The story of the Coconut Cake..
Anyways, after having several things on mind, a bunch of things going on and a lot of biking around the city, I am enjoying the outdoors right here in the city!!... I know that I should of posted this blog a week ago.. but I was just so happy with the warmth and the sun and the bike and the most important one: enjoying time with the hubby that was totally impossible to write all my thoughts together for a post… any ways, I will post double this week!!
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| This is a picture of a gorgeous Robin bird that was looking at me when I was taking out the look of my bike, isn’t it cute?? |
So, on my flickr account I posted some cool pictures I took the past “Mother’s day weekend” that I spend with my now immediate family: "my husband"… Locally I live really far away from home and was not able to make it back home, and his family decided that everybody else had things to do so the celebration was banished with it.. so to help you understand a little better Mikey couple of months ago decided that he wanted to learn/try/experiment with a new sport.. and to my surprise he decided that he wanted to go big so.. “windsurfing” is what he decided to go for… My first question was “Honey, where are you going to keep all that gear?” his answer was “we have a bunch of space in the living room, we never use it anyways”… yes, you can imagine my face.. I was in shock!.. Locally I was very fortunate and the board does not fit anywhere in our apartment and our landlord was extremely kind with him so the board can be kept in the basement… So he is now taking advantage of the location of our place and he walks down to the lake with all his gear and he is learning slowly but surely the technique, he started his knowledge by getting a book from the public library so after 4 hours of attempting, here a picture of the couple minutes he was actually in the board:
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| The lake was calm, and I don't think that we had enought wind for the hubb to enjoy the "new" sport. |
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| While I was "tanning" and waiting for the Hubby to give up, I had a good time looking at the other people in the lake |
After all that, he was all tired and hungry so we decided to go for some burgers for dinner and call it a day… So, Mother’s day we decided to go on a bike ride/picnic/photo tour to “Minnehaha falls” I was very surprised that I made it, it was a 18mille bike ride, and my tricycle’s basked had all the possible things we could of need: sunscreen, food, a picnic blanket, water and my gigantic camera bag with my tripod, here is a picture of the falls, I really like that I was able to get the smooth water on it!! (what some photo classes and some reading had taking me “Long exposure” lol)
In our way back from the falls, we listen a lot of party noise, and we decided to stop and for our surprise, we found a "5 de Mayo" celebration in Lake street, it was a week later, but we enjoyed because we had to try the "authentic" Mexican tacos... you don't have idea the flavor of the original ones when you eat them in the street, growing up I did never appreciate that and now, you can't imagine how much I miss them.. just look at the picture:
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| You don't feel like you should be eating one of this right now?? |
So anyways.. My craving for some more tropical foods was on last week and I decided to GO FOR IT!! So I did stop by the grocery store and get some coconut flakes to start the adventure of some coconut cake…
So, after some digging online, I decided that I was going to go for the following recipe:
Ingredients:
- 2
1/2 cups cake flour
- 2
1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/4
teaspoon salt
- 1/2
cup milk
- 1/2
cup unsweetened coconut milk
- 1
stick plus 2 tablespoons (5 ounces) unsalted butter, softened
- 1
1/2 cups granulated sugar
- 3
large egg yolks
- 1
teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 5
large egg whites
- Seven-Minute
Frosting (I used this recipe and it does taste like melted marshmallow!!)
- 2
1/2 cups (7 ounces) shredded sweetened coconut, lightly toasted in 350
oven for about 5 minutes
Directions:
1.
Preheat
the oven to 350°. Butter two 8-inch round cake pans and line the bottoms with
parchment paper. Butter and flour the pans, tapping out excess flour. (I used two 6-inch pans and the "Baking no-stick cooking spray" made out of flour and save some time)
3.
In
a small bowl, sift the cake flour with the baking powder and salt. In a small
pitcher, combine the milk with the coconut milk. In a medium bowl, beat the
butter at medium speed until creamy. Slowly add the granulated sugar and beat
until light and fluffy, scraping down the sides of the bowl. Add the egg yolks
and vanilla and beat until smooth. At low speed, add the dry ingredients in 3
batches, alternating with the milk mixture; beat until smooth.
4.
In
another bowl, using clean beaters, beat the egg whites at high speed until firm
but not dry. Stir one-third of the beaten whites into the batter until smooth,
then fold in the remaining whites until no white streaks remain.
5.
Divide
the batter evenly between the prepared cake pans and smooth the surfaces. Bake
for 35 minutes, or until the tops spring back when lightly pressed and a
toothpick inserted into the centers comes out with just a few moist crumbs
attached. Let the cakes cool in the pans for 10 minutes, then turn them out
onto a wire rack to cool completely. Peel off the parchment paper.
6.
Using
a sharp serrated knife, cut each cake into 2 even layers. Place one cake half
on a serving plate, right side up. Tuck 4 wide strips of wax paper under the
cake to cover the plate. Spread the seven-minute frosting on top. Repeat with
remaining layers, then spread frosting liberally over and around the cake.
6. With
your hands, press the coconut onto the side of the cake. Sprinkle the rest of the
coconut on the top. Let the cake stand at room temperature for at least 30
minutes before slicing.
*recipe adapted from food & wine.
So, since at the end I had half of the can of the coconut milk, I remembered my adorable roomie from my masters in Italy, my adorable Angelica, who will make me a super special recipe "Colombian rice", I know you may be thinking, how can that has a relation with coconut milk??... well... in the Colombian coast they have this delicious recipe:
Ingredients:
Directions:
- I certainly don't have idea how to make rice if is not with a rice maker... so I used mine for this recipe.. I know that without it, I will never would be able to make a eatable bowl of rice... so.. I place the cup of rice, the coconut milk and the Coca-Cola all together and let it cook... and YES, this rice don't need water!!.. when you try it you will know why!!
- When the rice was almost done, I added the raisins to get the moist of the coconut milk and Coke. Then I just waited until the light on my rice maker was on "Warm".. and DONE!!... I had this delicious meal ready when the Hubby was hungry for dinner... ( I just thought that cake was not enought for him lol)
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| Now you may be thinking... "but that sounds like a sweet rice??!!" Well, let me tell you.. is not sweet at all!!.. you can serve it with salty things like fish, or meet or any other thing like a side dish!! |
R.
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