No-bake Coconut Loaf Cakes

Cook’s notes: For me, it just isn’t Easter without the yellow cake and coconut frosting. The night I wanted to make this cake, I was also roasting broccoli…which should not be in the oven at the same time as cake. I came up with this no-bake version. The amount of sugar in the filling is greatly reduced (the traditional recipe calls for a gagging 2 cups of sugar with just 8 oz of sour cream). I also want to try this with fat-free plain Greek yogurt instead of sour cream.

2 frozen loaf cakes, 10.75 oz (such as Sara Lee All Butter Pound Cake)
16 oz container light sour cream
1/2 cup sugar
14 oz bag sweetened flaked coconut, about 5-1/3 cups

Remove the cakes from their foil containers and slice them horizontally into 3 layers. Layers don’t have to be perfectly even. Put the bottom layer back in the foil pan.

Make the filling: Combine the sour cream and sugar in a medium-size bowl. Stir in the coconut.

Spread 1/3 of the coconut filling on the bottom layers. Cover with the second layer of cake. Spread another 1/3 of the filling on the second layer; top with the last layer of cake. Use the remaining 1/3 filling to cover the tops of the cakes (it will be mounded up).

Cover the cakes with plastic wrap and store in the refrigerator until ready to serve. You may wish to have them sit overnight.

Optional: Cake layers can be spread with melted apricot jam before topping with the coconut filling.

French Apple Cake with Yogurt

Cook’s notes: This recipe is adapted from one that was published in the Washington Post prior to 1994. The original recipe said to use the empty yogurt container to measure the corn oil, apple, and chocolate chips. However, now that a single serving of yogurt tends to be a 6-oz container instead of an 8-oz container, you’ll have to break out the measuring cups. But this cake is worth a few dirty dishes. You can also make muffins with this batter. Bake 25 minutes.

8 oz container plain yogurt
2.5 cups sugar
3 cups flour
3 eggs
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup corn oil
1 cup chocolate chips
1 cup chopped apple

Heat oven to 350F. Coat a 9- x 13-inch baking pan with cooking spray.
In mixing bowl, combine the yogurt, sugar, flour, and eggs and beat on low speed. Beat well.

Add the baking soda and corn oil. Beat until smooth. Add the chocolate chips and apple. Pour batter into pan. Bake 45 minutes until done.

Chocolate Guinness Bundt Cake

Cook’s notes: This cake is so good that I once made it 3 times during a two-week period. It fetched $55 at a silent auction for charity. It is very similar to a Nigella Lawson version baked in a spring-form pan, but a Bundt pan is easier to deal with. Nigella’s version has 10 Tbsp butter and 3/8 cup sour cream. Someday, I’ll see if the reduced amount of butter works in this recipe). The cake is so moist that it doesn’t need a ganache glaze, cream cheese frosting, or even a sprinkling of powdered sugar. It tastes wonderful served plain.

Best chocolate cake ever

2 cups all purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1.5 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter (16 Tbsp)
1 cup stout (such as Guinness Extra Stout)
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (preferably Dutch-process; preferably Double-Dutch Dark Cocoa by King Arthur)
2 large eggs
2/3 cup sour cream

Heat oven to 350F. Coat a Bundt pan with cooking spray or melted butter well; make sure you get in all of the nooks and crannies. (Carroll Pelligrinelli recommends using a pastry brush to brush on solid shortening and then dusting the pan with flour. She says, “Make sure all areas are covered, especially the center cone.”)

Whisk flour, sugar, baking soda, and 3/4 teaspoon salt in large bowl to blend.

Melt the butter and bring it to simmer in heavy large saucepan over medium heat. Gently stir in the stout. Whisk in the cocoa powder until mixture is smooth. Cool slightly.

Using electric mixer, beat eggs and sour cream in another large bowl to blend. Add stout-cocoa mixture to egg mixture and beat just to combine. Add flour mixture in two batches, and beat briefly on slow speed after each addition. Using rubber spatula, fold batter until completely combined. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake cake until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 35 minutes. Transfer cake to rack; cool completely in the pan, then turn the cold cake out onto a rack.
Adapted from smitten kitchen

Best Recipe: Rum Bundt Cake

Cook’s notes: This classic Bundt cake appears on several Web sites as “Jamaican Rum Cake,” but I learned it from Ann Hodgman’s book. It doesn’t matter what you call this, it’s the best thing you can do with a boxed cake mix.

Makes 1 large Bundt cake, serving 12 to 16. You can also use a mini-Bundt cake pan to make 12 little cakes; bake for about 20 minutes (check at 15 minutes).

Cake
1 box (~18 oz) yellow cake mix without pudding in it
1 box (3.5 oz) instant vanilla pudding
1/2 cup cold water or milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup dark rum or vanilla rum
4 eggs
1 cup toasted pecans or walnuts, chopped
1 Tbsp vanilla

Glaze
1/2 cup butter (1 stick), softened
1/4 cup water
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup dark rum or vanilla rum

Position a rack in the center of the oven. Heat oven to 325F.

Lightly butter or grease the inside of a 12-cup nonstick Bundt pan. Dust the pan with flour and tap out the excess.

In a large mixing bowl, beat all cake ingredients on low speed for 30 seconds. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Beat on medium 2 minutes more.

Pour batter into prepared Bundt pan. Bake 50 minutes at 350∞F or until done and a toothpick comes out clean.

Make the glaze: In a small saucepan over low heat, melt the butter. Turn up the heat to medium, stir in water and sugar. Bring to a boil. Stirring constantly, boil for 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in the rum. Brush the top of the cake with about 2 Tbsp of the glaze. Let cake stand for 5 minutes.

Invert the cake onto a plate and unmold from the pan. Brush the cake with the remaining glaze. Cool completely.

Adapted from Hodgman, Ann. Beat that! cookbook. Shelburne, VT: Chapters Pub., c1995

Chocolate Coconut Cupcakes

Cook’s Notes: A friend of mine loves German Chocolate Cake, and he recently had a birthday. The cupcakes are rich and decadent: they call for 2 sticks of butter, melted chocolate, and sour cream. After looking at the ingredient list, I couldn’t bring myself to make the traditional coconut-pecan frosting for the cupcakes.

Here are the treats I made for his party:

• Make 24 “Dark Chocolate Cupcakes” from The America’s Test Kitchen Family Cookbook
• Chocolate glaze: Cook 1/4 cup milk, 1/4 cup granulated sugar, and 2 Tablespoons butter in a saucepan over medium heat for 3 to 4 minutes until the mixture boils. Turn off heat, and stir in 1 cup chocolate chips. Continue to stir until chips have completely melted and glaze is smooth. Spoon chocolate glaze over cupcake tops in a circle. (From the book Cupcakes: From the Cake Mix Doctor)
• Sprinkle sweetened flaked coconut on the top of each cupcake; gently press down so coconut sticks to the glaze.

Tip: 12 cupcakes fit into a 9 x 12-inch pan for transport:

Best Recipe: Small Easy Coconut Cake (Cake for Two)

Cook’s Notes: A new addition to my best recipe category — This cake is made in one bowl, and it happens to be eggless. I have a friend who is allergic to eggs, and I am always looking for treat recipes for her. We didn’t have buttermilk on hand, so I used yogurt instead. It’s a wonderful cake, just enough sweet and scented with almond. This is definitely a keeper.

I baked the cake in two 4.5-inch springform pans. The batter makes two tasty layers. I frosted each layer separately, rather than making a layer cake. Each layer provides 4 satisfying servings (8 total servings), and they are so dang cute. Each frosted layer can be stored in a 6-cup plastic food-saver container.

Cake
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 cup plain non-fat yogurt
1/4 cup vegetable oil (canola)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp almond extract

Frosting
6 oz heavy whipping cream
4 tsp sugar
Scant 1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup sweetened flaked coconut

Heat oven 350F. Coat baking pans with cooking spray (two 4.5-inch springform pans or muffin tins).

Whisk flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt together in a medium bowl. Add yogurt, oil, and extracts. Stir until smooth. Scoop batter into prepared pans. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes (possibly less for very small pans), or until a cake tester comes out almost clean. Check the cakes at 15 minutes.

Cool cakes in the pans on a wire rack for about 5 minutes. Remove cakes from pans. Cool cakes completely on racks before frosting.

Make the frosting: Pour the cream and vanilla into the bowl of an electric stand mixer. Beat on high speed until the cream has thickened, about 1-1/2 minutes. Stop the machine, and add the sugar. Beat the cream on high speed until stiff peaks form, 1 to 2 minutes more. Gently fold the coconut into the frosting.

Place a heaping spoon of whipped cream frosting on each cake. Use a rubber spatula or spoon to spread it out. Make sure to cover the tops completely. There is enough frosting to cover the sides, too.

Variations:
To make a chocolate cake, use 2/3 cup flour and 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa instead of 1 cup of flour. “Because it calls for oil and cocoa rather than butter and chocolate, it’s less rich than most cakes,” Stephanie says.

You can also bake the batter in a muffin pan, tart pans, a small cake pan, or a loaf pan.

Stephanie notes: “You can flavor this [chocolate cake] in different ways: 1/2 tsp almond extract and a sprinkle of cinnamon; 1/2 tsp peppermint extract; 1 Tbs strong coffee; or 1/2 tsp grated orange rind. But it’s pretty good just as it stands, especially straight out of the oven.” Oh, yeah.

Recipe sources:
Cake recipe adapted from the Pie Queen blog (Friday, April 01, 2005 post, “Cake for One, and My Nigella Problem”)

Frosting recipe adapted from Small Batch Baking by Debby Maugans Nakos

Drambuie Gingerbread

Makes 10 to 12 servings. Cake can be prepared up to 3 days ahead, covered with plastic wrap, and stored at room temperature.

1 c unsalted butter (2 sticks), at room temperature
1 c packed light brown sugar
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1 c unsulphured molasses or honey
1/2 c Drambuie
2-1/4 c all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp ground ginger
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 c hot water

Glaze
4 T unsalted butter (1/2 stick)
1/3 c Drambuie
Optional: Dust with sifted confectioner’s sugar and serve with whipped cream

Position a rack in the center of the oven. Heat oven to 350°F.

Lightly butter the inside of a 12-cup nonstick Bundt pan. Dust the pan with flour and tap out the excess.

If necessary, rub the brown sugar through a sieve to remove any lumps. In a large bowl, beat the butter and brown sugar just until well combined, about 1 minute. (Don’t cream the butter and sugar for as long as you would for a typical batter, or it will become overly aerated and make the top of the cake crack.)

Beat in the eggs one at a time. Beat in the molasses (or honey) and Drambuie.

Sift the dry ingredients (flour to salt) onto a piece of wax paper. Stir — do not beat — into the wet ingredients just until well combined. Stir in the 3/4 c hot water. Pour batter into the pan and smooth the top.

Bake 50 minutes until done and a toothpick comes out clean. Remove cake from oven and place on cooling rack or trivet. Cool for 10 minutes.

Make the glaze: In a small saucepan over low heat, melt the butter. Remove from the heat and stir in the Drambuie. Brush the top of the cake with about 2 T of the glaze. Let cake stand for 5 minutes.

Invert the cake onto a plate and unmold from the pan. Brush the cake with the remaining glaze. Cool completely.

Source: Rodgers, Rick. Thanksgiving 101. New York: Broadway Books, 1998.