Coconut Bundt Cake with Coconut Cream Glaze and Dark Chocolate Sauce by twocarolines.com
Whenever I’m at my mother-in-law’s house I like to pour over her massive library of cookbooks to see what fun new bakes I can find. Of course, it’s not easy with a baby climbing all over me and a toddler tugging at me with constant requests to play, eat, complain etc. This time I became a little obsessed with her massive Bon Appetite Desserts cookbook. I only got about a quarter of the way through and my phone was filled with recipes I wanted to try. This one was on the top of my list. The glaze was recommended in the book and tasted great, but I thought it would also taste great with a lime glaze and at the end of the day, I felt that adding a rich dark chocolate sauce was urgently necessary. Plus it reminded me of our amazing coconut crunch cake we posted almost a year ago! A fun side-note about this cake is that is has no baking soda or powder, but it rises up like a dream because it has a huge plethora of eggs. I’m sure you’ll enjoy no matter how you dress it up.
For the cake:
3 cups cake flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter – room temperature
2 1/2 cups sugar
6 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon coconut extract
1 cup canned unsweetened coconut milk
2 cups packed sweetened flaked coconut
For the glaze:
1/4 cup coconut milk
1 1/2 cup powdered sugar
large flake coconut for garnish
For the sauce:
1 cup chopped dark chocolate (you can also use chocolate chips or semi-sweet if you want your sauce sweeter)
3/4 cup miniature marshmallows
One 5 ounce can evaporated milk
Preheat oven to 350. Spray or butter your bundt. If you use butter, sprinkle in and tap out flour as well. I like to use bakers spray in my bundt that has flour in it, my cakes always come out clean.
Mix the flour and salt. Beat the butter, gradually add sugar, eggs one at a time and extracts. Beat in the flour mixture in 4 additions alternately with the 1 cup coconut milk ending with the flour. Fold in the two cups coconut spreading into the pan.
Bake about an hour to 65 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. Do not overbake. Let cool at least 45 minutes before you glaze or your glaze will melt off and not be thick enough to really taste it.
For the glaze mix 1/4 cup coconut milk with 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar – use a little more sugar if you want it thicker. You could also replace the coconut milk with fresh lime juice and a teaspoon lime zest if you want a lime glaze. Pour slowly over the top of your bundt. I find it helpful to put it on a cooling rack with foil or wax paper underneath to catch the drips.
For the dark chocolate sauce chop your chocolate and put it in a medium saucepan with the evaporated milk. Turn the heat to medium and add the marshmallows stirring occasionally until mixture is uniform and smooth. Let sit a good 10 minutes or so before pouring onto your cake. I prefer to pour the sauce on to each piece after it’s cut instead of on top, but suit yourself.
This August marked the two year anniversary of when I moved to Germany, and since I’m now back in ‘Murica, I had to make German food in honor of the day. We had a nice dinner of Käsespätzle, Gurkensalat, some brats, and this wunderbar Apfel Strüdel. Viennese style is my favorite and is paired with a vanilla sauce that puts it over the top. If you can’t find it anywhere, you can use vanilla pudding in a pinch, or make your own—like this. So, as you can imagine, I’ve basically been in a Starchy Foods Coma™ ever since, but it was more than worth it. There are a lot of steps, but it’s actually not too hard to make, if you follow the instructions exactly. When you are done, you’ll have a sehr lecker (very delicious) dessert to eat and hopefully share with friends!
*Note: I used the recipe below almost exactly, I will only change a few things that made it easier for me to understand after trying this a few times
Dough Ingredients
1/3 cup room temp water
1 tablespoon + 1/2 teaspoon canola or vegetable oil
1/2 teaspoon white vinegar
1/8 teaspoon salt
145 g bread or all-purpose flour (1 cup) (weight measurement is ideal)
½ teaspoon vegetable oil for brushing the dough
flour for dusting
Filling Ingredients
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
2/3 cups fine bread crumbs
5 tablespoons granulated sugar
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
4 tablespoons raisins
3 tablespoons room temp water for soaking the raisins
4 gala apples (peeled, cored and chopped into 1/2″ pieces, about 1/8″ thick)
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 tablespoons melted butter for brushing the dough (divided)
confectioner’s sugar for dusting
Instructions
To make the dough
Mix lukewarm water, oil, vinegar and salt in a big bowl. Acid like vinegar helps relax the gluten to make the dough easier to stretch.
Stir in about half the flour with a spoon until well combined, then gradually add the remaining flour until it comes together and you can work it with your hands.
Knead the dough until smooth for about 5-10 minutes, either in the bowl or on a working surface. The dough should be moist but not sticky. If it is too sticky to knead, add a little more flour (you shouldn’t need more than 1 or 2 additional tablespoons). Slam the dough onto the work surface a few times to enhance gluten development, yielding a very elastic dough.
Shape the dough into a smooth ball. Brush a clean bowl with oil, put the dough into the bowl and brush it with oil.
Cover the bowl with a lid or plastic wrap and let it sit for 1 hour at room temperature. **I made this the night before and brought to room temp before rolling out and that yeilded better results than letting it sit for just 1 hour total)
To make the filling
Melt the butter in a pan over medium heat and add the breadcrumbs. Toast them, stirring constantly, until they are golden. Remove from the heat and let cool.
Mix sugar and cinnamon together, then add it to the buttered breadcrumbs and stir well. Set aside.
Soak the raisins in water for about 10 minutes to get them softened.
Peel the apples, quarter and core them. Chop every quarter into 1/8 to 1/4 inch thick slices and then in half lengthwise and cover them with lemon juice to prevent the apples from getting brown. Add the soaked and drained raisins and mix well.
Stretching and filling the dough
Roll out the dough with a rolling pin on a clean and lightly floured surface. Flour the surface and the dough every now and then while rolling.
When the dough gets about 13-15 inch in diameter, pick it up then use the back of your hands, particularly your knuckles, to stretch it (remove all jewelry first). This way you can straighten the dough like a pizza.
When the dough gets bigger and thinner, and thus difficult to handle, put it down on a lightly floured cloth, straighten out the wrinkles in both the cloth and the dough. Continue stretching the dough on the cloth using your hands. (I just put the dough on the counter and that made it hard to roll after, so don’t forget the cloth!)
Gently stretch the dough paper-thin from the inside to the outside, working your way around the sheet of dough. Stretch it until it starts to look translucent.
In the end, the sheet of dough should be stretched into a rectangular shape, almost the size of a cookie sheet.
Brush half the dough with half the melted butter. Spread the breadcrumb-mixture over the un-buttered half of the dough and pat down evenly. Leave about 1 to 1 ½ inches of dough empty around the edges. One side is brushed with butter now, the other side is covered with breadcrumbs. Spread the apples over the breadcrumbs.
Fold over all the empty edges of the dough—this will help make sure the filling won’t spill out too much. Using the towel, roll the dough, starting at the apple-topped end all the way. Then gently roll the strudel onto a sheet of parchment paper with the seam-side down. Try to make sure there is no exposed filling.
Put the dough onto a baking sheet and brush it with the remaining melted butter.
Baking the strudel
Put the baking sheet in the middle (I use rack 2 of 4 from top) of the preheated oven and bake it for about 30 minutes at 375 °F.
When the crust turns golden, the Apple Strudel is ready. Take it out of the oven, let it cool slightly, cut it into pieces and serve dusted with confectioner’s sugar and in a bowl that is filled with about 1/3 cup vanilla sauce.
It’s the end of summer dreams that make me feel fine, but I’m going to squeeze ever last ounce out of it—and what is more summer than campfires and s’mores? Don’t tell me other things cause that ruins my train of thought and my segue into talking about this pie, and TRUST when I say you want me to get to it as quickly as possible. A graham cracker crust with a pinch of salt, a creamy chocolate middle and roasted marshmallows topped with coconut and chocolate chips, juuuuust for fun.
Ingredients
For the crust
1 1/2cups graham cracker crumbs (10-15 graham crackers)
8tablespoons melted butter
Pinch of salt
For the filling
7ounces milk or dark chocolate, or a mixture of both, broken into chunks
1cup heavy cream
1egg
Pinch of salt
For the topping
1 bag marshmallows (I used big ones and chopped them in varying sizes, just for fun)
1/4 cup shredded sweetened coconut
1/4 cup chocolate chips
Instructions
Make the crust. Crumble graham crackers into the work bowl of a food processor and process until finely ground. Or just put them in a bag and take our your aggressions with any instrument you find necessary until they are finely crushed. Add salt and pour melted butter over the crumbs and mix until the butter is fully incorporated and the texture is that of wet sand. Butter or oil a 9-inch pie pan and firmly press the graham cracker crumbs against the sides, then against the bottom of the pan. Chill for at least 30 minutes to avoid crumbling when serving (I chilled for a few hours, just to be safe).
While the crust chills, preheat the oven to 350 degrees and prepare the chocolate filling. Put the chocolate in a large mixing bowl. Heat the cream in a saucepan until scalded — do not boil. Pour the cream over the chocolate and allow to stand for 1 minute. Whisk the cream and chocolate together until glossy and smooth. Add a pinch of salt, then crack the egg into the chocolate mixture and whisk to fully incorporate. Pour into chilled crust and bake for 25 minutes, or until the filling is set but still slightly wobbly in the center. Remove from the oven and cool completely.
Once pie is cooled, top with marshmallows and brûlée until about half done. Then add coconut and torch again until desired level of toastiness. Immediately add chocolate chips so that they melt a little bit on the hot marshmallows. ***For this process, a torch is best (a propane torch from the hardware store or a butane crème brûlée torch). If using a torch, clear the area of any flammable items, ignite the torch, and slowly wave the flame over the surface of the marshmallow until you get the roasting just right. If you do not have a torch, use the broiler of your oven. Preheat the broiler, cover the edges of the pie crust with foil or pie shields, place the pie on a baking sheet and broil — watching carefully to prevent burning — for 2 to 3 minutes, rotating as necessary.
To slice the pie, it helps to dip your knife in hot water, then dry it with a towel. The heat facilitates easy slicing through the marshmallow layer.
Remember that one time, when it was too hot for life? Don’t get me wrong, I love summer! I mean—I have to hide my fair skin from the sun the whole time—but I love that blessed sweet blue sky and warm summer nights. But when the sun brings that triple digit heat, you don’t necessarily want to turn on your oven and sweat over it. So, what better solution than to make ice cream? I was hanging out with my sis the other week, and she made some crazy good raspberry ice cream in such a quick amount of time, that I got it in my head to do the same. The base is Ben and Jerry’s Vanilla Ice Cream, and it’s oh-so easy to make! Of course you know I had to go to one of my favorite flavors and threw in Trader Joe’s Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups and some PB chips for my mix-ins. I can’t get over how simple and fast and delicious it was! So, I’m thinking you have new weekend plans, amiright?
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, and again—summer nights in Salt Lake City are magical. Especially when you are lucky enough to be with great friends in the prettiest backyard around. Considering that peaches are probably what unicorns would exclusively feed on—due to their otherworldly goodness—I thought that consuming any peach dessert in a dreamy backyard on a perfect summer night would be the best scenario possible, and duh, I was totally right! I looked up pies, galettes, crips, crumbles and the like. Something quick, easy but very peachy was the goal. I found a bunch of recipes for baked peaches and made up my own recipe based on a few others that I found. I highly recommend that you find yourself some peaches and a backyard crew and make some magic happen!
Ingredients 3 medium ripe but firm peaches, pitted and halved
Topping 3/4 cup rolled oats
1/4 coconut
1/4 cup flour
1/4 cup almond flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
pinch of salt
1/2 cup melted butter
Directions
Preheat oven to 350° F.
Place the peaches in a buttered 8×8 inch (or similar) baking pan.
Mix together all the topping ingredients until well incorporated.
Distribute the crumble topping evenly among the peach halves. If there is any extra, sprinkle evenly on the pan.
Bake the peaches until they’re soft and the crumb topping is crispy and a light golden brown, about 30 to 40 minutes, depending on how ripe the peaches are.
Serve warm with vanilla ice cream and enjoy the taste of summer.
twocarolines.com 