Coconut Layer Cake

Did You Know? Falling coconuts kill 150 people every year - 10 times the number of people killed by sharks.

Not having a job leaves me with little money of my own to buy gifts for just about anyone, so when the occasion arises, I turn to baking. There's nothing like creating something special to present to your friends and family, especially when that someone is your mom. My mom is the best, and always by my side in the kitchen, cleaning every last pan that I make a mess of. She's great at rinsing and chopping, and always makes sure our kitchen is stocked. No request is ever too large. She's the ultimate soux chef.

My sister and I always joke around that we could never live with any other mother besides our own. No one would put up with us like she does, and no one would do as much as our mom does. She makes it really hard to ever want to get a place of my own. Why move out, when every last detail of my life is taken care of here? I guess to be a little more self-sufficient, but I've got time for crazy stuff like that. So in honor of my mom, and all the awesome things she does for my family, I made her a cake (even trade right?); A coconut layer cake, her favorite.

Mother's Day was held at my house this year, and my aunt, uncle, and grandparents came over for a late lunch to celebrate the occasion. My mom made the meal, and I finished it off with this cake. I'm not a huge fan of shredded coconut, and cream cheese is definitely not my thing, so I opted out of tasting this one. But from the reactions of all of our guests, along with the multiple servings, I'd say it was a huge success. My mom loved it too, so that's all that really mattered. I hope you all enjoyed your Mother's Day, and I promise to post a little more often now that I'm done with school!

Coconut Layer Cake
Adapted from Bon Appetit via Epicurious
I sliced each cake into 2, for a total of 4 layers. The recipe below is for a basic 2 layer cake.

2 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 3/4 cups sugar
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup canned sweetened cream of coconut (such as Coco Lépez)*
4 large eggs, separated
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon coconut extract
1 cup buttermilk
Coconut Cream Cheese Frosting (recipe below)*

Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter and flour two 9-inch-diameter cake pans with 2-inch-high sides (I lined mine with parchment paper as well). Whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda and 1/2 teaspoon salt in medium bowl to blend. Using electric mixer, beat sugar, butter and sweetened cream of coconut in large bowl until fluffy. Beat in egg yolks and vanilla and coconut extracts. On low speed, beat in dry ingredients and then buttermilk, each just until blended.

Using clean dry beaters, beat egg whites with pinch of salt in another large bowl until stiff but not dry. Fold beaten egg whites into batter.

Divide cake batter between prepared pans. Bake cakes until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 45 minutes. Cool cakes in pans on rack 10 minutes. Run small sharp knife around pan sides to loosen cakes. Turn cakes out onto racks and cool completely.

Place 1 cake layer on cake plate. Spread 1 cup Cream Cheese Frosting over cake layer. Sprinkle 1 cup sweetened shredded coconut over. Top with second cake layer. Spread remaining frosting over top and sides of cake. Sprinkle remaining coconut over cake, gently pressing into sides to adhere.

Coconut Layer Cake can be prepared up to 1 day ahead. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate. Let stand at room temperature 2 hours before serving.

Coconut Cream Cheese Frosting
Adapted from Ina Garten

2 (8 oz) packages cream cheese, at room temperature
2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 teaspoon coconut extract
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 pound confectioners' sugar, sifted
14 ounces sweetened shredded coconut

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, combine the cream cheese, butter, and the coconut and vanilla extracts on low speed. Add the confectioners' sugar and mix until just smooth (don't whip).

Lemon Poppy Seed Teacakes

Did You Know? For hundreds of years, Greeks have prized strained yogurt for its richness and creaminess, and because it makes a great cooking ingredient that’s less likely to curdle when heated. Today, we know that straining also makes Greek yogurt richer in protein than regular yogurt, and lower in lactose.

Sorry I've been missing the past few days, but with school winding down, I've been slammed with presentation after presentation. I'm almost through the worst week, and I could not be more ready for Summer. My Dad emailed me a possible vacation house for the Vineyard this August, I've been working out the basics for our annual Saco River trip, and we're even discussing a San Francisco excursion towards the end of the Summer. So as you can imagine, the thought of doing one more paper in the midst of all these Summer getaways could make anyone go crazy. That being said I needed a little break from my computer. I spent this past weekend baking and churning, and could not have been more relaxed, even with the dreadful week that awaited me.

Being a marketing major, it's pretty tough to pass up some free product when it could help out a company I love. Today's teacakes are made possible by Stonyfield Farm and their new Oikos Organic Greek Yogurt. I'd never had Greek yogurt before, so I was excited to try it out. I'd heard wonderful things about this style of yogurt all over the blogging world, so I was pretty sure I too would fall victim to the creaminess of this tangy treat. I started the recipe testing with a basic vanilla frozen yogurt (coming soon) to get the full effect of this prized yogurt. I will never go back to the freezer case.

Anyways, back to the cakes at hand - lemon poppy seed teacakes. I knew I wanted some sort of lemon poppy seed concoction, and I'm a sucker for cupcakes, but I also didn't want a sugar overload. These teacakes are just that, a perfect cake to dip into an afternoon cup of tea. Not overly sweet, studded with that unbeatable lemon poppy seed combo, and super-moist from the ultra-thick Greek yogurt. I glazed them with a variation of the lemon juice and sugar mixture that Ina uses on her lemon yogurt cake, and it gave them a wonderful sheen and a tart topping. If you're interested in something on the sweeter side, just add another 1/4 cup of the granulated stuff. But be sure to use Greek-style yogurt, if not for the health benefits alone. Oikos has 0% fat, and twice the protein of regular yogurt. Pretty awesome for something so rich looking.

Lemon Poppy Seed Teacakes

3/4 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon lemon zest
1 cup Greek yogurt
3/4-1 cup granulated sugar, plus 1 tablespoon
3 large eggs
1/4 cup grapeseed oil (may substitute vegetable oil)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons poppy seeds
1/4 cup lemon juice

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Line a cupcake tin with paper cups, and set aside.

Sift the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and poppy seeds in a medium-sized bowl.

In another, larger bowl, mix the lemon zest, yogurt, sugar, eggs, oil, and vanilla extract.

Pour the dry ingredients into the wet and whisk until just combined.

Using an ice cream scoop, measure the batter into your prepared cupcake tin. I filled my cups pretty much to the top so I didn't have to pull out another pan, but if you follow the 3/4 rule, you might have to use two cupcake tins.

Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 15-18 minutes.

Heat the remaining one tablespoon of sugar and the 1/4 cup lemon juice in a microwave safe dish until the sugar dissolves. When the cupcakes come out of the oven, brush the tops with this lemon juice mixture. I pricked the tops with a toothpick a few times as well. These taste best the day they're the made.