Coconut Cake

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I’ve always loved Easter. Before Jon and I were even married, I made him dye easter eggs and did a little basket up of goodies for the two of us. So, now that we’re a family of four, we have even more fun getting into the holiday. The boys had a great time at an egg hunt last weekend, and we’re looking forward to dying eggs tomorrow. One of the things that really makes my Easter dinner table special is this coconut cake. I’ve been making it for as long as I’ve made him dye eggs, and it’s never let me down. Cook’s Illustrated is like that.

The one thing qualm I had about the recipe was the frosting, too sweet for my taste. So, I changed things up a bit and went with a coconut buttercream instead. I think it has a little more depth of flavor, and held up a little better under the pressure of all that delicious coconut piled on top. The cake gets a heavy dose of coconut flavor with the addition of cream of coconut (leftovers make fabulous Piña coladas) and coconut extract. I used those two ingredients in the frosting as well, and it really came out nice.

Have a happy and blessed holiday, and here’s hoping that the Easter bunny leaves you plenty of chocolate. Enough that your younger brother doesn’t can steal some out of your basket and you don’t mind. Happy Easter, everyone!


Coconut Cake

For the cake:
1 large egg
5 large egg whites
3/4 cup cream of coconut
1/4 cup buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp coconut extract
2 1/4 cups cake flour, sifted
1 cup granulated sugar
1 Tbsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
12 Tbsp unsalted butter, cut into 12 pieces, softened, but still cool
2 cups packed sweetened shredded coconut

For the frosting:
1 cup butter (2 sticks) softened
5 cups confectioner’s sugar, sifted
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon coconut extract
1/4 cup cream of coconut
1/4 milk

or the cake: adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat oven to 325 degrees. Grease two 9-inch round cake pans with butter and dust with flour. Beat egg whites and whole egg in large measuring cup with a fork to combine. Add cream of coconut, buttermilk, vanilla, and coconut extract and beat with fork until thoroughly combined.

Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on lowest speed to combine, about 30 seconds. With mixer still running on lowest speed, add butter 1 piece at a time, then beat until mixture resembles coarse meal, with butter bits no larger than small peas, 2-2 1/2 minutes.

With the mixer still running, add half of the liquid ingredients. Increase speed to medium-high and beat until light and fluffy, about 45 seconds. With mixer still running, add remaining liquid mixture in steady stream (this should take about 15 seconds). Stop mixer and scrape down bowl with rubber spatula, then beat at medium-high speed to combine, about 15 seconds. (Batter will be thick.)

Divide batter between cake pans and level with offset or rubber spatula. Bake until deep golden brown. Cakes pull away from sides of pans, and toothpick inserted into center of cakes comes out clean, about 30 minutes. Cool cakes in pans on wire racks about 10 minutes, then loosen cakes from sides of pans with paring knife, invert cakes onto racks and then turn them right side up again. Cool to room temperature.

For the frosting,  add butter and extracts to mixing bowl. Cream on medium speed until combined and lightened, scraping bowl and paddle as needed.  Add powdered sugar, milk, and cream of coconut. Mix until light and creamy; adding an additional milk if needed for desired consistency.

To assemble, place 1 layer on a flat serving plate, top side down, and spread with frosting. Place the second layer on top, top side up, and frost the top and sides. To decorate the cake, sprinkle the top with coconut and lightly press more coconut onto the sides. Serve at room temperature.

Source: highly adapted from Cook’s Illustrated’s New Best Recipe

Strawberry Margaritas

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It may not be strawberry season for another month or so here in Maryland, but I’ve been seeing some gorgeous California strawberries in my grocery store. While I can’t wait for our local pick-you-own place down the road to open up, I just couldn’t resist picking up a carton. They smelled and looked too good to pass up!

Thanks to Shawnda, Annie, and Josie – I’ve totally become addicted to various fruit margaritas. What’s a girl to do when she’s got some gorgeous strawberries lying around? Mix them up with booze of course! They were out of this world good. I loved the sugar and salt combo on the rim, and the strawberry flavor is just overwhelming. It actually tastes like fresh strawberries. Imagine that!

I’ve made several batches in the past couple weeks, I just can’t get enough of them. Top of my list of favorite margarita so far! The strawberry syrup puree has been very handy to have hanging out in the fridge as well. I’ve used it to make strawberry milk for the boys, as well as make pink lemonade. If you do one thing this weekend, make these margaritas! Cheers.

Strawberry Margaritas

4 ounces Grand Marnier or Triple Sec
3 ounces Tequila
4 ounces lime juice
5 ounces strawberry simple syrup [recipe below]
lime + fresh strawberries for garnish
salt + sugar for the rim

Rim the ridge of your glasses with a lime wedge and dip in a mix of margarita salt + sugar [I used about 3 tablespoons salt to 2 teaspoons sugar]. Fill the glasses with ice. In a cocktail shaker, combine tequila, triple sec, simple syrup and lime juice with ice, and shake for about 30 seconds. Pour over ice and squeeze in lime slices and add a few strawberries.

For strawberry simple syrup: combine equal parts sugar and water, bring to a boil and let sugar dissolve, then turn off heat and let cool completely. Combine 1 cup simply syrup + 1 1/2 cups slices strawberries in a blender and blend until combined. I don’t mind strawberry seeds, but if you’d like you can strain the mixture over a fine mesh strainer to remove the seeds.

Source: adapted from How Sweet Eats

Penne alla Vodka

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Do you ever have those nights when things don’t go as planned? And, your intended dinner for the night falls by the way-side? It happens to me more often than I’d like to admit. While ordering a pizza is very tempting on nights like those, this pasta dish is almost as easy as picking up the phone and ordering. This was one of the first dishes I learned to make “by heart”, and I can always turn to it in a pinch.

You probably have everything you need in your pantry already. The sauce just takes a few minutes – saute the onion, add the tomatoes and vodka and allow to simmer, you add the cream and basil at the last minute. One note of caution, don’t use inexpensive vodka. I’m not saying to go out and spend $40 on Grey Goose just for this recipe, but lets not go for the $7.99 special either! The flavor of the vodka is concentrated in the sauce, so you really want to use the best possible. With a green salad, this is the perfect summer meal for those warm nights.

Penne Alla Vodka

1 (28-oz) can whole tomatoes, drained, liquid reserved
2 Tbs olive oil
1/2 small onion minced (about 1/4 c)
1 Tbs tomato paste
2 medium garlic cloves minced
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
1/3 C vodka
1/2 C heavy cream
1 lb penne pasta
2 Tbs finely chopped fresh basil
Grated Parmesan for serving

Puree half of the tomatoes in food processor until smooth. Dice remaining tomatoes into 1/2 inch pieces, discarding cores. Combine pureed tomatoes and diced tomatoes in liquid measuring cup add reserved liquid to equal 2 cups.

Heat oil in large saucepan over medium heat until simmering. Add onion and tomato paste and cook, stirring occasionally, until onions are light golden around the edges, about three minutes. Add garlic and pepper flakes; cook, stirring constantly until fragrant, about 30 seconds.

Stir in tomatoes and 1/2 tsp salt. Remove pan from heat and add vodka. Return pan to medium-high heat and simmer briskly until alcohol flavor is cooked off, 8 to 10 minutes; stir frequently and lower heat to medium if simmering becomes to vigorous. Stir in cream and cook umtil hot, about 1 minute.

Add pasta sauce to penne pasta that has been cooked to al dente. Stir in basil and adjust seasoning with salt and pepper, top with parmesan.

Source: Cooks Illustrated, November/December 2006

Fluffy Buttermilk Biscuits

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Making homemade biscuits always scared the hell outta me. They always seemed to be time consuming, and anything involving “cutting in” of cold butter tends to make me nervous too. After seeing Josie’s post on them (such the Southern belle!), she gave me the confidence I needed to try. So glad I gave it a go – because they turned out absolutely perfectly. And both of my concerns that I listed above were completely unfounded.

First off, they aren’t time consuming. Not even15 minutes of prep work, and I had gorgeous butter-topped biscuits that I was putting into the oven. The food processor pretty much does all the work for you, that machine is such a workhorse in my kitchen. A few quick pulses of the flour and butter, then you add the liquid components, knead a few times, shape and cut. It’s that easy!

I don’t like to brag, but they easily were the best biscuits I’ve seen, or tasted. They stood a mile high! Okay, maybe not a mile…but still, very tall.  And the fluffy layers? Unparalleled. They were the perfect accompaniment to the fried chicken dinner I made that night, and the boys and I enjoyed the leftover biscuits with blueberry preserves the next morning. So, if you’re a bit scared of them like I was, get your butt in the kitchen and give it a try. This recipe won’t let you down!

Fluffy Buttermilk Biscuits

2 1/4 cups cake flour or 2 cups all-purpose flour
1 Tbs baking powder
1 Tbs plus 1 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
6 Tbs cold unsalted butter, cut into several pieces
3/4 cup cold buttermilk
2 Tbs melted butter, for brushing

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

In the bowl of a food processor, combine the flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar.  Pulse several times to combine well.  Add the butter, and continue to pulse in 2-second increments, until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs with a few pea-sized pieces (about 5 pulses).  This can also be done using a pastry blender or 2 forks if you don’t have a food processor.

Transfer the mixture to a medium bowl, pour the buttermilk over it, and use a fork to mix for about 1 minute, or until the dough just comes together.
Turn the dough out onto a floured surface, knead with floured hands, and pat into a rectangle about 6×10 inches and 1-inch thick.

Fold the dough like a business letter (the righmost third over the center third, then the left third on top).  Turn the dough a quarter of a turn, pat it into another 6×10 inch rectangle, and fold it upon itself in thirds again.  Repeat one more time, then pat the dough into a 6×10 inch rectangle a final time.

Using a floured 2-3 inch biscuit cutter, cut the biscuits from the dough and place them about 1 1/2 inches apart on an ungreased baking sheet.  Pat the scraps into a 1-inch thick rectangle and cut more biscuits.

Brush the tops with half the melted butter, and bake 15-20 minutes, or until the tops are just beginning to brown.  Brush the tops again with the remaining butter and serve warm.

Source: Pink Parsley, originally from The Lee Bros. Southern Cookbook