Toasted Coconut Cake

I love coconut, so when I found a coconut cake recipe I couldn't help myself and I baked it, the first time was for a friend's birthday and afterwards for a coffee shop in Glasgow. The recipe I found has sautéed pineapple in the topping but I wanted the cake to be all about the coconut so after some changes in the recipe that's what I've got, the sponges are soft, moist and have a subtle coconut after taste, but the buttercream is full of coconut flavour.

Sponges

• 540g of flour
• 12g of baking powder
• 1tsp of salt
• 340g of unsalted butter (room temperature)
• 340g of egg whites
• 355ml of unsweetened coconut milk
• 1Tbsp of vanilla extract
• Coconut cream

Pre-heat the oven to 177C and line and butter three 8" cake tins.

Shift together flour, baking powder and salt (dry mix)

Place the butter in the bowl of a standing electric mixer with the paddle attachment, beat until light and fluffy.

Add the sugar and continue to beat, remember to scrap the sides of the bowl.

whisk the egg whites, coconut milk and vanilla extract (wet mix)

Start adding the wet mix and the dry mix in turns to the butter and sugar mix while the electric mixer is working. Once you add everything you'll have to add some coconut cream to get the batter a little bit more wet, you'll have to add maybe between 1-2 Tbsp.

Once everything is mix divide the batter between the 3 cake tins.

Bake for about 25mins or until a cake tester inserted into the centre comes back clean.

Coconut Buttercream

• 2Tbsp of coconut milk
• 1tsp of vanilla extract
• pinch of salt
• 240g of butter (room temperature)
• 1Tbsp of coconut cream
• 600g of icing sugar
• 250g of desiccated coconut.
• 1Tbsp of coconut cream.

Place the butter in the bowl of a standing electric mixer with the paddle attachment and beat until light and fluffy.

Start adding the icing sugar (shifted), add a little at a time and mix well.

In a bowl mix the vanilla extract, salt and coconut milk. Add it to the butter and sugar mix and after is well mix add the coconut cream, you can add a bit more if you want your buttercream easier to spread.

Once the sponges are cold, we cut them to give them an even shape.

Place the first sponge on a cake board and spread a layer of buttercream, place the second sponge on top and gently press it on the fist one so the sponges are secured on place. Spread more buttercream and do the same with the third sponge, this time spreading a fine layer of buttercream all around the cake too. Put the cake into the fridge. At this point you'd have a lot of buttercream left, just keep it on a side while we get the finishing touches for the cake.

While the cake with the buttercream is getting colder, we put the desiccated coconut into a pan and toasted, remember to keep the heat low and remove constantly, we want the coconut toasted not burn.

Once is toasted leave it to cool down.

When the coconut is cool down, we take the cake from the fridge and add like half of the toasted coconut to the buttercream we have left, we mix it really well with a spoon and spread evenly all over the cake, when the cake is covered in the buttercream, we press the rest of the toasted coconut to the sides of the cake and sprinkle with it the top of the cake.

Now you just have to enjoy the cake :)

Morcilla (blood sausage) and Pear Pie

This is a pie from my area that I didn't know about so when during my last holidays when visiting my parents I had to try it. This is a really strong pie so if you have a weak stomach keep away from it :D

Pie Dough

• 250g of flour
• 150g of butter
• 1tsp of salt
• 1 egg
• 1Tbsp of milk

Pear compote

• 400g of peeled and de-cored pears
• 100g of sugar
• 1 lemon peel
• 1 tsp of cinnamon
• 2 cups of water

We make a dough with the ingredients, you can buy it but I always prefer to make my own crust, homemade always taste better :)

We put the ingredientes for the pear compote in a sauce pan over a slow heat and leave it to cook until the pears are soft.

Meanwhile the pears are cooking we peel 2 morcillas (blood sausages) and cut the filling in small pieces.

Once the pears are cook remove them from the sauce pan, put them over a chopping board and cut them in small pieces.

Dust with flour your working surface and roll out half of the pie dough with a rolling pin and line your pie tin. Prick the base of the dough with a fork.

Mix together the morcillas and the pears. Spread the mix evenly over the dough.

Roll out the other half of the dough and close the pie borders with a fork.

Paint the surface with a beaten egg.

Cook for about 20 min at 200C.

Coffee and Walnut Marshmallows

I bought a marshmallow recipe book a few months ago and finally I had time to try some of the recipes. I chose this one because it was the easier, I had all the ingredients in the house and because I love coffee. The result is fantastic, is bitter and sweet and I love the crunchiness given by the walnuts, maybe next time I would top them with dark chocolate.

By the way I have the full coffee set that goes with that cup, is older than me and it was my mother's and I always loved it so when I moved out of my parents house my mother gave it to me :)

Swiss Buns

This sweet bread takes its name after a Spanish Café, this is not a Swiss bread recipe. I always loved them and since moving to Scotland I've been thinking about bake them myself, after a few tries with different recipes that went wrong (so very wrong) I found a recipe that works and I cannot be any happier. You can enjoy those buns plain, filled with cream cheese and jam or my favourite ham and cheese. They are delicious anyway you eat them :)

Banana and White Chocolate Cake

I made this cake a few times for a couple of coffee shops in Glasgow and Edinburgh but I always forget to make a photo to upload to the blog, but yesterday I remembered just in time before I went out to deliver it.

This cake is super sweet, it has two banana sponges and a white chocolate buttercream to die for :)

Asturian pie

This is a traditional pie from a Northern region in Spain called Asturias (where I came from), as the weather is quite cold the food is strong and filling. This one is one of the best sellers, full of flavour and one of my favourites. It is filled with cook ham, chorizo, boiled eggs and a homemade tomato sauce, of course the pastry is homemade too. Usually I make a large one than can be cut in portions but a shop in Edinburgh asked me to make them individuals and here is the result. Hope you enjoy.

 

Chocolate and Vanilla Buttercream Cake

This cake was for a birthday, the kids wanted the same cake that I bake for them two years ago, I was so please that they remembered about it :)

It's a 3 layer chocolate cake with really fluffy vanilla buttercream, simple and delicious.

If you want the recipe let me know xx

Bear Claws

After trying some Danish pastry dough recipes, at last I found one that actually works!! The recipe is from the book "Mastering the Art of Baking" and I was so happy that decided to bake Bear Claws, I never bake them before but I was really happy with the finish product, really tasty :)

Oreo and Nutella Cheesecake

This Cheesecake is so yummy I cannot stop myself from eating a huge portion everytime I make it.
The base is made with oreos, there are more oreos in the middle mixed with the cheese and the cream and more oreos on top of the cheesescake, to make this cake to totally die for I mix part of the cheese and the cream with nutella... simply irresistible.

Matcha and White Chocolate Cake

Today I decided to bake a Matcha and White Chocolate cake following the recipe from the "Tokyo Cult Recipes" and I have to say that it's good. I was not really sure before I put the tin in the oven because as I said on Facebook I was not sure if I would get a cake or the Incredible Hulk :D but I was not disapointed.This is the third recipe I try from this book and I am loving it, so far all the recipes are really well explained and work!! I cannot say the same from other books. The result is a quite dense cake which taste like white chocolate (my favourite chocolate) :)

 

Mini Merengues

Today is so grey and horrible outside that I decided to make mini meringues with sprinkles and bright colours to try to forget the rain and wind for a while. I saw something similar on a website months ago and I thought it was a great idea so here it is.

This recipe is really easy, you would need egg whites, I had some from my previous post (pear tart) and as I hate to waste anything this recipe worked like a charm, and caster sugar (double the weight of the egg whites), half a tsp of vanilla extract and food colourant.

Pear Tart

Tart shell

250g of plain flour

150g of butter

1/4tsp of salt

1 egg

1Tbsp of milk

Filling
1/2 l of milk
4 Tbsp of white sugar
1/4tsp of cinnamon
2 Tbsp of cornflour
2 egg yolks
Topping

4 pears

50g of white sugar

50g of butter

We start caramelise the pears, so firstly we peel and halve them and we cut them alongside in 8 parts. Meanwhile we clean the pears we put together the sugar and the butter in a pan with a medium heat until the mixture gets a golden-brown colour once we reach this point put the pears inside and wait until they caramelised all over and remove from the heat.

Now we start with the tart shell, we put the flour, the salt and the butter in a bowl and rub the butter into the flour until we get small pieces of butter covered in flour, when we reach this point add the milk and the egg and combine everything by hand adding more flour if the dough is too sticky. Once we have a nice dough roll it and cover a 23cm (9”) tart tin and place it in the fridge (don't cut the excess of dough yet).

While we have the dough chilling we pre-heat the oven to 180C-Gas 4 and we can start making the custard. Put aside ½ cup of milk and heat the rest with the sugar over a medium heat, meanwhile we are heating up the milk mix the egg yolks and the cornflour and start adding the milk we put aside slowly until everything is mix and there are no lumps. When the milk is boiling add the mixture with the rest of the milk and whisk together add the cinnamon and keep whisking for about 5 minutes over a medium heat, it is really important to whisk all the time, otherwise it would burn.

Now we take the tart shell from the fridge and press the border with the rolling pin in order to remove the excess of dough and now we will blind bake it, prick the base of the pastry shell all over with a fork. Line the tart tin with baking parchment and fill with ceramic baking beans . Bake for about 15 minutes or until the pastry is firm, then remove the beans and cook for about 5 minutes more, until golden brown.

Once the tart shell is ready fill it with the custard and place the caramelised pears into the filling, put it back into the oven for about 10 minutes. After that place the tin on a cooling rack. Wait 10 minutes more or less before you remove the tart from the tin. Now you just have to wait until it cool down...or not ;)