TWD: Matcha Coconut Madeleines

There's something very special about madeleines, so I was really happy that this week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was traditional madeleines, chosen by Tara of Smells Like Home. I'm swamped with studying for finals right now but I couldn't resist making them. I adore madeleines and they're a really easy baked good. I chose to do a matcha coconut variation, and they were quite yummy. My favourite flavour is still Earl Grey, but I always want to try out new combinations. And I have to just say that madeleines are really best within a few hours of making them so you get to enjoy their slightly crispy edges and soft warm centers.

As for the signature "hump" that the madeleine is supposed to have - some of mine did and some didn't despite refrigeration of the batter for several hours. Doesn't bother me though because they were still addictively delicious. And I know that some people have problems with them sticking to the pans - I find that if I let mine cool for a few minutes in the pan, they come out much easier. And it seems impossible for me to make madeleines without those tunnels, though I don't feel like I'm overmixing. One thing about Dorie's recipe that's different from other madeleine recipes I've made was that she has you beat the eggs and sugar together for 3 minutes. I'm used to just stirring them together by hand until mixed.

Other things I've baked with tea:
Matcha Cupcakes
Earl Grey White Chocolate Chunk Muffins
Earl Grey Tea Shortbread
Honey Earl Grey Madeleines

Matcha Coconut Madeleines*
Adapted from Baking: From My Home To Yours

2/3 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
Pinch of salt
½ cup sugar
1-2 tbsp matcha**
1/3 cup dried unsweetened coconut
2 large eggs, at room temperature
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
3/4 stick (6 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted and cooled

Whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, matcha and coconut.

Working with the whisk attachment, or with a hand mixer, beat the eggs and sugar together on medium-high speed until pale, thick and light, 2 to 3 minutes. Beat in the vanilla. With a rubber spatula, very gently fold in the dry ingredients, followed by the melted butter. Press a piece of plastic wrap against the surface of the batter and refrigerate it for at least 3 hours, or for up to 2 days. This long chill period will help the batter form the hump that is characteristic of madeleines. (For convenience, you can spoon the batter into the madeleine molds, cover and refrigerate, then bake the cookies directly from the fridge; see below for instructions on prepping the pans.)

GETTING READY TO BAKE: Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 400F. Butter 12 full-size madeleine molds, or up to 36 mini madeleine molds, dust the insides with flour and tap out the excess. Or, if you have a nonstick pan (or pans), give it a light coating of vegetable cooking spray. If you have a silicone pan, no prep is needed. Place the pan(s) on a baking sheet.

Spoon the batter into the molds, filling each one 3/4 full. Don't worry about spreading the batter evenly, the oven's heat will take care of that. Bake large madeleines for 11 to 13 minutes, and minis for 8 to 10 minutes, or until they are golden and the tops spring back when touched. Remove the pan(s) from the oven and release the madeleines from the molds by rapping the edge of the pan against the counter. Gently pry any recalcitrant madeleines from the pan using your fingers or a butter knife. Transfer the cookies to a rack to cool to just warm or to room temperature.

If you are making minis and have more batter, bake the next batch(es), making certain that you cool, then properly prepare the pan(s) before baking.

Makes 12 large or 36 mini cookies.***

Storing: Although the batter can be kept in the refrigerator for up to 2 days, the madeleines should be eaten soon after they are made. You can keep them overnight in a sealed container, but they really are better on day 1. If you must store them, wrap them airtight and freeze them; they'll keep for up to 2 months.

*To make the traditional madeleines, add the zest of one lemon to the sugar (rubbing the lemon zest and sugar between your fingers until moist and fragrant.) Omit the coconut and matcha.
**I used 1 tbsp and it gave the madeleines a very light matcha flavour so next time I'll add 2 tbsp.
***With my modification of the recipe, it made 15 large madeleines.

My note: You can easily modify this recipe to make any flavour you like. I like adding 4 oz of melted chocolate to the batter.

Chocolate Oatmeal Coconut Cookies

There's this place that sells cookies at a university here (Blue Chip Cookies for those of you in the Vancouver area) that are so insanely delicious. Since I didn't go to that university (my university didn't offer anything so tasty) I've only had these cookies a few times, but my two favourite kinds are the "marbelous" (chocolate dough with chocolate and white chocolate chunks) and coconut oat. The coconut oat is this thin buttery super coconuty delicious creation that's somewhere between soft/chewy and maybe a little bit crispy.

A month or so ago I came across these chocolate oatmeal coconut cookies on Deborah's blog who found them on This Week for Dinner. Once I saw them and read the combination of coconut and oats, I hoped hoped hoped that these might just be similar to the wondrous Blue Chip coconut oat cookies. I made them shortly after finding the recipe (which is actually kind of rare, as I'm sure many of you can relate to - saving recipes that you find on blogs that you want to make soon but then not getting around to it until much later if at all).

Well I am extremely happy to say that these cookies did not disappoint! I was ecstatic about how well they turned out. Especially fresh from the oven, all warm and soft with a bit of a crispy edge. These were it! Cookie bliss. The only problem was that I thought I'd prefer them crispy so I started to bake them a bit longer, but the next day they became really quite hard and only a bit chewy. So next time I won't bake them as long. And while the chocolate chips in them were good, I'll make them without next time so I can enjoy my perfect buttery coconut oat cookie. The photos really don't do them justice! And the chocolate chips look really weird.

If this sounds good, you might like:
Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
Carrot Coconut Cake
Chocolate Marble Chunk Cookies
Coconut Cream Pie

Chocolate Oatmeal Coconut Cookies
Barbara Boczany & This Week for Dinner

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
1 cup brown sugar, packed
6 tbsp sugar
2 large eggs
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 cup flour
2 1/4 cups oats
1 1/2 cups dried unsweetened shredded coconut
12 oz (2 cups) semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350F. Beat butter and sugars at high speed until fluffy. Add eggs and beat till blended. Beat in vanilla, baking soda, and salt. Add flour and mix at low speed until blended. Stir in oats, coconut and chocolate.

Arrange 1/4 cup mounds about 3 inches apart on large buttered baking sheets. Pat down to 1/2 inch. Bake in upper oven, rotating occasionally, 15-18 minutes. Cool one minute. Transfer to cooling rack.

Almond Coconut Muffins

I've gotten back into a muffin baking craze. Well a craze in the sense of I always have home baked muffins, and I've been trying to modify muffin recipes to make them healthier but still tasty. I was quite happy with how these muffins turned out (though now it's got me thinking about these most perfect cupcake-masquerading-as-a-muffin banana coconut muffins which I have to make again).

There were three main reasons I loved this muffin. The first because it is quite coconut-y, using coconut milk and dried unsweetened coconut. (And I went to look up the health benefits of coconuts so I could feel good about eating coconut. Coconut oil is quite good for you and regular coconut milk - not light - is too. Dried coconut I'm not sure, but it's so tasty!) I was also really excited about this muffin because it was my first time using "flax eggs" in a muffin recipe. I was scared that I would end up with flat sad little muffins or muffins that had gooey centers and wouldn't cook, but no, you can't even tell that they're made with flax eggs. I'm so excited about using flax eggs in muffins now!

The third and last reason I loved this muffin was because it's a dry muffin! A dry muffin you say? Who wants a dry muffin? Well I've found that many of the healthier versions of muffins end up having "wet" tops the next day. Maybe due to the applesauce used to replace the oil, or other things like water from fresh grated carrots or blueberries (which also happens in recipes that are not as healthy). I was just ecstatic to have a muffin that continued to stay "dry" for the next few days. These are not the moist fluffy kind of muffin - they're more of a dense hearty muffin. I need to do more to play with the ingredients to try and make it healthier too. Maybe replace the olive oil with coconut oil even and see how that works, though I don't know if coconut oil can be used in baked goods like that. Oh and I put craisins in some of the muffins which is what those red things are, for the curious.

Soon I'll post about my other healthy muffin modification (the almond coconut muffin I didn't modify that much): 100% whole wheat blueberry coconut nut muffin. Yes I like to shove lots of things into a muffin.

Almond Coconut Muffins
modified from The Garden of Vegan

1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup coconut milk
egg replacer, equal to 2 eggs (2 tbsp flax seeds & 6 tbsp water)*
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup chopped almonds

Preheat oven to 400F. In a large bowl, stir together the flour, coconut, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Stir in the coconutmil, egg replacer, oil, vanilla and almonds, and stir gently until "just mixed." Spoon into muffin tins that have been lined with muffin cups and bake for 12-15** minutes or unitl toothpick comes out clean. Makes 10 muffins.

*To make flax seeds, grind the flax seeds up first in a food processor, magic bullet or something. Then add the water and grind it up a bit more. Now you have a flax egg! (From Post Punk Kitchen.)
**15-18 minutes for me.

bill's Coconut Bread

I must've seen the recipe for bill's coconut bread at least a couple of years ago. Being a coconut fiend, I mentally added it to my list of things to bake. Finally I got around to actually making it recently. As for the results, it wasn't as good as I thought it would be but I'm happy I made it and would try it again with some modifications. It's like a very thick dense loaf mixed with bread - not as moist as a loaf and not as dry as bread. I loved how the exterior was crispy when it first came out of the oven - unfortunately it became completely soft the next day. The addition of cinnamon was interesting and people seemed to like it (in fact my boyfriend I think said that it was the thing about the bread that made it special) but personally I wouldn't put that much cinnamon in next time - maybe I'd add lots of vanilla extract, and extra coconut flakes sprinkled on top before baking? I made coconut nutmeg cookies once and that experience might still be traumatizing me from enjoying coconut with spices.

My loaves always puff up so much in the middle so I must remember to try and make sure the ends and corners have ample amounts of batter (assuming that would help fix it). I do love that this is unabashedly a real coconut bread. I think it would be wonderful made into French toast, and more simply, it's good toasted with some butter. And as for the lowercase b in bill's, it's not a typo - it seems to be typed that way for his show and on his site, etc.

bill's Coconut Bread
found on Baking Bites, from Sydney Food by Bill Granger

2 eggs
300ml (1 1/4 cups) milk
1 tsp vanilla
350g (2 1/2 cups) flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
225 g (1 cup and a bit) caster sugar
150 g (2 cups) shredded coconut
75 g (1/3 cup) butter, melted

Preheat oven to 180C /350F.

Whisk together eggs, milk and vanilla.

Sift together flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon. Stir in sugar and coconut. Make a well in the center and pour in egg mixture. Stir until just combined.

Add butter and stir until just smooth, being careful not to overmix.

Pour into a greased and floured loaf pan and bake for 1 hour, or until tester comes out clean.

Cool in tin for 10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack.

Coconut Cream Pie

For my birthday this year I decided to make a coconut cream pie. I was extremely looking forward to making my own birthday cake (originally I was looking for a cake recipe) since it meant I would have a great excuse to make something elaborate, only myself to please and I wouldn't feel bad eating a bunch of it. I was tempted by a brownie mosaic cheesecake on Smitten Kitchen that looked challenging and delicious, and an eight-layer chocolate peanut butter cake in Saveur. But I wasn't able to find a cake that really appealed to me (a sign that I need more baking books!) I knew I always wanted to make this coconut cream pie so I thought why bother searching for a random cake recipe - I should just make something I've wanted to make for years even if it's not as complicated as some of the cakes out there.

I saw Martha Stewart make this pie on some TV show I can't remember now. This was years ago, but I always remembered it. Probably because she puts this thin layer of chocolate on top of the crust before putting in the coconut custard. Mmm hidden chocolate layer. You might think it's a good idea to add extra chocolate and make the layer thicker (the more chocolate the better right?) Well I do not recommend it, as this is what I did. It made the crust really difficult to cut through. I was not at all thinking about how hard chocolate gets when it's sitting in the fridge. Ah well, it was delicious even though it was hard to bite through!

I don't think I heated the custard long enough because it wasn't very thick. I got really tired of waiting for little bubbles to come up, while also trying to avoid it boiling and burning. This was after I did something incredibly stupid that I don't even know why I did - I heated up an empty pot at medium-high heat on the stove, then poured the custard into it. WHY?? Why did I do this. I really have no idea since I know that it was not something I should've done. Thankfully only a little bit of the egg cooked and I was able to salvage most of it. The coconut custard had an interesting light but definite coconut flavour, versus other coconut cream pies I've tried which have a stronger and sweeter coconut taste. My mom described this pie as "fluff", which I know custard is not supposed to be but hey we all liked it.

I'm still a little bit scared of making crusts, but this one turned out well so my crust making confidence can increase! I made a full recipe and only needed half so I have the other half sitting in my freezer. Not sure what I should do with it but I would hate to throw it away. Maybe the earl grey white chocolate cream pie I created in my head?

I was really happy with how the coconut cream pie turned out and I would definitely make it again. All of the components were delicious and the chocolate layer added something extra (though next time it will be a much thinner layer of course).

Coconut Cream Pie
Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook

makes one 9-inch pie

all-purpose flour, for dusting
1/2 recipe pâte brisée (recipe follows)
1 large whole egg, lightly beaten
4 large egg yolks
3 cups canned unsweetened coconut milk
2/3 cup granulated sugar
5 tablespoons cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 ounces semisweet chocolate
1 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup confectioners' sugar
chocolate curls*
coconut curls or shredded coconut, toasted**

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. On a lightly floured work surface, roll out dough to a 12-inch round, a bit less than 1/4 inch thick. Fit dough into a 9-inch pie plate. Using kitchen shears or a sharp knife, trim crust to a 1/2-inch overhang all around. Fold under overhang so it extends slightly beyond edge of pie plate. Crimp edge as desired. Prick dough all over with a fork. Brush rim of dough with beaten egg. Chill pie shell until firm, about 30 minutes.

2. Line chilled pie shell with a round of parchment paper, leaving a 1-inch overhang. Fill with pie weights or dried beans. Bake until edges of crust just turn golden, 15 to 20 minutes. Remove parchment and pie weights. Return crust to oven, and continue baking until golden all over 15 to 20 minutes more. Place pie shell on a wire rack to cool completely. Reduce oven temperature to 325 degrees.

3. Place coconut curls (or shredded coconut) on a rimmed baking sheet and bake, tossing occasionally, until fragrant and lightly golden, about 10 minutes. (Watch closely.) Set aside.

4. Prepare an ice bath; set aside. In a bowl, lightly whisk egg yolks; set aside. In a saucepan, whisk together coconut milk, granulated sugar, cornstarch, and salt. Bring to a simmer (do not boil), and cook, whisking constantly, 3 to 4 minutes.

5. Whisk a quarter of hot-milk mixture into egg yolks; whisk in remaining milk mixture. Strain into a clean saucepan, and cook over medium-high heat, whisking constantly, until custard is thick and bubbles appear in center, 2 to 3 minutes. Transfer to a medium bowl, and cover with plastic wrap, pressing it directly onto surface to prevent a skin from forming. Set in ice bath until completely chilled, 30 to 35 minutes. (Filling can be kept in refrigerator, covered with plastic wrap, up to 1 day.)

6. Melt chocolate in the top of a double boiler or a heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water (do not let bowl touch the water), or in the microwave. Stir until smooth, and set aside until cool to touch, stirring occasionally.

7. Using a pastry brush, coat inside of cooled crust with melted chocolate. Place in refrigerator or freezer until firm to touch, about 10 minutes

8. Fill crust with coconut custard, spreading evenly with an offset spatula. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with whisk attachment, combine cream and confectioners’ sugar; beat until soft peaks form. Using a small offset spatula, spread whipped cream on top of custard. Refrigerate pie at least 3 hours before serving. Garnish with toasted coconut curls and chocolate curls just before serving.

*Take a block/bar of chocolate and use a vegetable peeler to scrape off curls. I didn't heat the chocolate up at all beforehand but I think it helps to heat it up a tiny bit. Not enough so that it melts though, of course.

Pâte Brisée
Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook

makes enough for one double-crust or two single-crust 9-inch pies

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, cold, cut into small pieces
1/4 cup ice water, plus more if needed

1. In the bowl of a food processor, combine flour and salt; pulse to combine. Add butter, and pulse until mixture resembles coarse crumbs with some larger pieces remaining, about 10 seconds. (To mix by hand, combine dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl, then cut in butter with a pastry blender.)

2. With machine running, add ice water through feed tube in a slow, steady stream, just until dough holds together without being wet or sticky. Do not process more than 30 seconds. Test by squeezing a small amount of dough together; if it is still too crumbly, add a bit more water, 1 tablespoon at a time.

3. Turn out dough onto a clean work surface. Divide in half, and place each half on a piece of plastic wrap. Shape into flattened disks. Wrap in plastic, and refrigerate at least 1 hour or overnight. The dough can be frozen for up to 1 month; thaw overnight in the refrigerator before using.

Matcha (Green Tea) Cupcakes

I used to really hate sharing the kitchen with someone else. What if they didn't measure exactly right? What if they over mixed the batter? What if they didn't add things in the order the recipe specified?? (Can you tell that I'm a bit of a perfectionist/control freak.) Thankfully I've gotten over this and learned to be more laid back about cooking/baking with someone else. Now I love baking with my friend because I'm a lot more willing to take risks, not follow recipes exactly, and to come up with new creative ideas (since I've taken the pressure off myself for everything to turn out perfectly). When I bake by myself, I still stick fairly closely to the recipe if not completely. (Though since baking with her, I have started to modify baking recipes more than I ever did on my own. Like using half whole wheat flour in a recipe that calls for all purpose, gasp!) Every once in a while we get together and have a baking day. This time we decided it would be a matcha (green tea powder) baking day!

Mmm perfectly rounded little tops.

It started out with her wanting to make these little Totoros, which we didn't end up making. (Totoro is a well known character from a Japanese animated film called My Neighbor Totoro.) We decided to go with chockylit's recipe for matcha cupcakes (and PS you should check out this amazingly beautiful and creative cupcake blog). Our brainstorming about cupcakes came up with (are you ready for this because it's a long title) matcha cupcakes with a coconut brown sugar crust and a coconut buttercream icing topped with a matcha shortbread star and sprinkled with shredded coconut. Whew.

Look at the way the butter soaked up the sides of the liners!

The actual cupcake turned out incredibly well. They were tasty with just the right amount of matcha, and it was a nice dense yet soft cake. I love dense (but still moist) cakes, so I was really happy with these. The crust definitely needs to be improved upon but it still tasted good. I put too much butter and sugar I think, because it wasn't very firm. (Maybe just butter and coconut next time with a tiny bit of sugar? I'll have to do some crust research.)

I insanely love how batters look. I really don't know why but batters are just so beautiful to me.

As for the icing, I really dislike the very buttery buttercream icings. The ones where it feels like you're just eating a stick of butter. Because of this, I was not eager to make a buttercream icing but we didn't know what to do to get a nice smooth thick icing that didn't have butter or cream cheese. I don't have much experience with icings so I was feeling kind of lost. We found a basic icing recipe that could be modified to be made into a buttercream icing (so we were going to make half regular and half buttercream). I ended up not liking the consistency of the regular icing (especially after adding too much milk, making the icing too liquidy and unable to hold any sort of form other than gloop). I started adding butter, hoping that would help stiffen up the icing and fix everything (which it didn't really). We also mixed in shredded coconut with the icing, making it look kind of lumpy and strange. Overall the icing was a bit of a mess but it tasted okay (though my friend thought I put way too much vanilla, but how can you have too much vanilla?? Mmm. Unless you're making peanut butter cookies.)

Then there were the matcha shortbread stars that we topped the cupcakes with. We used a recipe from a Martha Stewart cookie magazine from a few years ago. This recipe was not as successful as the cupcakes. I thought there was too much matcha powder which didn't balance well with the shortbread. But they looked cute atop the cupcakes so all was not lost!

Just for fun, my friend wanted to make faux matcha madeleines (since we love making all kinds of madeleines - well I should say that she got me into baking madeleines.) We put the matcha shortbread into a madeleine tin and I was really surprised that it came out perfectly, and deceptively looking just like a madeleine.

I'm not going to post a recipe for the crust or the icing because neither were real winners. I'm sure if you want to make these you can find another icing that would work better than the one I attempted. Though they're also yummy without icing.

Green Tea or "Matcha" Cupcakes
(from chocklyit's recipe at Cupcake Bakeshop)
1/2 sheet pan or 24 cupcakes
350 degree oven

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
2 cups sugar
2 large eggs
2 large egg yolks
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
2 tablespoons matcha

1. Prepare sheet pan by rubbing with butter, covering with parchment, rubbing with more butter, and dusting with flour.
2. Beat butter on high until soft, about 30 seconds.
3. Add sugar. Beat on medium-high until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
4. Add eggs/egg yolks one at a time, beat for 30 seconds between each.
5. Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl. Add to batter and mix to combine.
6. Mix matcha in with the milk. Add to the batter and mix until combine.
7. Pour into prepared 1/2 sheet pan and smooth flat.
8. Bake for 22-25 minutes until a cake tester comes out clean.

Note: You can use this batter to make straight up green tea cupcakes. Simply scoop into cupcake papers and bake for about the same amount of time.

Sweet Potato Badi

I really like this meal because it's tasty and I feel like it's good for me (hopefully I'm not deluded in thinking that). It has red lentils, tomatoes, zucchini, peas, sweet potato, and yogurt to make it creamy. (And being a coconut fiend, I love that this main course incorporates dried shredded unsweetened coconut.) The sweet potato badi is filling and easy to make, so as you can see this dish is a keeper. This is actually only my second time making it, only because I like trying out new recipes. I can see it being a dish I fall back on when I don't want to think about my meals for the week.

The first time I made the recipe I thought it was really weird that I had mixed up this bowl of coconut, plain yogurt, minced chile peppers, and salt. Definitely not a combination I had encountered before. All the ingredients come together really well though, and it's good reheated too.

Sweet Potato Badi
(from Entertaining for a Veggie Planet by Didi Emmons)

Serves 4
Takes about 40 minutes to make.

1/2 cup dried, unsweetened coconut
1/4 cup canola oil
1/2 cup raw red lentils
8 curry leaves or 1 tsp ground cumin
1 medium yellow, white or new potato, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch cubes*
1 large sweet potato, peeled and cut into 3/4-inch cubes
2 small zucchini, cut into 1/4-inch thick rounds
2 plum tomatoes, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1/2 cup frozen baby peas
1/2 cup (175g) plain yogurt
1-2 small, skinny chile peppers, minced
1 tsp kosher salt

4 pita breads, split, toasted, and buttered, OR rice

1. In a small, dry skillet, toast the coconut over medium heat, shaking the skillet often, until the coconut is uniformly light brown, about 5 minutes. Transfer the coconut to a small bowl and set aside.

2. In the same skillet, heat the canola oil over medium heat. Add the lentils and saute for 5 to 10 minutes, stirring, until they begin to brown. Stir in the curry leaves or cumin. Add the potato, sweet potato, and 1 1/2 cups water and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to a simmer, cover, and simmer stirring occasionally for 15 minutes. Add the zucchini, tomatoes, and peas, and cook until the vegetables are fork-tender and the liquid is almost gone, about 10 minutes more. If the liquid evaporates too quickly, add a little more water. Remove from the heat.

3. Measure out 2 tablespoons of the toasted coconut and set aside. In a large bowl, combine the remaining coconut, yogurt, chiles, and salt, and whisk until smooth. Fold the yogurt mixture gently into the vegetables. Cover the skillet and let stand for a few minutes until warmed through. Transfer the badi to a serving bowl and sprinkle the remaining 2 tablespoons coconut on top. Serve immediately with the pita bread or rice.

*I halved the recipe this time and just used the 1 sweet potato.
General note: If you're eating this with brown rice, start cooking the rice before you even start doing anything.

The Beginning of Many Cake Adventures

I've been eyeing this recipe in the Rebar cookbook since I bought it a couple of years ago. It just sounded so decadent, complex and tasty! Finally I got the chance to make it a couple of weeks ago for father's day dinner.

I've never made a cake before (not counting cheesecakes and cupcakes) that didn't come from a box. I never really had an interest in it, especially icing it which seemed like such a pain. Ironically, icing the cake ended up being my favourite part. For some reason recently I've been really into the idea of cupcakes and cakes so I was more than ready to try out this recipe! It's basically a tricked out carrot cake - add white chocolate to the cream cheese icing, and add coconut and pineapple to the cake (as well as walnuts, dates and obviously carrot).

I loved every step of making this cake. Mixing up all the ingredients for the batter (minus having to cut up the extremely sticky dates), baking two perfect round little cakes, putting a layer of icing between the two cakes (yes I found this very exciting!), carefully spreading the icing around the sides of the cake trying to make it even and not get crumbs in the icing (probably where my fear of icing cakes originated), and finally topping it off with toasted coconut (which I kind of threw at the sides of the cake to make it stick). I'm so in love with making cakes. I wish I had a reason to make a cake at least once a week.

As for the taste of the cake - delicious. The icing was definitely sweet (but what do you expect with cream cheese + icing sugar + white chocolate) but so tasty, but then cream cheese icing is my favourite kind. The actual cake was very moist and packed with flavour (which is to be expected with all those delicious mix ins). The recipe might look very involved and complicated but it's actually really easy to make. A very successful cake making experience for me, and I look forward to making this cake again for my brother's birthday next year! And perhaps getting one of those cake domes that has a pedestal (because it's not fair to the cake to not be properly showcased, right?)

Carrot Coconut Cake (with Cream Cheese-White Chocolate Icing)
(from the Rebar Modern Food Cookbook)

Yields one very delicious 8" round cake

1 1/2 cups grated carrots
3/4 cup (180 mL) crushed pineapple
3/4 cup unsweetened coconut
3/4 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup chopped dates
3/4 cup vegetable oil*
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup white sugar
3 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups unbleached flour
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 tsp allspice
Icing
9 oz (270g) cream cheese (firm block, not spreadable)
1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 tsp vanilla
3 oz (90g) white chocolate
3 cups icing sugar, sifted

*I used olive oil.

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Butter and flour two 8" round cake pans and set aside. Combine grated carrot, pineapple, coconut and walnuts in a large bowl. In a mixing bowl, beat the sugars with the eggs. Stir in the vanilla and whip on high until the volume has tripled. On low, pour the oil in slowly to blend in.

2. Combine the remaining dry ingredients and gently stir into the egg mix. Fold in the carrot mixture. Divide the batter among the cake pans and smooth the tops. Bake 30 minutes, until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.

3. While the cakes cool, prepare the frosting. Beat cream cheese on high until smooth and fluffy. Lightly blend in vanilla and butter. Melt white chocolate in a double boiler over medium heat. Add hot melted chocolate to the cream cheese mixture. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and mix on high again until smooth and fluffy. Slowly add icing sugar, stopping to scrape down the sides now and then. beat on high until all the sugar is well incorporated and the frosting is light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.

4. Spread bottom layer with one third of the frosting, smoothing it evenly to the edges. Chill 10 minutes. Place the top cake layer on and frost the top and sides as you like. garnish with toasted coconut, walnuts and/or a decorative piped border. Store refrigerated where it will keep well for up to 4 days.