse, Anaheim, CA

Morton's The Steakhouse - dinner on May 6, 2014, 4-star rating on yelp, 322 reviews

At my conference last week, there was a Morton's The Steakhouse within easy walking distance of the hotel. My coworker Michelle and I headed there for an early dinner after the day's events. I'd never been to a Morton's. I'd never even heard of Morton's until I got to Anaheim. Last year we had stayed at the same hotel so I knew it was there but back then, it was extremely crowded so we didn't bother to try to get in. This time, we went early and even so, we were almost turned away but then a last-minute cancellation came in so we were able to get a table.

Onion bread - tasty and served warm

I didn't take a picture of the interior because I doubted it would have come out. Like every other steakhouse I've ever gone to, Morton's doesn't believe in investing a lot in lighting. The overhead lights were dim. I mean, seriously dim. I think if they had lit candles and sprinkled them throughout the restaurant, it would've been glaringly bright in comparison. Maybe they wanted their patrons' eyes fully dilated to compensate for the twilight-dusk lighting. I almost forgave them when they brought out a nice warm loaf of onion bread. I don't actually like onions (I have texture issues with them) but I don't mind onion-flavored things and their bread was nice and crusty.

Salmon with lump crab meat and jumbo shrimp - $49

Although I was at a steakhouse and logic would dictate I should try their steak, since I'd had prime rib the night before at The White House, I decided to skip the turf and just went with surf: salmon topped with lump crab and served with giant shrimp. I thought I might need a carb to go with my proteins so I also ordered a side dish of au gratin potatoes. These weren't Betty Crocker au gratin potatoes either and I confess to a shameful moment of expecting them to be like those boxed potato mixes of my childhood: thin slices of potato-ey substance covered in a yellow-orange cheese...something. Nope, these were honest-to-goodness potato chunks covered in a sauce of real cheese mixed with bacon. Yeah, not for the faint of heart....literally. They were good but the seafood was deceptively filling so I couldn't do justice to more than a couple of spoonfuls of cheesy potatoes.

Side of au gratin potatoes - $12

Because you knew I had to be saving room for dessert. Michelle and I split an order of molten chocolate cake with vanilla gelato. Although she doesn't eat dairy so the gelato was all mine, mine, mine. I was still pining for that chocolate souffle I didn't get from The White House so the molten chocolate cake served as a surrogate. It was pretty good and actually did have a molten center (not all of them do). I don't know that it was particularly special or a memorable standout from other molten chocolate cakes but you know I have a picky dessert palate.

Molten chocolate cake with vanilla gelato

The food was good in general but I have to say, I thought it was really overpriced. I've paid that much for dinner before but for their price points, I expected something more spectacular. I'm glad I tried it to see what it was like but it isn't something I'd pay that much for again.

Coconut Cream Cheese Pound Cake

Coconut Cream Cheese Pound Cake - made May 10, 2014 from The Examiner

I don't know about the weather where you live but it's starting to get hot in my area. As in hot enough that any cake with frosting is going to be a bad idea because the heat will prevent the frosting from setting properly or will melt it the minute you take it out of an air-conditioned environment.

That's where pound cakes come to the rescue. They can be glazed if you wish but they can also be kept simple and served as is without worrying too much what condition the heat will render them. And despite their modest appearance, they can be delicious as this one was. Normally I don't like cream cheese in baked goods and I'll never eat cheesecake but I do like incorporating cream cheese into a pound cake. You can't taste the tang from the cream cheese; instead it simply adds a velvety softness to the texture of the cake and cuts some of the butter flavor so you don't remember (clearly) that this has three sticks of butter in it.

The only thing to be wary of in this cake is if you beat the batter too much after the eggs are added in, the cake can form a meringue-y or crunchy crust. Not super crunchy but enough to crumble a little when you cut into it. Not a big deal but try to beat air into the batter before you add the eggs. You'll notice there are no chemical leavenings in this recipe: no baking powder or baking soda. So the only time you'll really be beating air into the batter to give the cake some rise is when you beat the butter, cream cheese and sugar together. You don't want to beat too much after the eggs are in there (or it'll form that meringue crust in baking) and definitely not after you add the flour or the texture will be tough because of the gluten developing.

Also, be careful about underbaking (said the pot to the kettle). Underbaking a pound cake will cause an even heavier texture than pound cakes are known for. Of course overbaking is the bigger sin to me and will give you a dry cake. Sometimes it's hard to tell if a butter cake is done because the toothpick can come out clean and yet the cake might still need a few more minutes of baking time because of the high butter content. Time it, go by appearance (golden brown vs a darker brown - your choice) and your sense of smell as well as the toothpick test. If you're really unsure, turn the oven off when you think it's done and leave it in there for a few extra minutes. Just don't forget about it.

I liked this cake. It only had a mild coconut flavor but if you want more coconut, try using coconut milk, thinned with a little water so it's not quite so thick. I don't drink so I didn't have bourbon in my pantry and went with whole milk instead. Beyond the flavor, I also liked the texture of this cake. It had a velvety soft crumb, always a sign of a good pound cake.

1 1/2 cups butter, softened
1 8-ounce package cream cheese, softened
3 cups sugar
6 large eggs
3 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup bourbon (can substitute milk)
2 1/4 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup fresh shredded coconut

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Grease and flour a tube pan or a Bundt pan.
2. In a large mixing bowl, beat butter and cream cheese at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy.
3. Gradually add the sugar, beating at medium speed until light and fluffy.
4. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating just until the yolk disappears.
5. Sift together flour and salt; add half the flour mixture to the butter mixture.
6. Add the bourbon (or milk) followed by the remaining flour mixture.
7. Beat the batter at low speed just until blended. Stir in the vanilla and coconut.
8. Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for 1 hour and 30-35 minutes or until toothpick inserted near center comes out clean.
9. Remove cake from oven and cool in pan on wire rack for 10-15 minutes. Loosen cake from pan with spatula and invert onto wire rack. Let cool completely.