Coconut Love

Wow! Just wow! This cake was so darn good that I think there were angels singing, the sun came through the clouds, the earth moved and my eyes rolled back into my head.

When I was a teenager with raging hormones, I had an insane crush on Pierce Brosnan because he was, in my mind, the epitome of handsome, cool and deliciously sexy. When "The Thomas Crown Affair" came out, I think I actually swooned everytime I watched the film and I am not a swooner. Ok, maybe a little bit of a swooner but I only swoon over the most swoonable.

Well, if Pierce Brosnan was a cake, he would be this one. Like Pierce, this cake is absolutely delicious and I urge you to stop what you are doing and immediately make this glorious mound of coconut goodness. The topper is that the recipe came from, of all places, Cooking Light magazine. Who knew a cake this good would actually not contain a million calories? Enjoy! AJ

Recipe adapted from Cooking Light

Ingredients

Cooking spray
1 tablespoon cake flour
2 1/4 cups sifted cake flour
2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 2/3 cups sugar
1/3 cup butter, softened
2 large eggs
1 (14-ounce) can light coconut milk
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2/3 cup flaked sweetened coconut, divided

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350°.

Coat 2 (9-inch) round cake pans with cooking spray; dust with 1 tablespoon flour.

Combine 2 1/4 cups flour, baking powder, and salt, stirring with a whisk. Place sugar and butter in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed until well blended (for about 5 minutes). Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Add flour mixture and milk alternately to sugar mixture, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Stir in vanilla.

Pour batter into prepared pans. Sharply tap the pans once on countertop to remove air bubbles. Bake at 350° for 30 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in pans 10 minutes on wire racks, and remove from pans. Cool completely on wire racks.

Place 1 cake layer on a plate; spread with 1 cup Fluffy Coconut Frosting. Sprinkle with 1/3 cup coconut. Top with remaining cake layer; spread remaining frosting over top and sides of cake. Sprinkle 1/3 cup coconut over top of cake.


Ingredients

4 large egg whites
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
Pinch of salt
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon almond extract

Preparation

Place egg whites, cream of tartar, and salt in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at high speed until stiff peaks form. Combine sugar and water in a saucepan; bring to a boil. Cook, without stirring, until candy thermometer registers 238°. Pour hot sugar syrup in a thin stream over egg whites, beating at high speed. Stir in extracts.

Hot Pink Coconut Cupcakes

Is there anything cooler than little sweet treats all wrapped up in animal prints and colored in hot pink? For me, there is not much that can top that on my cool scale but I realize that with the kid, my expertise on what is and is not hip has diminished considerably. I also have a slight obsession with the color pink but I am comfortable enough with my quirks at this point in my life to flaunt them shamelessly.

So let me talk about the cupcakes themselves for a moment. I have been making Ina Garten's coconut cupcakes for years and although everyone fell over themselves for them, I was never completely satisfied. I adjusted the baking time a million times and they still seemed a little bit dry for my taste. Then I came across a coconut cupcake recipe on Epicurious that promised the moistest cupcakes ever. I can safely say, they delivered. The secret is in the reduced coconut milk and although it takes a little more time and planning, it is totally worth it. I added in a few more ingredients to heighten the coconut flavor and I threw some rum in also because quite frankly, I think I am bordering on recipe alcohol abuse. I also use a variation of Ina's frosting recipe since I think nothing can top her concoction of butter and cream cheese. Since I am addicted to cream cheese and really like that flavor to shine, I use much less sugar than what her recipe calls for. So, if you prefer a sweeter frosting, just add more sugar to taste. xoxo - AJ

Recipe adapted from a combination of Epicurious and The Barefoot Constessa Cookbook

Recipe:

Ingredients:

Reduced coconut milk:
2 13-to 14-ounce cans unsweetened coconut milk* (preferably organic)

Cupcakes:

2 cups all purpose flour
2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/3 cups sugar
3 large eggs
Seeds scraped from 1 split vanilla bean or 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon almond extract
1 tablespoon dark rum
1 cup reduced coconut milk (see above), room temperature

Method:

For reduced coconut milk:

Bring coconut milk to boil in large deep saucepan over medium-high heat (coconut milk will boil up high in pan). Reduce heat to medium low; boil until reduced to 1 1/2 cups, stirring occasionally, 25 to 30 minutes. Remove from heat; cool completely. Transfer to small bowl. Cover; chill (coconut milk will settle slightly as it cools). DO AHEAD: Can be made 2 days ahead. Keep chilled.

For cupcakes:

Position rack in center of oven; preheat to 350°F. Line eighteen 1/3-cup muffin cups with paper liners. Whisk flour, baking powder, and salt in medium bowl. Using electric mixer, beat butter in large bowl until smooth. Add sugar; beat on medium-high speed until well blended, about 2 minutes. Add 2 eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition and occasionally scraping down sides of bowl. Beat in seeds from vanilla, almond extract, rum and remaining egg. Add half of flour mixture; mix on low speed just until blended. Add 1 cup reduced coconut milk; mix just until blended. Add remaining flour mixture; mix on low speed just until blended. Divide batter among muffin cups. Bake cupcakes until tops spring back when gently touched and tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Transfer cupcakes in pans to rack; cool 10 minutes. Carefully remove cupcakes from pans and cool completely on rack.

For frosting:

1/2 pound cream cheese at room temperature
1 1/2 sticks butter, room temperature
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon pure almond extract
1 pounds confectioners' sugar, sifted
2-3 drops of Wilton Rose Icing Color #610-401

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, on low speed, cream together the cream cheese, butter, and vanilla and almond extracts. Add the confectioners' sugar and mix until smooth. Add in the food coloring and mix until desired color is achieved. Add more according to your taste for pink!

Macaroons

My little brother called a few weeks ago with a request, “Make those macaroons like we used to have in Michigan. If you can replicate those, I will be impressed!”

My family used to have a cottage in Beulah, Michigan on the cleanest and coldest lake you can imagine, appropriately called, Crystal Lake. We used to spend our summers at this little cabin on a hill without TV or many people around and I read more Beverly Cleary and Judy Blume than you can imagine. We did have a radio and the only station that my parents would allow was NPR. To this day, the intro to All Things Considered makes me nostalgic. Since there was not a whole lot to do without a TV around, we spent a lot of time mini-golfing, going to movies, swimming in the lake, on the boat, fishing and going out to eat. There was a place called the Brookside Inn that had two things, an amazing house salad that they would refill freely and without charge and the most amazing macaroons I have ever tasted in my life. I have since had visions of going back to Beulah just to pick up one…or many of those macaroons but I just have not had the chance. Since then I have tried several macaroon recipes which were all a waste of time. I found the recipe to beat all recipes in the America’s Test Kitchen cookbook which, at the end of the day, should be the first stop, not the last.

I dunked a bunch of the macaroons into my chocolate sauce which really brought these over the top. The chocolate sauce recipe follows below the macaroon recipe. Enjoy! xo-AJ

The Macaroon recipe is adapted from “The New Best Recipe”, by Cook’s Illustrated Magazine.

Macaroon Recipe:

1 cup cream of coconut
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
4 large egg whites
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 cups unsweetened shredded coconut
3 cups sweetened flaked or shredded coconut

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper and lightly spray the parchment paper with non-stick cooking spray.

Whisk together the cream of coconut, corn syrup, egg whites, vanilla and salt in a small bowl; set aside. Combine the unsweetened and sweetened coconut and toss together breaking up clumps with your fingertips. Pour the liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients and combine with a rubber spatula.

Drop heaping tablespoons of the batter onto the prepared sheets, spacing them about 1 inch apart. Form the cookies into loose haystacks with your fingertips, Moistening your fingers with water prevents sticking. Bake until the cookies are light golden brown, about 15 minutes, rotating the sheets in the oven halfway through the baking time.

Let the cookies cool about 2 minutes and remove them to a wire rack for cooling with a spatula.

Chocolate Sauce Recipe (from my kitchen):

2/3 cup chocolate chips
1 tablespoon crème de cacao
1/4 cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon salted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Pour the chips into a heat proof bowl and heat the chips in 30 second increments twice, stirring between each increment. Stir the chocolate thoroughly and add in the butter and stir until it is melted. Once the butter is melted, add in the cream and stir until combined. Add in the crème de cacao and vanilla and combine.

This can be stored and reheated as needed.