Happy Valentine's Day and welcome to Friday with Food!
Today was a crazy day! Katherine had a four day weekend, and she was working on catching up her homework, and cleaning her room, neither of which were things she wanted to do. While I was supervising that, I also made bread this morning, because we were completely out. In the meanwhile, I wanted to do something for Ed for Valentine's day, although neither of us are really crazy about the holiday. I didn't take pictures today, because I had too much else I was trying to do, but I hope you can follow what I"m saying without them.
Ed's favorite cake is Coconut Cream Cake. Usually that means I make a white cake mix, poke holes in it with a fork, pour on a mixure of sweetened condensed milk and cocnut cream, and cover the whole thing with Cool Whip and coconut.
If you'll remember, a few weeks ago, I decided to remake a brownie recipe using healthier, real food ingredients. That didn't turn out so well, and I haven't felt like trying it again. Today, I decided I would try to do the same thing the coconut cake.
For the cake, I found a recipe in my Betty Crocker cookbook for white cake. I substituted whole wheat pastry flour for the all purpose flour, coconut sugar for the sugar, and butter for the shortening. No, I did not expect the cake to still be white. It smelled wonderful while it was baking, but I thought it looked very dark when it came out of the oven. Of course, I had used the wheat flour and coconut sugar, so that probably explained it.
For the filling, I decided to try and make my own sweetened condensed milk, and found a recipe here, using vanilla stevia instead of sugar. As far as I could tell, it worked fine, and I will file that recipe as a keeper. I shook it up in a jar with the coconut cream, and after I had poked holes in the cakes (I had two 8 inch rounds), I poured the mixture over the cake and let it sit. The cake was soaking up the cream just like it should.
Now for the whipped cream. I actually went and bought whipping cream, because I had found this recipe. I put the beaters and the bowl in the freezer for about 30 minutes. I started whipping and then added the sugar and vanilla while still beating. I think I almost made butter. It was very thick but had a nice flavor to it. Not too sweet though.
I removed one of the layers from its pan, which wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be. I put a layer of whipped cream and coconut on it, put the second layer on, covered the whole thing with whipped cream and sprinkled coconut on top of the cake. It looked...ok. I cut a piece for Ed, and one for me. Yeah, it was...ok. Nothing to write home about, that's for sure. The flavor of the whole wheat flour came through strongly, and it was very filling. I told Ed that I didn't think there was any danger of his eating this whole cake in one day (that is often what happens with the original recipe), because even if he wanted to, he would be too full.
So we decided to leave this one just like it is, but only make it twice a year: December for Ed's birthday, and June for Kyle's. It's Kyle's favorite cake too. That reminds me. I have to make a German Chocolate Cake in about two weeks for James' birthday. I think we will leave that one like it is too.
Have a wonderful weekend!
See Ya Monday!
Connie
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