Coconut Chiffon Bundt Cake with Coconut Frosting

Coconut Chiffon Bundt Cake with Coconut Frosting 

I hate the s word. Not the one that some of you are thinking of (I have thought that word in relation to this word), no this is another 4 letter word. Snow. I hate it. I grew up in the Pacific Northwest where a lot of people ski, and when I say a lot of people my school had ski fridays. They would take a big bus up to Snoqualmie and go skiing, every friday for 12 weeks. The kids that stayed behind got to watch movies, bake cookies, learn computer etc. Every 2 hours we would switch to a new activity. It was a no brainer for me, I chose to not go skiing.

I love to cross country ski and am an adequate down hill skier and snowboarder. I had to be since all my friends wanted to go on ski trips during the winter. While snow is pretty, I hate, hate to be cold. When you ski you are in this in between weird world where your sweating, but also it's freezing. If you take off your coat you get cold, since your working out if the jacket stays on you sweat. While some women can stay attractive while skiing, I don't. I don't just sweat, I sweat buckets. After a 2 hour cross country work out I look like a bucket of water has been dumped on my head.

So while I grew up around ski and snow lovers I would be happy if it just stayed away. My poor in-laws live in the mountains and it snows all winter. Not just inches, but feet. My mother-in-law is already worried about Thanksgiving and the weather. It always seems to snow here around the holidays, we had our first snow the week of Halloween (which is way too early for my tastes). So my mother-in-law and I are both hopping the snow that is supposed to start tomorrow stays away. The s word can stay where it belongs, out of my vocabulary.

During the holiday months I bake frequently. I seem to turn to sugary foods when the weather gets colder. The summer months I turn towards fruit and light foods, but during the winter I love cakes and cookies. Luckily I also love my treadmill (not really, but I still do it). Last week I tried a new recipe for Gluten Free Coconut Bundt Cake with Coconut Frosting from the December 2013 issue of Food and Wine magazine.

Coconut Chiffon Bundt Cake with Coconut Frosting 

This recipe has 10 ingredients. It takes 2 hours 30 minutes of total time, 30 minutes of which is active and makes 12 servings. I did make a few significant changes to the original recipe. First, I used white rice flour to replace the cake flour. Since I eat gluten free I try to change regular recipes to be gluten free. Many specifically gluten free recipes are too dry or just plain bad. Make sure to adequately grease and dust the pan. The cake tends to stick a little to the pan. I found that my total baking time was slightly longer than suggested, by approximately 10-15 minutes.

Huntington Museum of Art

My kids and I really liked this recipe. It was light and worked well being made gluten free. The coconut milk made for a delicious, moist texture and would be a nice replacement for people that can't have milk. This cake would be great for a party, it is beautiful on the plate and would serve 16 people if the slices were made thin.

For the recipe go to Coconut Chiffon Bundt Cake with Coconut Frosting.

Pistachio, Dried Cranberry, Coconut and Agave Syrup Homemade Granola

Mornings in my house are always crazy. With two boys, one of which is in school it is always a rush to get out the door to the bus. I have become great at putting on make-up in three minutes (and having it still look great) and I am the queen of 5 minute showers. My two boys on the other hand move like molasses. It doesn't help that many mornings my oldest is finishing his homework from the night before or my youngest is unhappy and massively grumpy from having to wake-up in the first place. Normally breakfast for myself takes a backseat and I am often left with only coffee until lunch. I try to keep at least a few things on hand that are quick to grab on the run. This week I tried a new recipe for Captain Crunch - A Better Granola from Bon Appetit magazine.

This recipe has 11 ingredients. It takes 1 hour of total time, 15 minutes of which is active and makes 12 servings. For the nuts I used pistachios since they are a family favorite. I have never seen coconut shaving at my local store so I substitute unsweetened coconut. Finally I used olive oil instead of coconut oil since coconut oil is much higher in saturated fat. So every once in a while a recipe doesn't turn out at all. This recipe was one of those cases. I had to completely redo the recipe after it came out of the oven. First the granola as written came out dry and with no crunch or clump at all. Therefore I added additional olive oil and a 1/2 cup of honey. Then I placed it back in the oven for 20 minutes. When it came out I let it cool and then broke it into chunks. After my modifications it was perfect. I would suggest adding honey instead of the agave and adding additional olive oil. The texture was definitely better with the modifications.

With my changes this recipe was very popular with my family. Before the changes the granola was too salty and did not hold together at all. It would be better as a yogurt topping, but if you are looking for a granola recipe you need to make changes such as I did by adding additional honey and oil. My two boys really loved the granola after the changes and ate over half of the batch.

For the recipe go to A Better Granola.

Coconut-Carrot Morning Glory Muffins

 I have been in the kitchen literally all weekend. My youngest is in a massive growth spurt and as soon as he has finished one meal he is ready for the next. He also doesn't just eat little meals or sandwiches, he wants full on pot roast or burgers. I think that he gets this from my husband. On Friday I made a pasta dish with chicken sausage. Today I found out that after dinner my husband went in and made himself turkey sausage as a snack since the meal didn't have enough meat. Some days I think that it might be easier to have girls instead of a house full of three males. I don't even want to think about how bad it will be when they are teenagers. Since I am being eaten out of house and home I have been baking and cooking a ton. Last week I tried a new recipe for Coconut-Carrot Morning Glory Muffins from the February 2013 issue of Eating Well magazine.

This recipe has 14 ingredients. It takes a total of 1 hour, 20 minutes of which is active and makes 12 muffins. Since I eat gluten free I did make a number of modifications. First instead of using wheat flour I used all-purpose gluten free flour. The flour that I prefer has coconut flour as a base and works very well. I also use foil muffins cups. I would highly recommend these if you haven't tried them before. The muffins never stick and they come out so much easier than the paper equivalents. Best of all the generic brand is only 59 cents at my local grocery store. I did find that I had to bake my muffins for slightly longer than the 35 minutes suggested by the recipe. This might have been due to the gluten free flour. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

These muffins weren't sweet enough for me. It might be that I like my muffins almost as sweet as cupcakes, but even my husband who prefers things not sweet thought that these needed more sugar. I also thought that there were too many shredded carrots. I would reduce the total amount of shredded carrots, as written the muffins taste too much like carrots and not enough like raisins or coconut. Increasing the amount of raisins would also help the sweetness and flavor of the muffins overall.

For the recipe go to Coconut-Carrot Morning Glory Muffins.

Flourless Chocolate-Coconut Drops

I love chocolate. Not just a little bit, but I literally eat a dark chocolate candy bar every weekend when I go grocery shopping. Since I have such a large sweet tooth I also workout on the treadmill for an hour a day and rarely sit down until the evening rolls around. I don't believe in denying myself the foods that I love, but instead I eat everything in moderation and make reasonable substitutions when available. It helps that I also am now gluten free so I snack a great deal less. The pre-packaged gluten free options are very expensive and honestly most of them are not delicious. I would love to say that I am always motivated to cook and bake from scratch, but I am human and oftentimes lack the desire to go in the kitchen and make myself something to eat. I try to stick with recipes that are easy to make and take little prep and cooking time. Last week I tried a new recipe for Flourless Chocolate-Coconut Drops from Everyday Food magazine, which looked like an incredibly easy gluten free snack recipe.

This recipe has 7 ingredients. It takes 30 minutes of total time, 15 minutes of which is active and makes 2 dozen cookies. For whatever reason every store in my area is currently out or no longer stocks dutch process cocoa powder. Due to this fact I used regular cocoa powder. I had no problems finding any of the other ingredients and made no substitutions. It took a bit of mixing to combine the ingredients and my cookies came out perfect so don't worry if you have to stir numerous times to ensure that all the cookies are fully mixed. Finally, watch the cookies in the oven. Mine took exactly 15 minutes to bake and would have burned left in any longer. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

These cookies turned out delicious. I like that they don't use flour so they are gluten free without having any aftertaste from using gluten free flour. The texture is crispy on the outside and soft on the inside which is both adult and kid friendly. These cookies would be great for a holiday cookie plate for a friend or family member eating gluten free while still yummy enough to serve at a party for all types of guests.

For the recipe go to Flourless Chocolate-Coconut Drops.

Seven Layer Bars

Every year during Thanksgiving and Christmas parties my mother would make my favorite cookies, seven layer bars. I absolutely love them and have great memories of making them with my mother. Unfortunately, my mother passed away from cancer when my oldest was only nine days old and I stopped making many of the dishes that I grew up with her making. As my boys have gotten older and time has passed I have begun to make many of mom's favorite recipes from her recipe box. I am fortunate that she kept her recipes and sent them to me when I started baking for my husband, now these are some of the best ways I have to teach my boys about their grandmother. So here is my modified recipe of my mother's Seven Layer Bars.

• 1/2 cup of Butter (1 stick)
• 1 1/2 cup Graham Cracker Crumbs (This past week I used a graham cracker crust that I had instead of actual graham crackers)
• 1 cup Butterscotch Chips
• 1 cup Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips
• 1 cup Chopped Walnut
• 1 1/3 cup Shredded Coconut
• 1 14 oz can Sweetened Condensed Milk

This is a very easy recipe. Combine the butter (melted in the microwave) with the crumbs and then press into a greased 9 x 13 inch pan. Layer the butterscotch chips, semi-sweet chips and chopped walnuts. Top with coconut. Drizzle the sweetened condensed milk over the top. Bake in a pre-heated 350 degree oven for 25-30 minutes. Make sure the bars cool before cutting. I also recommend placing wax paper in the baking pan before adding the graham cracker crust. It makes the bars very easy to pop out once they are done. I prefer storing the bars in the refrigerator, especially during the warmer months.

These bars are very easy to make and are always a big hit at parties and any type get together. I had only made these once before for my two boys and they absolutely loved them. After making them this time around my five year old informed me that they were his new favorite dessert. A great cookie for a cookie tray or just for an easy yummy treat!

Saveur Lane Cake

Every week I try to test out one dessert recipe from a cookbook or magazine that I haven't made previously. Instead of making the simple cookie recipes I always make, I have been attempting to broaden my baking horizons and try new techniques and baking methods. Recently, I have also been trying to include a larger variety of magazines in my reviews, instead of sticking to the two or three that I always read. With this in mind I set about to find a dessert to bake and was pleased with the prospect of the Lane Cake from Saveur magazine.

Since this is a layer cake, there are a number of ingredients. In total for the cake, filling, and icing there are 21 ingredients. All the ingredients are basic baking ingredients and were easily found at my local grocery store (with the exception of the bourbon which I purchased a the liquor store). This recipe takes some pre-planning since there is cooling time and the process of preparing all the components. In total the entire recipe took me approximately 3 hours. I should state that I haven't made a layer cake since last Christmas and my oldest son was helping me in the kitchen, hence why my layers aren't sliced perfectly. I made not modifications to the recipe and prepared everything as directed.

This cake has a very light texture similar to an angel food cake. I loved the bourbon filling and my whole family was surprised by how delicious the cake turned out. The recipe did take a decent amount of prep, but it was easy enough that my five year old was able to help me with the majority of it. Slice the pieces thin, since this is a very rich cake and can serve a crowd. This would be a great recipe to take to a gathering or for a dinner party, and makes an impressive presentation sliced.

For the recipe go to Saveur Lane Cake.

Chocolate Chip and Coconut Scones

I'm great about making sure that my two boys eat a healthy, well-balanced breakfast every morning. However, I am not so great about following my own advice. I tend to get involved in 5 different things every morning and completely forget to eat until lunch rolls around. One of the problems that I run into with breakfast is that the only thing I really like eating is toast or something starch based. I have tried cereal and honeslty, I prefer it as a snack rather than a breakfast food. So every morning Im stuck trying to figure out what I want to eat and normally failing miserably. A couple of months back I had a number of ingredients left over from a previous cookie recipe, so I decided to make scones and try to change up my breakfast routine.

This recipe basically combined everything that I needed to use from previous dinner and snack recipes from the week before. I used a total of 8 ingredients and prepped using my food processor. Most people chill and cut their butter into small pieces, Im the exception to the baking rule. I cut my butter into chunks straight out of fridge and don't cut with any consistency straight into the food processor. I have tried both ways and the taste and consistency has been the same. So here are the rough ingredients and amounts:

• 1 Tablespoon baking powder
• 1/4 Teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons sugar ( I used less than I normally do since I was adding chocolate chips)
• About 2 cups flour (sometimes I use bread flour and sometimes all-purpose depending on what I have on hand) The amount of flour I use depends on how much I need to get the required consistency. I want enough flour for the mixture to be coarse, without being too dry
• 5-6 Tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1/4 cup coconut 
• 1/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1 cup heavy cream plus enough to brush tops before baking

I place the first four ingredients in the food processor and pulse until the mixture is coarse, but not full of butter lumps. Transfer to a bowl and add the last three ingredients. Hand pat the mixture into a circle and cut into 8 wedges. Brush the tops with additional heavy cream and sugar if desired. Bake at 425 for 10-15 minutes.

These scones turned out well. I liked that they combined coconut and chocolate, two of my favorite flavors. Since these recipe only made 8 scones they only lasted a couple of hours in my house. Next time I think I will make a double batch. Overall, a very simple and easy to prepare breakfast recipe.