French Coconut Pie

This pie was made for two reasons. One, I had extra pie dough in the fridge that was calling out to be made into a delicious dessert. And two, because I had an abundance of shredded coconut. My grandma and mom have made this pie many times before, although I will admit that I wasn't always in love with it. I went through a couple stages. As a child I turned my nose up at the thought of coconut, unless of course it was on a Samoa (yes, I was a girl scout!) Later on I tried the pie and decided that it was good, covered in an ungodly amount of whipped cream. Now, I can eat a huge piece, with no accoutrements, just slightly warm from the oven.

This isn't the recipe that my grandma has. It's one that I found on Tasty Kitchen. It's very similar to my grandma's recipe and there is almost nothing to it. It is a super easy pie that results in an extremely rich and decadent dessert. It is a great winter pie because of the warm feeling it leaves you with. I can't wait to make it again and I definitely will because even though I almost doubled the amount of coconut in the recipe, I still have some left over!!

Chai Tea Spice Cake with Cinnamon Buttercream

It was pretty chilly this weekend, which got me unbelievably excited about fall and all of the activities that come with this wonderful season. I started planning trips to the apple orchard, the pumpkin patch, and I was even brainstorming about possible Halloween costumes for Jackson. Of course along with weekend trip planning I also was in desperate need of some sort of fall dessert. I mentioned in my last post that I had found a recipe for Chai Tea Cake and this weekend seemed like the perfect opportunity to whip it up. I went out and got some Tazo Chai Tea, butter, and lots of eggs.

The recipe for the cake is from the Sky High Cakes Cookbook and it turned out just as well as the Southern Coconut Cake so I'm excited to try more of their recipes. I omitted the cardamom because, well, I was scared. Sometimes spices scare me. I'm not the kind of girl who adds cayenne to her chocolate, so I stuck with the traditional cinnamon and I think it worked out quite nicely. Instead of the Honey Ginger Buttercream I opted for a Cinnamon Buttercream. The lightness of the buttercream complimented the dense cake nicely. I'm definitely making this cake again, possibly for Thanksgiving or Christmas.

Coconut Cake

It's been a week or so since I brought anything in to my office and I could tell my co-workers were getting hungry for sweets, so I went searching for something to make them. While searching I found this group of bloggers who had made recipes from the Sky High cake book and a lot of the recipes looked really good. I was finally able to narrow it down to three although it was a pretty tough decision. It was between the Banana Pecan Praline Cake, the Chai Tea Spice Cake, and the Southern Coconut Cake.

When I went home i realized that someone had thrown away the ripe bananas I planned to use for the praline cake so that was out. I didn't have and chai tea in the house and didn't feel like running to the grocery store for such a random ingredient (my laziness strikes again!!) so that cake was scratched off the list. So it was settled, I would be making the Southern Coconut Cake, which was good because a can of coconut milk had been sitting on the pantry shelf for about a month and I wasn't about to make curry with it.

Wedding Cake

I made a wedding cake! I know, it's crazy! Now, I have to clarify that the wedding was TINY and the reception was only for 15 people so the wedding cake was also TINY. I did a simple 3 layer lemon cake that was decorated white on white. As someone stated, it was a simple elegance. I took different designs that I had seen and used them to produce, what I thought, was a very pretty cake. I can't really explain how proud I was at the moment I showed it to my friend Patty, who ordered the cake.

This cake wasn't all flowers and rainbows, it was actually giving me nightmares in the days leading up to the baking/decorating. At first I was scared that I wouldn't be able to produce a good tasting cake. Then once I had achieved that (thank you Baking Bites!!) I was nervous that my decoration wouldn't look 'wedding' enough. I knew I was going to use the flowers I had practiced on my brothers cake, but I wasn't sure if that was going to be enough. So I did a few Internet searches and found a beautiful scroll pattern to go along the side of the cake.

EPIC FAIL!!

It started off like any other Sunday. It was mid morning and I was trying to figure out what I would make for Sunday night dinner dessert. I had seen a pie crust tutorial on Pioneer Woman's cooking blog so I decided I would make a pie. But what kind of pie? I didn't want to make apple pie because we hadn't been to carter's mountain to pick them yet. I had made too many peach desserts so that was out. Then I thought...cherry. I would make a fresh cherry pie! I headed out to Whole Foods and picked up some pretty expensive cherries, but I knew it would be worth it once everyone got a slice of pie. I then headed over to Marshall's and picked up a cherry pitter.

I made my way home and started pitting, which involved a lot of juice splatter, but was relatively painless. After finishing that up I combined all the ingredients, cherries, cornstarch, salt, and sugar. I let that sit while I made the pie crusts. The pie crust tutorial was extremely helpful although I ended up not using the food processor because I didn't feel like fooling with it. The dough came together nicely and rolled out even better. I filled the crust with the cherry filling and topped it with the second crust. I even put a cute little heart on top.

Homemade Palmiers

Today I was having some trouble figuring out what I want to bake. I was thinking about snickerdoodle cupcakes, but I scratched idea that because I've been making way too many cakes/cupcakes lately. Some would say that's physically impossible and I would normally agree with them, but after the wedding cake I need to take some time from that sweet treat. I was pretty much out of ideas, then my mom started talking about cookie baking weekend. (That's the when my grandma, aunt, mom and I get together and making a TON of Christmas cookies for our friends. She mentioned that she wanted to make the puff pastry cookies that I had made in my pastry class during the weekend. I couldn't get those cookies out of my mind, so that's what I decided to make.

This summer, while taking my first pastry class I actually learned a lot more than I thought I would. I learned the most during our cookie class. We made palmiers from blitz puff pastry, which is a slightly faster version than traditional puff pastry. My first batch spent a little too much time in the oven, so they were a overly browned. My second batch (which I made for my final exam) turned out really well. But the ones I made today, were the best, by far. They are light, crispy, not to sweet, otherwise AMAZING.

Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

The other day I was craving spice cake. I don't know why, I mean, it's almost 100 degrees outside and it doesn't look like we're getting anywhere near fall, but I wanted cinnamon-spice and I wanted it NOW. So I perused Foodgawker for a little bit and finally decided on a carrot cake even though I had no of the ingredients to make one.

I then took a short drive to the grocery store and picked up some shredded carrots (because I'm lazy), some cream cheese, brown sugar, and a bottle of wine (for me, not the cake). I cake home a started putting together the biggest batch of cake batter I've ever made, it almost didn't fit in the bowl. I finished it up, poured it in the pans and baked. Everything was going quite nicely until I took them out of the oven to let them cool. They began to sink in the middle, but I wasn't giving up! I leveled the cakes and continued in my pursuit of fall flavor deliciousness.

I put together some cream cheese frosting and began the tedious process of icing the cake. It was tedious because what I really wanted to do was hack off a piece of the cake, slap a dollop mound of icing on and call it a day. However, I refrained myself and continued until the entire cake was covered. By this time it was 10 o'clock and I was dead tired (I know, I'm an old person) so I covered the cake and went to bed.

The next day was the hurricane and we lost power around 6 o'clock. About 15 minutes later I got bored of being without power so I uncovered the carrot cake and dug in! It was AMAZING. It was dense and flavorful. The cream cheese frosting was the perfect compliment. The only thing I wanted more of was pecans, so I think next time I'll sprinkle them on the frosting in between the layers. Everybody else liked it too, and my mom, whose not a big cream cheese fan, ate almost all the frosting. I was very proud! So even if it's blazing hot make this cake in hopes that fall isn't too far away!

Carrot Cake (adapted from Burn Me Not)

3 cups all purpose flour
2 cups brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
1 Tbsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 Tbsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
4 large eggs
2 Tbsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups veggie oil
1/2 cup buttermilk
2 3/4 cup shredded carrots
2 cups chopped pecans

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Line 3 8" cake pans with parchment paper.

2. In a large bowl combine the first seven ingredients. In another bowl combine the eggs, vanilla, oil, and buttermilk, whisk until combined. Make a well in the dry ingredients and add in the wet. Stir with a spatula until just incorporated. Add the carrots and 1 cup of the pecans, folding to incorporate.

3. Divide batter between the 3 pans and bake for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean. Let cool in the pan.

Cream Cheese Frosting

2 8oz pkgs cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup butter, softened
2-3 cups powdered sugar
2 tsp vanilla

1. Beat the butter and cream cheese together until light and fluffy. And the powdered sugar in slowly continuing to beat. Add the vanilla and beat. Refrigerate slightly before icing the cake.

Assembling Cake

1. Take your first layer and set it on a cake pedestal. Ice the top and then sprinkle 1/3 cup pecans over the icing. Place your second layer on top and repeat step. Ice the entire cake.

My Brother's Birthday

It was my brother's birthday last week, but we weren't able to celebrate until that weekend. We decided to have chicken parmigian at home and I would make his cake. He told me that he wanted vanilla cake with chocolate frosting. I looked around for different white and yellow cakes. I thought I had found the one, but then many of the comments from readers said that there cakes fell in the middle. I couldn't take that kind of risk on a birthday cake, especially one for my brother. So, I went the my Magnolia Bakery Cookbook and found a recipe for Traditional Yellow Birthday Cake. I figured that I couldn't go wrong with that kind of title.

I baked the cake which turned out pretty dense, almost like a pound cake, and cut it to form a two-layer rectangle cake. Then a whipped up some chocolate buttercream as well as vanilla buttercream, for decorating. Now I admit, making perfect corners on a cake is hella hard. I kept going over it, screwing it up, then going over it again. I finally gave up and went with the "rustic" look, haha. (I hope no one asks for a sheet cake anytime soon or I'll be in a pickle!)

For the decorations I wanted to try this flower I had seen on I am Baker. I know, flowers on a guys cake? But I knew my brother wouldn't care that I practiced decorating on his cake as long as it tasted good! So I took my rose tip and piped little petals in a circle (I made a template with a round cutter). Then I made a second layer to give it some height. They turned out surprisingly well and for the middle a put a chocolate covered cocoa nib, AMAZING! (you can find them here)

I have a wedding cake coming up and I'm thinking about using those flowers on the cake. The woman wants white on white so for the middle I'll use white pearls. I'm really excited/nervous about the cake, I don't want to let the bride down with my design, but she's having an extremely small reception and only wants a 3-layer round cake, so I think the simplicity of the flowers will compliment the event. Wish me luck!

German Chocolate Cake

Hurricane Irene came and stomped through Virginia this weekend which put a slight damper on my baking adventures. I had planned on making a carrot cake AND German chocolate cupcakes for our Sunday night dinner. However, I was only able to produce the carrot cake in time. My cupcakes were put on the back burner (which was off since we had no power) while I tried, with little luck, to keep my 2 year old occupied in the dark. Luckily, our power came back on after only a day so we were back on our normal schedule pretty quick.

Now you would think this post would be about the Carrot Cake, but it's not. It's about the German Chocolate cupcakes that I made last night. I decided to make them because my office just got power and I knew people would be looking for a reason to stay in the office (instead of running out and playing hookie like we had been for the past two days). I figured cupcakes would do the trick, and they did!