Irish Coconut Cake

March 6, 2016

What do you get when you add Baileys Irish Cream, chocolate and toasted coconut together?

Heaven!

I never thought that I could love a cake so much. Love may not even be a strong enough word to express the feelings I have towards this cake—it’s every sort of mood booster that one could need, even with this doesn’t-make-sense-of-a-week coming up.

My sweets loving friends, have you ever heard that “March comes in like a lion and out like a lamb” saying? Well, let me just tell you, March has been coming in like a lion on vacation or something, this entire next week will be in the 70’s. Yes. Basically beach weather and I am still deeply in my winter tan mode—you know, when you’ll burn at even the mention of warm sun. Do I believe that St. Patrick’s Day is in less than two weeks? Nope! That Easter is at the end of the month? Not even possible.

So here I am, trying to decide whether or not to keep our fleece sheets on the bed, whether iced coffee is the route to go these days, and what light spring jacket I should be wearing at the beginning of March! Seeing as those decisions are way to difficult for this season-confused girl, I put it all on pause, put on my cropped jeans and decided to make a season-confused cake!

I know you all knew something with Baileys Irish Cream was coming—I mean it is March and I love any excuse to put Baileys in anything! And then I was like, well, if I have the option to show my pasty, clear legs to the world this week in shorts, I better toast some coconut for this cake to add some more craziness to the month!

And here you have it—my very confused Irish Coconut Cake that has vanished in the yummiest of ways after only 3 days!

We start with a very simple, very moist, deliciously simple Baileys vanilla cake. I have recently discovered coconut butter (yes, please!), so I subbed some of the butter for that, which is optional of course. So, if you only take a few bites of this ridiculously good cake batter before baking, you will have a beautiful 8” cake all ready to be smothered in buttercream!

Between the layers, I used coconut milk in place of a simple syrup, also optional, to bring even more moistness to the cake as well as coconut flavor. Then bring on the Baileys Chocolate Buttercream and the snowstorm of toasted coconut and you have yourself THE cake of the month!

Luckily, I have friends and a fiancé who just as cake obsessed as I am and devoured 90% of the cake—I mean I am sweatin’ for the wedding…

Hah.

So, while we are all just slightly confused by the lack of snow in this beautiful month of March, why not make a cake that is just as unique in flavors, but, luckily enough, is absolutely delicious—and basically heaven!

cake ingredients

Flour—10 oz, or 2 C

Baking Powder—½ tsp

Baking Soda—½ tsp

Salt—½ tsp

Butter, room temperature—5 oz, or 10 TBL

Coconut Butter*—1 oz, or 2 TBL

Sugar—10 oz, or 1 ¼ C

Eggs—2

Yolks—2

Milk—4 oz, or ½ C

Baileys Irish Cream—2 oz, or ¼ C

process

Preheat your oven to 350˚ F.

In a large bowl, sift together your flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.

In the bowl of your mixer, cream the butter, coconut butter and sugar until light and smooth.

*You do not have to use coconut butter, this is 100% optional. You may just replace with regular, unsalted butter*

Slowly add in your eggs and yolks, one at a time, and making sure to scrape after each addition.

When all of your eggs have been added, alternate adding the dry sifted ingredients and your wet ingredients, making sure to end with the Baileys/milk.

Mix until just combined.

Prepare an 8” cake pan by spraying with nonstick spray and then either lightly coating with flour or with parchment.

This recipe makes exactly 1-8” cake.

Bake in your preheated oven for 35-40 minutes—it is done when the cake springs back when you touch it.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely before decorating.

buttercream ingredients

Butter, room temperature—4 oz, or 1 stick

Confectioner’s Sugar—7.5 oz, or 1 ½ C

Cocoa Powder—1.25 oz, or ½ C

Baileys Irish Cream—2.5 oz, or 1/3 C

Milk—1 oz, or 2 TBL

Coconut Milk—for brushing on the bottom layer

Toasted Coconut—1-2 C, optional for decorating

process

In the bowl of your mixer, cream your butter until smooth—about 5 minutes.

In another bowl, sift together your confectioner’s sugar and cocoa powder.

With the mixer on low, slowly add in your sifted ingredients to the butter.

Once all added, scrape the sides of the bowl.

Slowly stream in the Baileys Irish Cream, and then the milk, making sure to scrape the sides as needed.

Once all of your ingredients have been added, turn your mixer up to a medium speed and whip for about 10 seconds, just to make it nice and smooth, very easy to work with!

to decorate

Once your cake has cooled completely and you have removed it from the pan, trim the top of your cake, making it flat.

Now, cut your cake into to even layers.

With the first layer on your cake stand, or even a plate, brush on a nice, thin layer of the coconut milk—this will seal in any crumbs and keep this layer from drying out too much.

Coconut milk is completely optional as well. If you would prefer a simple syrup, Baileys, other alcohol, that is up to you!

Put on a good-sized dollop of your whipped buttercream and spread evenly over the bottom later.

Sprinkle with toasted coconut.

Place the second half of your cake on top.

Put the rest of your buttercream on top of the cake, spread evenly on the top and sides of your cake.

It helps to spread evenly on the top of your cake first, allowing some of the buttercream to fall over the sides, and then you can just use that to smooth out the sides of the cake with!

Now you may either leave like this, or make it extra amazing by covering the rest of your cake with the toasted coconut—all over the top and the sides.

To toast the coconut- preheat your oven to 300˚F, spread the coconut on a sheet pan and toast for about 8 minutes. Every couple of minutes, check on the coconut, re-spreading it around so that it browns evenly! You will know it is finished by the wonderful smell!

Cut whatever sized slice you would like and enjoy!

Bon Appétit!

Citrus Olive Oil Cake

February 21, 2016

Want to know what is so wonderful about winter?

The beautiful snow? Well, yes.

The big cable knit sweaters and skiing (or lodging)? Absolutely.

BUT! What I live for in the winter is the abundance of citrus that is all around during this chilly, windy and slippery season.

While I can’t just go to my backyard and pick a grapefruit off of my tree, I can go to the great market downtown where there is an abundance of quality citrus—from oranges to lemons, grapefruits to limes—I love this about the wintertime!

This past weekend I was inspired so much by the incredible weather in Charleston—Saturday was 70˚ and sunny, Roberto and I finally got to enjoy living downtown and took full advantage of how walkable this city can be! Sunday was almost as warm and rainy, my favorite! Something about the smell of “summer rain,” but in February, it was the perfect weekend.

And here comes my craving again for citrus, for summer, for light and simple! I had made an olive oil cake for a 4th of July get together that we had this past summer and clearly needed to have some in my life again. PLUS! Can I say winter citrus one more time?!

Yep. It happened.

And here we have it, the most moist, citrusy, lightly sweet cake. I used almond flour along with AP flour in this recipe, giving it just a slightly unique flavor—I can’t imagine this cake without it! If you want to use another nut flower, some coconut flour, that will add that little something fun to such a simple cake! What else is versatile? The citrus that is added. I used both oranges and grapefruits, two of my favorites, but any others can be subbed of course!

Finally, this is the perfect cake to make individualized! Roberto got me the cutest cocottes from Le Creuset and I don’t use them enough, so naturally I did for these wonderfully adorable cakes! So, whether you had a blizzard this weekend or were getting sunburned on your walk around town, we are in the deep winter months and there’s no better way to celebrate than with this Citrus Olive Oil Cake!

cake ingredients

Flour—9.8 oz, or 1 ¾ C

Almond Flour—2 oz, or ½ C

Baking Soda—½ tsp

Baking Powder—½ tsp

Salt—1 ¼ tsp

Sugar (I use coarse turbinado sugar)—12 oz, or 1 ½ C

Milk—7.5 oz, or 1 C

Olive Oil—12 oz, or 1 ½ C

Freshly Squeezed OJ—6 oz, or ¾ C

Eggs—3

Orange Zest—1 large

Grapefruit Zest—1 large

Orange, for baking—1 large

cake process

Preheat your oven to 350˚ F.

In a large bowl, sift together the flour, almond flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.

Add in the turbinado sugar and whisk.

In a separate bowl, combine the milk, olive oil, OJ, and eggs.

Add the wet ingredients into the dry and whisk together.

Mix in the zest.

I used individual sized cocottes for this cake, but using a larger 8”cake pan will work as well!

Spray your desired pan with nonstick spray, and sprinkle a little but of almond flour on the bottom.

Slice your orange into ¼“ thick slices and put on the bottom of your pan(s).

Pour your batter into your desired baking dishes until they are about ¾ of the way full.

Place in your oven and bake until the top springs back when touched.

If you are using the smaller cocottes, baking time is 25-30 minutes; if you are using one large pan, baking time is about 1 hour.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool.

Invert your cake and enjoy!

Bon Appétit!

Nutella Swirled Coffee Cake

February 13, 2016

Happy Weekend! Happy Valentine’s Day! Happy let’s-celebrate-with-a-coffee-cake-day!

Did I make that last one up? Maybe, but I am just beyond excited about this recipe down below.

You know those weekends when it’s so cold, all you want to do is snuggle up in your big bed that’s full of everything cozy—fleece sheets, down comforter, warmth? The high of 18˚ has you contemplating breaking your rule of no eating in bed? Yeah. It’s one of those weekends!

Luckily, it’s supposed to get back up in the 50’s by the end of next week, so I can daydream about that for the two days when I decide to run all of my errands in the freezing cold. But let’s forget for a moment about this snowless, cold winter we are having, and think about cake. For breakfast. In bed.

Aka Coffee Cake.

For some reason, every woman in my family is great at making coffee cakes—possibly because it’s acceptable to have cake early in the morning, so we take full advantage of that. Anytime we ever visit my aunt in Chicago, it’s lots and lots of coffee, lots and lots of coffee cake (that Roberto is obsessed with) and lots and lots of talking, just how I like it! My mom makes an out-of-this-world Honey Bun cake, where she takes away the crumb and adds a ridiculously sweet, yummy glaze. Now it’s my turn to join these fabulous ladies in a family tradition!

What’s my little secret to this ever so moist, ever so cinnamonny, and ever so crumby cake? The Nutella layer that is swirled in the middle of the cake.

Ohhhhh yes, Nutella, something you can never go wrong with!

So, this cake is basically like oh hey, I’m a dense, wonderful coffee cake, I’m full of yogurt and moistness, and surprise! I’m filled with a chocolatey, hazelnutty center.

You are welcome.

While I sit here on this beautiful and quiet morning, cozy in my apartment and 14˚F outside, I’ll try my best not to get any more crumbs in the bed or Nutella traces on my face…but you’ll understand the struggle in an hour once your cake is baked!

crumb ingredients

Flour—3.75 oz, or ¾ C

Brown Sugar—0.75 oz, or 1 ½ TBL

Cinnamon—1 tsp

Butter, melted—2 oz, or 4 TBL

Milk—0.5 oz, or 1 TBL

process

In the bowl of your mixer, combine the flour, brown sugar and cinnamon.

Mix.

With the mixer on low, slowly stream in the melted butter and then the milk.

Mix just until small pebble sized pieces have formed.

Reserve in a separate bowl until ready to use in your cake!

cake ingredients

Butter, room temperature—3 oz, or 6 TBL

Brown Sugar—4 oz, or ½ C

Eggs—1

Vanilla Extract—1 ½ tsp

Yogurt—5 oz, or ½ C

Milk—4 oz, or ½ C

Flour—7.5 oz, or 1 ¼ C

Baking Soda—¼ tsp

Baking Powder—½ tsp

Salt—½ tsp

Cinnamon—1 ½ tsp

Nutmeg—½ tsp

Nutella, optional—¼ C

process

Preheat your oven to 350˚ F.

In the bowl of your mixer, cream together the butter and brown sugar.

Once smooth, add in your egg and vanilla until combined, making sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl if necessary.

Sift together all of your dry ingredients—the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg.

Alternate adding some of the dry ingredients to the mixing bowl, on low speed, with the yogurt and milk.

Once all of your dry ingredients, the yogurt and milk have been added, and the batter has just formed, turn off your mixer.

Prepare a small 6” cake pan by spraying with nonstick spray and then either lining the bottom with parchment paper or sprinkling a small amount of flour just to lightly coat the pan.

Put in half of your cake batter.

Now the optional part—adding a nice, thick coating of Nutella on top of the crumb makes for an incredible surprise! While this is optional, or using another nut butter can be just as tasty, the sweetness from the chocolate and nuttiness of the hazelnuts does wonders for this coffee cake!

Cover completely with half of the crumbs you made earlier.

Top with the rest of the cake batter and sprinkle with the remaining crumb.

Place in your over and bake for 45-50 minutes, the cake should be slightly golden brown.

Allow to cool just a little before taking out of the pan and eating!

Bon Appétit!

Chocolate Anniversary Cake

February 7, 2016

Ready for a crazy fact on this Monday morning? Roberto and I have been dating for 6 years. Something even more wild? In almost 7 months, it will be wedding time! As our last little dating anniversary, I wanted to make it just as special as our first one oh so many years ago! But first—we reflect!

Back to what seems like so long ago, but really just 2010, on our first date. Roberto planned a super fabulous dinner at an Italian place near school, I nervously sweat through maybe 3 shirts, and just ended up wearing something super plain and jeans with a lot of zippers on them…

So, with Italian food being in my top 5, you’d think I would have been so excited, but I barely touched my food, ate too much bread and didn’t even get dessert. Yeah, horrible representation of myself that night!

Luckily, Roberto knew me before that, and had seen me eat a ginormous pizza to myself..

After the fail at a romantic Italian dinner, we then decided to watch football, which is not something to be nervous about, right? Wrong. I got so nervous about the date that I straight up fell asleep. With Roberto there. Embarrassing, no?

I believe that in that first date I did almost everything I could to ruin any potential we had—poor outfit choice, barely ate anything, fell asleep mid game, probably drooled and snored a lot.

But alas! Look at us now, I can’t stop eating and, while I may still fall asleep early rather often, at least I know he’s seen the worst of me.

So, for our last little celebration before the wedding (!!!) in September, this rich chocolate cake was a must to make the day truly special! I wanted to make it as decadent, as fun, and as simple as the two of us—which means enhancing the flavors ever so slightly to really make them pop.

With the addition of coffee to the chocolate cake, your mind will be blown with how rich it becomes. While the coffee flavor is quite faint, it helps the chocolate cake truly shine, and I promise you will never taste anything so delicious and moist! The filling is my personal favorite match made in heaven: chocolate and peanut butter. I don’t even think that I need to explain why this is the perfect buttercream of all time! All of that super yummy, ooey gooey fabulousness of peanut butter basically wrapped in chocolate? Sign me up for a spoonful or two!

Lastly, the quick little meringues as a tasty garnish on top give these cakes just the pop of color and crunch that you need! Making them is a cinch, and they are so versatile—a perfect vehicle for all flavors and colors, and they allow you to dress up this full of love, anniversary cake!

While these crazy 6 years with Roberto may have started on an awkward, strange note, they have only become more weird and wild. To me, there is no better way to celebrate than with a glass of champagne and lots and lots of this chocolate anniversary cake!

cake ingredients

Sugar—9 oz, or 1 ¼ C

Flour—6 oz, or 1C + 1 TBL

Cocoa Powder—2 oz, or ¾ C

Baking Powder—1 ¼ tsp

Baking Soda—½ tsp

Salt—½ tsp

Corn Syrup—1.25 oz, or 2 TBL

Milk—3.75 oz, or ½ C

Eggs—3

Vanilla Extract—1 ¼ tsp

Brewed Coffee—3.5 oz, or ½ C

Butter—6 oz, or 1 ½ sticks

process

Preheat your oven to 350˚ F.

In a bowl, sift together the sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

In a separate bowl, combine the corn syrup, milk, eggs, vanilla and brewed coffee.

Using your paddle attachment and mixer, cream the butter until smooth and fluffy.

Once you have creamed your butter, add in half of the dry sifted ingredients and half of the wet ingredients.

Mix.

Scrape down the sides of the bowl.

Add the remaining sifted ingredients and wet ingredients.

Once all combined, pour cake batter into your prepared 10” cake pan.

To prepare your pan, spray with nonstick spray and then sprinkle a very light dusting of flour on it, making sure to fully (but thinly) coat the bottom and sides of your pan.

Bake for 30-35 minutes, until the center of the cake springs back when touched

Allow to cool completely before cutting and decorating.

buttercream ingredients

Butter, softened—4 oz, or 1 stick

Peanut Butter—4 oz, or ½ C

Confectioner’s Sugar—15 oz, or 3 C

Cocoa Powder—2.5 oz, or 1 C

Vanilla Extract—2 tsp

Milk—4 oz, or ½ C

process

In the bowl of your mixer, use the paddle attachment to cream together the softened butter and peanut butter.

Sift together the confectioner’s sugar and cocoa powder.

Once your butter/peanut butter is smooth, slowly add in the sifted ingredients.

When combined, stream in your extract and milk.

When everything is added to the bowl, whip on high for about 30 seconds, to really make your buttercream nice and fluffy!

Now you can spread on the cooled cake.

meringue ingredients

Confectioner’s Sugar—9.5 oz, or 2 ¼ C

Egg Whites—4.75 oz, or 4 large

Vanilla Extract—2 tsp

Food Coloring—optional

process

Preheat your oven to 200˚ F.

In the bowl of your mixer, whisk together the sugar and egg whites.

Using a medium sized pot, create a double boiler with the bowl from your mixer.

Turn a burner on, to medium, and continue to whisk so that the sugar can dissolve.

Using a candy thermometer, cook this egg white/sugar mixture (constantly whisking) until it reaches 115˚-120˚ F.

When you have reached the correct temperature, transfer to your stand mixer, attach the whisk, and turn to high.

Whip for about 5-8 minutes, until stiff, shiny peaks form.

Add in your vanilla/flavor—which is optional.

Add in your food coloring—also optional!

When you have reached a medium-stiff peak with the meringues, transfer to a piping bag that has been fitted with a star tip.

Also—you may use a heavy duty Ziplock bag for this, and piping tips are not required, just make for a fun design!

On parchment paper or a Silpat, pipe out whatever meringues you like—I like rosettes, kisses and hearts, very simple to do!

When you are finished piping, place in your preheated oven for about an hour, rotating every 20 minutes, until they are completely dried out.

Decorate your cake with your fun and festive meringues!

to decorate

I made these into little anniversary cakes—super simple and basically individualized.

First, trim off the top of your cake.

Using a round cutter, cut out as many circles as you can, a 10” should make from 6-8, depending on the cutter size.

Cut each cake in half.

Spread a dollop of buttercream on the bottom layer of your cake (no simple syrup required!).

Place the second layer on, and spread more buttercream on top, decorate with meringues, sprinkles, or just eat like that!

Bon Appétit!

Chocolate Coffee Cake with Maple Spiced Buttercream

January 17, 2016

New week, new recipe, New Year, new you!

This past week was the Russian Old New Year. One of my dearest friends who I have met in Charleston is from Russia, so of course this is something that she celebrates. My wonderful friend, Elena, invited Roberto and I, along with some of our other friends, over to celebrate with her and her boyfriend—and it was amazing! She told us all about the traditions, all about why it’s particularly special, and heck, I even ate dinner at 9:00, on a Wednesday night, wild, right?!

A few days before this big party, my friend asked us to all give her 13 fortunes that we hoped to happen this year, a few to be silly, but mostly things we really wished to come true this year for ourselves. Mine ranged from eat more avocado toast (hehe) to be your own boss to Patriot’s will win the Superbowl! She wrapped all of these little fortunes inside of foil, and then stuffed them into some insanely delicious onion and potato dumplings—140 to be exact, AND Elena made them all herself…

What her families tradition is, is that you each eat as many dumplings as you can, just so that you get oodles of fortunes!...I somehow managed 16 or 17 dumplings…

After, we would read each one aloud and then Elena would truly dissect what was to happen to us this year, and that we all were to have an incredibly happy and successful 2016!

Some of our friends’ were about travel, others about career change, and mine were about being surrounded by wonderful friends and family, good health, and just all around happiness—which is 100% what I went into this year saying. Crazy coincidence, no?!

With all of these positive vibes going around, all starting with a hilarious evening with some of the greatest and most unique friends, I decided that I wanted to treat myself, and Roberto, even more! While I may be a fulltime ice-cream maker, we are about 90% of the time extremely healthy folks. Green smoothies and yogurt for breakfast, salad, carrots and hummus, fruit slices for lunch, soups, fish, grains for dinner—I can’t say that I hate it! Yes, eating to healthfully fuel our bodies is such an amazing choice that we are so lucky to have, which is why I decided to ditch the apple and peanut butter dessert for some moist, decadent chocolate cake with just a hint of coffee and a smooth maple buttercream!

Small indulgences, right? That’s what I am all about for this New Year New You thing I’ve got going on!

What do I love about this cake? First off—chocolate. Secondly, the dark cocoa, the sour cream, the great quality coffee, all of these make for such a dense, rich, spoil-me cake, that the smallest of slices is enough to satisfy. Thirdly, this heavenly cake hardly needs a frosting, but there are some things I can’t help myself with, so a lightly flavored maple buttercream certainly goes a long way—definitely doesn’t overpower, but complements perfectly the hint of coffee in the cake.

So the question, what has this Russian Old New Year taught me in its first few days? Well, definitely not to eat 16 mouthwatering dumplings in one sitting, but also that with good health and happiness, you need to treat yourself as fabulously as you treat others—and if that means a slice of this absolutely divine cake, then enjoy each bite!