Coconut - love it or hate it

Coconut Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

The funny thing about coconut is people either really love it or really hate it. I don't meet many people who are indifferent to it or can take it or leave it. I'm one of those people who really love it. Love the taste, love the texture, love everything about it. The only thing I don't like is coconut extract. Tastes weird when I bake with it. But coconut itself - ah. My favorite coconut cake recipe is from Mrs. Fields' Great American Desserts. Like the carrot cake recipe, I discovered this one early on and it's so good that I don't try a lot of different recipes just because I think this is the best. I've had people who don't like coconut try this cake and love it. It's moist, it's flavorful and it's just good. Also like with the carrot cake, coconut cake is fabulous with cream cheese frosting. I know there are some recipes that make it with fluffy, boiled icing but that always seems too much like whipped egg whites and why would I want to eat that? I don't make this often because it's so good I would eat too much of 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. Butter and lightly flour 3 9-inch cake pans.
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 on the middle rack of the oven 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:
6. 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:
7. 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.

The best way for carrots to be eaten

Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Let's talk about carrot cakes. First, contrary to some opinions, carrot cake usually isn't all that healthy. Yeah, it has carrots but it also traditionally has oil and that's why they're so moist and good. But with a really good carrot cake, you won't care that it's not good for you. Second, what constitutes a good carrot cake? To me, it has to be simple - made just with carrots. No nuts, no raisins, no pineapple, no apples, or anything else someone randomly thought up to ruin a good carrot cake. STOP after adding carrots. Don't overspice it either. Cinnamon. That's it. Third, carrot cake must be frosted with cream cheese frosting only. That's the rule. If you don't believe me, try a really good carrot cake made just with carrots, spiced only with a little cinnamon and frosted with cream cheese frosting. It's the best. I always lament that it doesn't count as a vegetable. Once you start adding all those extraneous ingredients, you've lost the essence of carrot cake.

My favorite carrot cake recipe - actually, I haven't tried many because I was fortunate enough to discover this one early on and why mess with perfection? - is from Jim Fobel's Old-Fashioned Baking Book. Normally I don't like recipe books that don't have pictures but this recipe was worth it with the accompanying cream cheese frosting recipe too.

2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 cup granulated sugar
½ cup packed light or dark brown sugar
4 tablespoons (½ stick) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup vegetable oil
5 large eggs
3 cups coarsely shredded, peeled raw carrots (6 medium)
1 ½ cups (6 ounces) chopped walnuts

Cream Cheese Frosting

1. Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 350˚F. Grease and flour a 13 x 9” baking pan.
2. In a medium-sized bowl stir together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon.
3. In a large bowl combine the granulated sugar, brown sugar and butter; beat with an electric mixer until evenly blended. Beat in the oil until smooth. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, and then beat until thick and light, 1 to 2 minutes. Add the dry ingredients and beat just until blended. With a spoon, stir in the shredded carrots and chopped walnuts; the batter will be thick. Turn the batter into the prepared pan, smoothing the top. Bake 50 to 60 minutes, until the top springs back when lightly touched and a toothpick in the center comes out clean. Cool in the pan on a rack. When completely cool, generously frost, making swirls over the top. Cover and refrigerate. The frosting will set. To serve, return to room temperature and cut into squares.

Marshmallows....meh

Marshmallow Crunch Brownie Bars - September 12, 2009

This recipe is from the Buttercup Bake Shop, one of my favorite bakeries in Manhattan. They make the BEST red velvet cake. Anyway, this is a brownie layer on the bottom, a marshmallow layer in the middle and the top is peanut butter chocolate with rice crispies. You bake the brownie layer first, cover the top with mini marshmallows and let them melt for a few minutes in the oven, then pour the melted peanut butter chocolate rice krispie layer over it and let it set in the fridge before cutting. I'm not a fan of marshmallows though and the only time I eat them is in rice krispie treats. I don't even like them in s'mores (although I'll eat the graham cracker and chocolate, lol). So why did I make this recipe? Well, sometimes you have to try new things - you never know what you'll end up liking. I haven't tried this one yet so I don't know how they taste. I'm bringing them to a friend's bbq tomorrow before we go watch the Giants game. Hopefully someone will like a chocolate peanut butter marshmallow rice krispie combo.

September 13, 2009 update - I tried a piece of this today. Meh. The bottom and top layers were good but I'm just not a marshmallow fan. Marshmallow may be okay when it's warm and gooey but when it's not warm, it just has the texture of rubber to me. So it was like eating white rubber between two chocolate layers. But that could be just me. Other people who tried it today seemed to like it (some had more than 1 piece and my friend Bryan took the leftovers home - hopefully enough made it to his wife Cheryl). Marshmallow's just not my thing. On the other hand, I liked the rice krispie top with the melted chocolate and peanut butter and that gives me an idea of making something like that for other brownie recipes.

Brownie
4 ounces unsweetened chocolate
2/3 cup (1 1/3 sticks) plus 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, divided
¾ cup semisweet chocolate chips
1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
4 large eggs, at room temperature
2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Topping
1 package (10 ½ ounces) mini marshmallows
1 ½ cups semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup smooth peanut butter
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 ½ cups crispy rice cereal

1. Preheat oven to 350˚F.
2. Grease a 9 x 13-inch baking pan.
3. In a medium saucepan, melt the chocolate, butter and ¾ cup of the chocolate chips on medium heat. Stir occasionally while melting. Set aside and cool for 5 minutes.
4. In a medium bowl, sift the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
5. In a large bowl, place the eggs and whisk thoroughly. Add in the sugar and vanilla. Stir the melted ingredients into the egg mixture, mixing well. Stir in the sifted dry ingredients and mix well.
6. Pour the batter into the prepared pan, and even with a spatula. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted into the center of the pans comes out with moist crumbs.
7. Remove the brownies from the oven and immediately sprinkle the marshmallows over them. Return the pan to the oven for 3 more minutes.
8. While the brownies are baking, place the chocolate chips, peanut butter, and butter in a medium saucepan. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly until melted. Remove from heat, add the cereal and mix well. Allow this to cool for 3 minutes or so. Spread the mixture evenly over the marshmallow layer. Refrigerate until chilled before cutting.

Nuts in cookies - nah....

Double Chocolate Almond Cookies - September 12, 2009

Although these are officially called Double Chocolate Almond Cookies, I took some liberties with the recipe. As a general rule, I don't like nuts in my cookies. I like nuts to be crisp and toasted as a contrast to whatever they're baked in and when you bake nuts into cookies, they steam and soften. Instead, I substituted Heath Toffee bits for the almonds. I also used three kinds of chocolate chips: semisweet, milk and white chocolate. This recipe is from Tate's Bake Shop. Most of their cookie recipes come out rather thin but I prefer my cookies to be thick and not spread out so I always, always freeze cookie dough first before baking. These still spread out but not as much as they normally would have. You have to be careful when baking chocolate cookies because you can't always tell when they're done by looks alone and you can't go by "golden brown" at the edges because, well, they're chocolate! Plus, when a cookie dough has a high concentration of chocolate, you don't want to overbake it. Chocolate will "set" once it cools so don't worry about underbaking. These turned out pretty well, a bit fragile, especially when underbaked, but the taste is awesome if you're in the mood for a chocolate cookie.

2 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
¾ cup Dutch-processed cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
¾ teaspoon salt
1 ¼ cups salted butter, softened to room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 cup firmly packed dark or light brown sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup white chocolate chips
1 ½ cups semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup almonds, chopped

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease two cookie sheets or line them with Silpat.
2. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt.
3. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, cream together the butter and sugars. Add the egg and vanilla and mix them together. Add the flour mixture and mix it till it’s just combined.
4. Add the chocolates and almonds. Mix them till they are combined.
5. Using two tablespoons or a small ice cream scoop, drop the dough two inches apart on the cookie sheets.
6. Bake them for 15 minutes.
7. Cool the cookies on the cookie sheets. The cookies should be very soft when they are removed from the oven. They will firm up as they cool.

Yield: 52 cookies

Peanut Butter Crumb Cake

Peanut Butter Crumb Cake - September 12, 2009

I haven't updated this note in awhile but that doesn't mean I haven't been baking because I have. Normally I like to try out 1-2 new recipes a week, sometimes during the weekend and sometimes during the week. My work schedule has been so crazy these last few months though that I've been doing most of my baking during the weekend. I make up cookie doughs and put them in the freezer to bake during the week, I'll bake brownies and freeze them and bring them into work the following week, and I'll make cakes that'll carry over into Monday.

Today, this Peanut Butter Crumb Cake is the first thing I made this morning. This is a recipe from Fearless Baking by Elinor Klivans. Turned out pretty well and would make a nice sweet for a brunch. I'm not a huge peanut butter fan. I like it well enough but I don't obsess over it like I would with chocolate or caramel. But the texture was nice and cakey with a good crumb. Not too overwhelmingly peanut butter-y either and it's super easy to make. My friend Karen was able to pick them up today to give to her house construction crew so it freed me up to bake some other stuff.

Orange Poppyseed Cake

Orange Poppyseed Cake - February 7, 2009

I've always loved poppyseed cake, although traditionally it's been lemon poppyseed. I tried this one for something different since it's orange poppyseed cake. This recipe is from Perfect Cakes by Nick Malgieri. It came out pretty well albeit not that orangey. The orange syrup soaked in but didn't make the cake wet, just moist. I was afraid of it making the texture soppy but it didn't. Overall, I'd give it a thumbs up. The texture is just right for a cakey cake, not dense like a pound cake or too light like a chiffon.

Sometimes simple tastes are the best

Best Vanilla Pound Cake - February 6, 2009

This recipe really is the best vanilla pound cake I've made or tasted. It has a nice dense crumb like all good pound cakes should and it's rich with butter and vanilla. It looks so deceptively simple but the appeal is all in the flavor. If you like butter, this is your cake. I even prefer this cake over a chocolate cake.

The recipe is from The Country Baking Treasury by Lisa Yockelson. I don't know if it's even in print anymore but I found this modest little book in a bookstore in the bargain aisle. Best $5 I've ever spent as every recipe I've made from it has turned out really well. Lisa Yockelson has published other cookbooks that I also bought and she scores every time. I think there are probably only a few recipes I've made from her cookbooks that haven't turned out but dozens of others have and some have become my favorites. Considering how much baking I've done, that says a lot. I think my favorite aspect of this cake is how simple it is but I just enjoy the simple, good taste of it. Nothing fancy, no frosting or glaze, no chips or nuts, just a good simple vanilla butter cake. Sometimes simple is the best. The key to a good pound cake is creaming together the ingredients and making sure you beat in enough air when you cream the butter and sugar together. Don't skimp on this part. If you have a stand mixer, use it. Pound cakes are also one reason why I love my Kitchenaid mixer - makes it effortless.

3 cups unsifted all-purpose flour

½ teaspoon baking powder

¾ teaspoon salt

1½ cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, softened at room temperature

2¾ cups vanilla-scented granulated sugar

Seed scrapings from 1 vanilla bean

5 jumbo eggs, at room temperature

1½ tablespoons pure vanilla extract

1 cup milk, at room temperature

Confectioners’ sugar for dusting, optional

1. Lightly butter and flour a 10-inch tube pan or a 10-inch fluted Bundt pan. Preheat the oven to 325˚F.
2. Resift the flour with the baking powder and salt onto a large sheet of waxed paper. Cream the butter in the large bowl of an electric mixer on moderately high speed for 3 minutes. Beat in the sugar in 3 additions, beating for 1 minute after each portion has been added. Blend in the vanilla bean scrapings. Beat on high speed for 1-2 minutes.
3. With the mixer on moderate speed, beat in the eggs, one at a time, blending well after each one; scrape down the sides of the mixing bowl frequently to keep the mixture even textured. With the mixer on low speed, alternately add the flour mixture in 3 additions and the milk in 2 additions, beginning and ending with flour. Pour and scrape batter into the prepared pan.
4. Bake the cake on the lower-third-level rack of the preheated oven for 1 hour and 10 minutes to 1 hour and 15 minutes or until golden on top and a wooden pick inserted in the middles of the cake comes out clean and dry.
5. Let cool in the pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Gently loosen the sides of the cake from the pan with a thin, flexible palette knife. Invert onto a second cooling rack, then invert again to cool right side up. Dust the top of the cake with sifted confectioners’ sugar if desired.

Buttermilk Devil's Food Cake

Basic Buttermilk Devil's Food Cake - February 6, 2009

Another simple recipe from The Cake Mix Doctor - base is a devil's food cake mix and you add buttermilk, oil, eggs and cocoa. The cocoa is to presumably strengthen the chocolate flavor. It works as this one tasted less like a mix. The texture/crumb was soft and the cake was moist but not overly so.

Solid vegetable shortening for greasing the pans
Flour or unsweetened cocoa powder for dusting the pans
1 package (18.25 ozs) plain devil’s food cake mix
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1⅓ cups buttermilk
½ cup vegetable oil, such as canola, corn, safflower, soybean or sunflower
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1. Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350˚F. Generously grease two 9-inch round cake pans with solid vegetable shortening, then dust with flour or unsweetened cocoa powder. Shake out the excess flour then set the pans aside.
2. Place the cake mix, 3 tablespoons cocoa powder, buttermilk, oil, eggs and vanilla in a large mixing bowl. Blend with an electric mixer on low speed for 1 minute. Stop the machine and scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Increase the mixer speed to medium and beat for 2 minutes more, scraping down the sides again if needed. The batter should look thick and well combined. Divide the batter between the prepared pans, smoothing it out with a rubber spatula. Place the pans in the oven side by side.
3. Bake the cake until it is golden brown and springs back when lightly pressed with your finger, 28 to 30 minutes. Remove the pans from the oven and place them on a wire rack to cool for 10 minutes. Run a dinner knife around the edge of each layer and invert them each onto a rack, then invert them again onto another rack so that the cakes are right side up. Allow the cakes to cool completely, 30 minutes more. Frost as desired.
4. Store this cake, unfrosted, covered in aluminum foil, at room temperature, for up to 4 days, or in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.

Using a cake mix as a base

Basic Buttermilk Spice Cake - February 5, 2009

I like to try a lot of different recipes, mostly to justify the dozens of dessert cookbooks I've acquired over the years, some of them barely used. What determines what I bake is partly decided from the recipes available to me and partly by the ingredients I have on hand and need to use up. This week it's milk and buttermilk to be used before their expiration dates. I made a buttermilk spice cake to use up not only some buttermilk but also a spice cake mix I bought on sale awhile back. This recipe is from The Cake Mix Doctor by Ann Byrn. While I, as a baking snob, prefer to bake all things from scratch, a good recipe starting from a cake mix can, on occasion, be forgivable. The recipes I've tried from the Cake Mix Doctor have generally been good. While the taste is usually not very remarkable (it ends up inevitably tasting like the cake mix it came from), the crumb and texture is pretty good. I like my cakes to be, well, cakey. They either need to have a tender crumb with a moist texture (can't abide dry cakes) or they need to be packed full of flavor and have dense texture like a pound cake. I don't care much for chiffons or angel food cakes. It's a texture thing then a flavor thing. Anyway, this one turned out well.

Solid vegetable shortening for greasing the pans

Flour for dusting the pans

1 package (18.25 ozs) plain spice cake mix

1 cup buttermilk

⅓ cup unsweetened applesauce

⅓ cup vegetable oil, such as canola, corn, safflower, soybean or sunflower

3 large eggs

¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon

1. Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350˚F. Generously grease two 9-inch round cake pans with solid vegetable shortening, then dust with flour. Shake out the excess flour then set the pans aside.

2. Place the cake mix, buttermilk, applesauce, oil, eggs and cinnamon in a large mixing bowl. Blend with an electric mixer on low speed for 1 minute. Stop the machine and scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Increase the mixer speed to medium and beat for 2 minutes more, scraping down the sides again if needed. The batter should look thick and well combined. Divide the batter between the prepared pans, smoothing it out with a rubber spatula. Place the pans in the oven side by side.

3. Bake the cake until it is golden brown and springs back when lightly pressed with your finger, 26 to 28 minutes. Remove the pans from the oven and place them on a wire rack to cool for 10 minutes. Run a dinner knife around the edge of each layer and invert them each onto a rack, then invert them again onto another rack so that the cakes are right side up. Allow the cakes to cool completely, 30 minutes more. Frost as desired.

4. Store this cake, unfrosted, covered in aluminum foil, at room temperature, for up to 4 days, or in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.

Chocolate Cookies

Double Chocolate Cookies - February 4, 2009

Tonight's baking is Double Chocolate Cookies from Baking with Julia by Julia Child. I've made these cookies before but I forgot to take a picture of them the first time I made them so I had to make them again and take a pic for posterity and my next tastebook. I'm bringing them into work tomorrow for a coworker lunch. These are pretty good - they don't spread that much and are really rich.

The trick to pure chocolate cookies is to use the best quality chocolate possible. It doesn't have to be super high end but don't use the no-name generic, cheap stuff either. It won't be worth making if you do. So many people ask me for recipes and I give it to them but when they make it on their own, they say it didn't turn out like mine. Most of the time, using the right ingredients is the difference. You know you've made chocolate cookies right when you taste them at room temperature and the chocolate flavor really comes through. Also, it's better to underbake cookies rather than overbake them, especially chocolate cookies. The cookies may not look done yet when you take them out of the oven but remember, the chocolate "sets" as it cools. Overbaking will make a dry, tough cookie and those simply aren't worth the calories.

½ cup all-purpose flour

½ teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

12 ounces bittersweet chocolate, cut into larger than chip size chunks

1 stick (4 ounces) unsalted butter

4 ounces unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped

4 large eggs, at room temperature

1½ cups sugar

1. Whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl and set aside until needed. Divide the bittersweet chocolate in half and set half aside.

2. Place the butter, the remaining bittersweet chocolate, and the unsweetened chocolate in the top of a double boiler over, but not touching, simmering water. Heat the mixture, stirring occasionally, until the butter and chocolates are melted and smooth. Remove from the heat.

3. Meanwhile, put the eggs, sugar, coffee and vanilla in the bowl of a mixer fitted with the whisk attachment and beat at high speed for about 10 minutes, until the mixture is very thick and forms a slowly dissolving ribbon when the whisk is lifted and the mixture is allowed to drizzle back into the bowl.

4. With the mixer on low speed, very gradually add the warm butter-chocolate mixture. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and work your rubber spatula around the bottom of the bowl, then continue to mix just until the chocolate is thoroughly incorporated. Add the dry ingredients and the remaining bittersweet chocolate chunks and mix thoroughly. The mixture will look like a thick, marshmallowy cake batter.

5. Chilling the dough: Cover the bowl with plastic and chill for several hours, or overnight. The dough can be made ahead and kept refrigerated for up to 4 days.

6. Baking the cookies: When you are ready to bake, position the racks to divide the oven into thirds and preheat the oven to 350˚F. Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper.

7. Using a heaping tablespoon of dough for each cookie, drop the dough onto the lined sheets, leaving at least 2 inches of space between each mound of dough – these are spreaders. Bake the cookies for 10 to 12 minutes, rotating the pans front to back and top to bottom halfway through the baking period. The cookies will puff, then sink and crinkle and wrinkle around the edges. These cookies are better underdone than overbaked, so if you have any doubts, pull them out of the oven earlier rather than later. These shouldn’t appear dry and they won’t be crisp. Use a wide metal spatula to transfer the cookies to cooling racks to cool to room temperature. Repeat with the remaining dough.

8. Storing: The cookies can be wrapped in plastic and kept at room temperature for 2 days or frozen for up to a month. Thaw, still wrapped, at room temperature.