Baking Hack Redux: Coconut Layer Cake with Fluffy Coconut Frosting

This is a rerun. A very, very good rerun. This cake is wonderful. But still a rerun, and I have a reasonably good excuse: I haven't been posting in quite a while because my sweet, brave husband died much sooner than expected from pancreatic cancer back in late February. Been a very hard couple of months. I have lost my blogging mojo; I have lost my zest for many things, but I am putting one foot in front of the other, and really want to get back to cooking and blogging. So I thought it would be a great idea to sign myself up for BlogHer's May challenge to post to my blog every day in May. The topic we're writing around...and on, is "Nourish". Because if anything, this blog nourishes me  in so many ways, and I hope it does you, too. Holy Crap. What was I thinking. Of course I totally forgot until just now, and it's May 1st at 7 PM. So, here I am whomping up an oldie but goodie, and will get myself in gear earlier tomorrow. Promise.  Luckily this cake is SO good, I feel no guilt whatsoever.

Cake Hack: Coconut Layer Cake with Fluffy Coconut Frosting

I will admit, that one of the best coconut layer cakes I ever ate was from Joanne Chang's"Flour: Spectacular Recipes from Boston's Flour Bakery + Cafe". I will also admit that while delicious, it is not the fastest, least messy recipe, either. In a weak moment, a few months ago, I promised my friend Matt a coconut birthday cake, completely forgetting the fact that his birthday comes when I am frantically getting the garden ready for the growing season. I had to come up with a cake that wouldn't take a half day to make since I needed some of that day to fool with raised beds and irrigation systems. It also had to be a wonderful cake since Matt is a fine cook / chef. Luckily he's no food snob, but he sure knows merely "good" from good.
Yes, I am making excuses for this cake hack. But this cake is good, really good, and as long as you don't go all food-snotty on me I'll share the recipe, because there are things like cake mix, and marshmallow fluff in it. You don't need any excuses to make it, not even a birthday. Just make it because it's Monday and you survived the weekend. Make it and hold your head high.

Coconut Layer Cake with Fluffy Coconut Frosting

For the cake:

1 16.25 oz. box white cake mix
cooking spray
1-1/4 cups canned coconut milk, full fat
1/3 cup coconut oil, melted
3 egg whites
1-1/2 tsp. natural coconut extract

For the frosting and filling:

16 oz. cream cheese, at room temperature
14 oz. tub of marshmallow fluff, minus 1/4 cup
2 tsp. natural coconut extract
1 14 oz. bag of sweetened, flaked coconut


1. Preheat the oven to 350ºF or to the temperature recommended on your cake mix box. Spray 2 round cake pans (8" or 9") with cooking spray and set aside.

2. Mix the cake according to the package directions, substituting the coconut milk for the water or other liquid, the coconut oil for the vegetable oil, and after adding the egg whites, add the coconut extract. Beat on low speed with a hand mixer until just blended. 

3. Pour the batter into the pans, dividing it evenly between them, and bake until it just springs back when touched. Use the box instructions as a guideline, but mine was done in about 30 minutes. cool in the pans for 10 minutes, and then turn the cakes onto a rack to cool completely

4. When the cake has cooled completely, place the softened cream cheese into a medium mixing bowl, and with an electric hand mixer whip the cream cheese until fluffy. Add the coconut extract, and then gradually add the marshmallow fluff a few spoonfuls at a time until the frosting is of a spreadable consistency.

5. Remove about 2 cups of the frosting to another container, and mix in 1 cup of the flaked coconut. This is the filling for between the layers. Cover both bowls and chill for about an hour.

6. Set one cake layer, domed side down on a cake plate and spread the filling evenly over the top. Place the second layer, flat side down on the filling and covert the cake with the frosting. Once the cake is completely iced, carefully press palmfuls of flaked coconut around the sides of the cake...feel free to do the top, too, if you wish. Store covered at room temperature for up to 24 hours, or or covered and refrigerated for up to 3 day, although it won't last that long. Serves 8 more or less...

5 Delicious Things to Do with Your Homemade Crème Fraîche

Am trying to find some time to bury my toes in the sand. So please bear with a few reposts for the next couple of weeks. There will be some new material, but ...Happy Summer.

I know, I know. I've been banging the drum about making your own crème fraîche for months now, but honestly it's worth the 10 seconds (minus the sitting-on-the-counter-time) of actual work it takes you to make the glorious stuff. If you somehow missed the super-easy instructions I've posted before, you can find them here. But once you make it, you end up with a jar full, rather than the measly,  expensive little cupful you find in the market. A few of you have asked what you can do with such a bounty.

As far as I'm concerned, you can never have too much crème fraîche, just like you can never have too much chocolate. It's the sophisticated cousin of sour cream, and instead of a  sour tang, it has a nutty, full, more rounded flavor. And unlike one of it's parents, heavy cream, it keeps a long time. Mine will keep well up to a month in the coldest part of my fridge. If it lasts that long without having to start a fresh batch. I always start a fresh batch when I get down to my last half-cup or so.  Remember to keep a quarter cup or so to use as a starter with a bout 2 cups of single pasteurized heavy cream. Every day I can find a reason to dip into the jar of creamy goodness at least once.  God forbid I run out. Here's how I use mine (other than eating it right off a spoon):

Homemade crème fraîche.
For the record I did not eat the whole spoonful.

1.
As a topping for fruit, lightly sweetened or not.  I like it unsweetened, but taste it, and add a bit of sugar , honey, erythritol or stevia to your liking. Nothing is nicer than a bowl of sweet berries or peaches with a big ole spoonful of crème fraîche atop. All those ads showing strawberries with that fake-tasting frozen glop in a tub can't hold a candle to creamy crème fraîche. Or unsweetened as a topping for a baked potato, or better yet, a baked sweet potato. Nothing wrong with adding a sprinkle of blue cheese and some black pepper...

2.
Replace heavy cream with an equal amount of crème fraîche in baked goods. If your baking recipe calls for heavy cream, use your crème fraîche instead. It adds a depth of flavor you can't get from heavy cream. Cream pies, cakes, and ice creams are all seriously improved with crème fraîche.

3.
Whip it. You can whip it, and use it in either savory or sweet dishes. Mine usually whips more easily than regular cream, and if you stir a bit of curry paste into it before whipping it to dab on your crab cakes or spoon into your tomato soup, you won't be disappointed. Surprise your dining mates with savory whipped cream. They'll think you are a genius.

4.
Turn into a sauce or dressing. Just add your favorite seasonings,--- mine are currently Dijon mustard and anchovy paste, whisk in and the resulting sauce is perfect over grilled chicken, or over steamed vegetables like beets or green beans. To make into a dressing, you can do this, or simply mix with lemon juice, salt, pepper and a little minced fresh garlic. Need it lighter, use equal parts crème fraîche and plain fat-free Greek yogurt. A crème fraîche-yogurt salad dressing makes salad days seem a lot less penitential.

5.
Make cultured butter. If you have ever tasted cultured butter, you know why it costs so much over at Whole Paycheck. It's hard to go back to regular butter once you've had it or cooked with it. If you put a couple of cups of crème fraîche into a food processor or beat it with a hand mixer, just turn on the power, and keep going until it curdles up. Just takes a few minutes. Carefully, with a spatula, press out as much whey as you can, drain it off, and then add some cold water with an equal amount of ice to the curds and whirl again. Press out the water again with your spatula, and drain --keep going until it's all butter, and with the spatula, stir in a pinch or to of finely ground salt if you want salted butter. Go get some bread and eat. Don't share, it's that good.

5 Delicious Things to Do with Your Homemade Crème Fraîche

I know, I know. I've been banging the drum about making your own crème fraîche for months now, but honestly it's worth the 10 seconds (minus the sitting-on-the-counter-time) of actual work it takes you to make the glorious stuff. If you somehow missed the super-easy instructions I've posted before, you can find them here. But once you make it, you end up with a jar full, rather than the measly,  expensive little cupful you find in the market. A few of you have asked what you can do with such a bounty.

As far as I'm concerned, you can never have too much crème fraîche, just like you can never have too much chocolate. It's the sophisticated cousin of sour cream, and instead of a  sour tang, it has a nutty, full, more rounded flavor. And unlike one of it's parents, heavy cream, it keeps a long time. Mine will keep well up to a month in the coldest part of my fridge. If it lasts that long without having to start a fresh batch. I always start a fresh batch when I get down to my last half-cup or so.  Remember to keep a quarter cup or so to use as a starter with a bout 2 cups of single pasteurized heavy cream. Every day I can find a reason to dip into the jar of creamy goodness at least once.  God forbid I run out. Here's how I use mine (other than eating it right off a spoon):

Homemade crème fraîche.
For the record I did not eat the whole spoonful.

1.
As a topping for fruit, lightly sweetened or not.  I like it unsweetened, but taste it, and add a bit of sugar , honey, erythritol or stevia to your liking. Nothing is nicer than a bowl of sweet berries or peaches with a big ole spoonful of crème fraîche atop. All those ads showing strawberries with that fake-tasting frozen glop in a tub can't hold a candle to creamy crème fraîche. Or unsweetened as a topping for a baked potato, or better yet, a baked sweet potato. Nothing wrong with adding a sprinkle of blue cheese and some black pepper...

2.
Replace heavy cream with an equal amount of crème fraîche in baked goods. If your baking recipe calls for heavy cream, use your crème fraîche instead. It adds a depth of flavor you can't get from heavy cream. Cream pies, cakes, and ice creams are all seriously improved with crème fraîche.

3.
Whip it. You can whip it, and use it in either savory or sweet dishes. Mine usually whips more easily than regular cream, and if you stir a bit of curry paste into it before whipping it to dab on your crab cakes or spoon into your tomato soup, you won't be disappointed. Surprise your dining mates with savory whipped cream. They'll think you are a genius.

4.
Turn into a sauce or dressing. Just add your favorite seasonings,--- mine are currently Dijon mustard and anchovy paste, whisk in and the resulting sauce is perfect over grilled chicken, or over steamed vegetables like beets or green beans. To make into a dressing, you can do this, or simply mix with lemon juice, salt, pepper and a little minced fresh garlic. Need it lighter, use equal parts crème fraîche and plain fat-free Greek yogurt. A crème fraîche-yogurt salad dressing makes salad days seem a lot less penitential.

5.
Make cultured butter. If you have ever tasted cultured butter, you know why it costs so much over at Whole Paycheck. It's hard to go back to regular butter once you've had it or cooked with it. If you put a couple of cups of crème fraîche into a food processor or beat it with a hand mixer, just turn on the power, and keep going until it curdles up. Just takes a few minutes. Carefully, with a spatula, press out as much whey as you can, drain it off, and then add some cold water with an equal amount of ice to the curds and whirl again. Press out the water again with your spatula, and drain --keep going until it's all butter, and with the spatula, stir in a pinch or to of finely ground salt if you want salted butter. Go get some bread and eat. Don't share, it's that good.

Peachy Keen Cobbler Cake: Another Grainless Wonder

Another "bean" cake? Yep. It's absolutely peachy good, too. Cross between a peach cobbler and a cake. When you turn it out of the pan, the top has the soft, juicy texture of a cobbler with cake at the bottom. Homely looking like a cobbler, but you can slice it like a cake, and so, so delish. Add some whipped cream, or some (low carb??) ice cream and it's peachy heaven. I also ran some nice raspberries through a sieve and covered the plate with the puree. Kind of a "Melba-ish" flavor, with the tart berries offsetting the sweet peach dessert.

Deprivation.  One of the things that drives people back to their less healthy eating habits is deprivation. If I didn't have one of these cakes or cupcakes lurking in the fridge, I'd really feel deprived. It's hard to stick to a no sugar, no grain eating plan when you're constantly surrounded by breads and cakes at home and at work. And then, gluten free desserts available are generally loaded with sugar and calories and the sugar-free options generally on the market are shot full of artificial sweeteners. That puts those of us who avoid grain and sugar either in the "no dessert category" or we have to find something else equally delicious. This, I think fills the bill. It ain't pretty, but boy, is it good.

While still low carb, this peach dessert is not as low as some of the others I've made, but I was starting to see the end of the peach season looming, and peaches, luckily, are not so high in carbohydrate that we can't indulge every now and then. The peaches I used today are from a local orchard, Highland Orchards, and they are BIG, as big as a baseball, and sweet. Go now and look for some local peaches before they become extinct until next summer. The other nice thing is that this is largely made in the blender, so the clean up post baking is easy.

Peachy Keen Grain-Free Cobbler Cake

Peach Cake, raspberries and whipped cream. No grain.  Life is good.

Ingredients:

1T Lime juice
1T honey
2T water
2T granular erythritol
2 Large peaches,  peeled, halved, pitted and sliced 1/8" thick
1/2 tsp. fresh ground nutmeg
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
pinch of sea salt
7T coconut flour
5 large eggs, plus 1 yolk
1 15 oz. can of navy beans, drained and rinsed
4 tsp. natural vanilla extract.
2 tsp. almond extract
3/4 cup granular erythritol
1/2 tsp. pure stevia extract powder
6T melted butter, cooled slightly

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Spray a 9" round cake pan with cooking spray, and then place a round of cooking parchment into the bottom and spray it, too.

2. Place he lime juice, honey, water and the 2T of erythritol in a small saucepan and bring gently to a boil stirring to dissolve the erythritol when the erythritol has dissolved, carefully pour the syrup over the bottom of the prepared cake pan and arrange the sliced peaches in concentric circles over the syrup. Set the pan aside.

3. In a small bowl, mix together the nutmeg, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder,sea salt and the coconut flour with  whisk or fork until blended and set aside.

4. Into your blender container place the eggs and yolk, the drained beans, the vanilla, the almond extract,the erythritol and the stevia and process until smooth. add rhe melted buter and process again for a few seconds until mixed. add the dry ingredients from the small bowl and blend until the mixture is completely homogenous, about 1 minute. Stir if necessary and blend again until smooth.

5. Carefully pour the batter from the blender container over the peaches,  smack the cake pan on the counter a couple of times to release any trapped air, and place it in the oven. Bake for 45 to 55 minutes, until a cake tester or a toothpick comes out clean.

6. Cool the cooked cake on a rack for about 30 minutes before inverting onto a flat serving plate, and carefully peeling off the parchment. Garnish with whipped cream and raspberries if you like. Serves 8. if you aren't too greedy.

Happy Birthday to Me: A Grainless Wonder Cake

Today is my birthday. Chuck's was last week. We've already had too much of a good thing, and while I'd much prefer no cake at all, He-Who-Bakes won't even listen. So when he asked what I wanted for a birthday cake, I told him a no-grain, no-sugar, nothing-artificial cake. While he was still gaping at me, I sent him this link, to a beautifully written and researched blog. It's called "Healthy Indulgences" and Lauren has a cake recipe on it that I promise, no one will know is gluten free, grain free, and not sweetened with sugar, or chemical sweeteners. 


Sweet man that he is, he gathered together all the ingredients at Whole Foods on Sunday and made it. Considering he's a traditionalist when it comes to cake, I don't think he was prepared to find that a cake recipe that includes black beans, erythritol, and stevia, besides the usual eggs and butter produces a real, honest-to-goodness cake, that's moist, delicious and tender. 

Yes, cake, no grain, no sugar, no fake stuff!

We've already dug in, even though it's a bit ahead of time. Couldn't resist. Moist, chocolatey perfection. The cake is wonderful, even unfrosted. Tonight, it'll have whipped cream on top, and a candle, too, with a stevia sweetened raspberry coulis below on the plate.


The really nice part is that this is a gluten free cake, so good you can serve to anyone, with no apologies and it's not full of weird vegetable gums and odd things ground into flour. It's all stuff you probably have in your kitchen already. The erythritol is easy to find at any natural foods store and in some supermarkets with the sugar-free products. It's a natural sugar alcohol, that will not cause digestive upsets like other sugar alcohols.


As I get older, I am less willing to sacrifice my health just because it's a holiday or birthday. Especially when there are too many events too close together. And everyone in this family is a great baker. Luckily, Lauren to the rescue. This cake makes it easy, it just tastes sinful, but isn't. Try it.

Happy Birthday to me!

Rich, moist, chocolatey, just MY perfect Birthday Cake!
Thank you, Chuck! Love you...

Healthy Flourless Chocolate Cake

Adapted from Healthy Indulgences who--

Adapted from a recipe at LowCarbFriends


Makes a 9" one layer cake


Ingredients:
1-15 ounce can of unseasoned black beans
OR 1 1/2 cup cooked beans, any color
5 large eggs
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
6 tablespoons unsalted organic butter OR unrefined coconut oil
3/4 cup erythritol + 1/2 teaspoon pure stevia extract
OR 1/2 cup honey + 1 teaspoon pure stevia extract
or 3/4 
6 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon aluminum-free baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon water (omit if using honey)


Preparation:
Preheat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. Spray a 9" cake pan with extra virgin olive oil cooking spray, or just grease it with a thin layer of butter. Dust cocoa all over the inside of the pan, tapping to evenly distribute. Cut a round of parchment paper and line the bottom of the pan, then spray the parchment lightly.


Drain and rinse beans in a strainer or colander. Shake off excess water. Place beans, 3 of the eggs, vanilla, stevia (if using) and salt into blender. Blend on high until beans are completely liquefied. No lumps! Whisk together cocoa powder, baking soda, and baking powder. Beat butter with sweetener (erythritol or honey) until light and fluffy. Add remaining two eggs, beating for a minute after each addition. Pour bean batter into egg mixture and mix. Finally, stir in cocoa powder and water (if using), and beat the batter on high for one minute, until smooth. 


Scrape batter into pan and smooth the top. Grip pan firmly by the edges and rap it on the counter a few times to pop any air bubbles.

Bake for 40-45 minutes. Cake is done with the top is rounded and firm to the touch. After 10 minutes, turn out cake from pan, and flip over again on to a cooling rack. Let cool until cake reaches room temperature, then cover in plastic wrap or with cake dome (I use an overturned plastic chip bowl). For BEST flavor, let cake sit over night. I promise this cake will not have a hint of beaniness after letting it sit for eight hours! If you are stacking this cake, level the top with a long serrated knife, shaving off layers until it is flat and even. Frost immediately before serving