Coconut Cupcakes

Fathers Day is here! A lot of people go out for breakfast, lunch or dinner when these kind of days come (like Mothers Day or Valentines Day, etc, etc). However, we who enjoyed home cooking, choose not to. We'd rather just cook at home and just chill. What's better than that? Enjoying good home cooking and not having to care about much at all; That's awesome!

My dad wanted to have some of his favorite foods for Fathers Day. We slow cooked our favorite BBQ Pull Pork, we made Baked Beans, Potato Salad and Texas Toast. It was a lot of food to begin with, and I didn't really think I was going to bake anything. However, when my Nana and Grandpa came over for fathers day, and saw that I didn't bake anything, they were a bit upset. So, I decided that I'd come up with something good to bake.

I didn't really want to bake a cake; I didn't want to have something that not everyone would eat.. So I decided to bake cupcakes! My dad likes coconut, so I thought that it'd be a nice treat for him; And something that won't ruin is day of to much calories (He's a calorie counter like me). I remember seeing this recipe while watching Barefoot Contessa one day and they sounded so good!! I kind of altered mine to be without butter, and it turned out really good. Really, really good! The coconut went well with the cream cheese icing. It was really light and delicious.

This was entered into AFAM for June '08.

Recipe

For the Cupcake

1 1/2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup oil
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
3 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
1/2 cup yogurt
1 cup shredded coconut

For the Cream Cheese Icing

8 ounces cream cheese, cold
4 ounces butter, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups confectioners sugar
Milk to thin


1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line muffin tins with cupcake papers.

2. In a large bowl, beat together the oil, sugar and eggs until thick and smooth. Beat in vanilla. In a medium bowl, shift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; add to the liquid mixture and beat until smooth. Beat in yogurt. Fold in coconut.

3. Scoop batter into the prepared pans. Bake for 22 minutes. Allow to cool in the pan for 5 minutes then cool completely on a wire rack.

4. For the icing, beat together cream cheese and butter until smooth. Add the vanilla extract; then confectioners sugar, 1 cup at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in milk, 1 tablespoon at a time, if icing is too thick.

Makes 12-15 Cupcakes

Bill's Big Carrot Cake

This months challenge for Tuesdays with Dorie was suppose to be Madelines. However, I do not have one of those pans. And, sadly, I could not find one. I went to a craft store where I normally buy my baking equipment, however, they did not have the madeline pan. I was going to order it, but it would not be in till around Wednesday. It really bummed me out because I really wanted the madelines. But, I did get to make these delicious little cakes!

For the people that didn't have the madeline pan (like myself), we were able to use a recipe that was completed in the past. At first, I was going to make the Gooey Chocolate Cakes. After thinking about it, I really wanted to have the Carrot Cake. I hadn't had one in so long. The last one I had was when I was a little girl! My best friends mother made the best Carrot Cake I had ever had. I've really missed that cake. So, I decided that I was going to make Bills Big Carrot Cake. Instead of making it into a cake, I thought making it into cupcakes would be great. They were so good. Brought back memories. I couldn't believe how moist they were! They were amazing! A total must try I have to say.

Recipe

For Cake

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup almond flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon salt
3 cups grated carrots
1 cup shredded coconut
1/2 cup plump golden raisins
2 cups sugar
1 cup canola oil
4 large eggs


Cream Cheese Frosting

8 ounces cream cheese, softened
4 tbsp. butter, softened
2 tbsp. sour cream
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 cups confectioners' sugar


1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Butter three 9-x-2-inch round cake pans, flour the insides, and tap out the excess (Or divide it among muffin cups).

2. In a bowl, whisk the flours, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. In another bowl, stir together the carrots, chopped nuts, coconut, and raisins.
Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the sugar and oil together on a medium speed until smooth.

3. Add the eggs one by one and continue to beat until the batter is even smoother. Reduce the speed to low and add the flour mixture, mixing only until the dry ingredients disappear. Gently mix the chunky ingredients. Divide the batter among the baking pans.

4. Bake for 40-50 minutes, until a thin knife inserted into the centers comes out clean. The cakes will have just started to come away from the sides of the pans. Transfer the cakes to cooling racks and cool for about 5 minutes, then run a knife around the sides of the cakes and unmold them. Invert and cool to room temperature right side up.

5. The cakes can be wrapped airtight and kept at room temperature overnight or frozen for up to 2 months.

6. For the frosting, beat cream cheese, butter and sour cream in a medium bowl. Add the vanilla and the confectioners' sugar and mix until smooth. Cool cake completely before frosting. If desired, sprinkle top of cake with chopped nuts and/or sprinkles.

Banana Piña Colada Muffins

To start this post off, I have to say; These have to be some of the best banana muffins I've ever tried!! Seriously, no joke. They seriously taste as though they came straight out from a bakery! It was when I pasted a local bakery that I decided today to bake Banana. And when I thought about it, I hadn't some in awhile, and, it felt like a great time to bake some.

When summer comes around, fruit is something that most people eat because it's hot, and, eating hot food or heavy food just doesn't sound good when you dieing from heat. You want some light and fresh tasty. Fruit is exactly that. And it's been feeling a lot like summer here in Florida. So we've got a lot of fruit floating around here. So, to but the bananas to use, I decided to make them into muffins.

I'm not joking when I say that these are good; Because they really have to be some of the best muffins I have ever made! Coconut and raisins, in my opinion, team beautifully together (especially in that famous rum drink, the piña colada for some of you). The two play just as nicely together in this whole-grain muffin. Banana adds pleasingly moist texture, and an additional taste of the tropics.

Recipe

2 cups flour
1/2 cup diced dried pineapple
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup brown sugar, light or dark
1 tsp. vanilla extract
3/4 tsp. coconut flavor or rum flavor (optional)
1 1/2 cups mashed ripe bananas (about 3 large bananas)
1/4 cup honey
2 large eggs
3/4 tsp. baking soda
3/4 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
1/3 cup shredded coconut


1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Line 12 muffin cups with muffin cups.

2. In a large bowl, beat together the butter, sugar, vanilla, and coconut or rum flavor. Add the bananas, honey, eggs, baking soda, baking powder, nutmeg, and salt, beating until smooth.

3. Stir in the flour, then add the pineapple and raisins. Spoon the batter into the muffin cups and sprinkle each muffin with coconut.

4. Bake the muffins for 25 to 28 minutes, or until a tester inserted into the center comes out clean. Remove from the oven, and let set for 5 minutes. Take muffins out of muffins cups and serve warm, or at room temperature. Store in an air tight container.

Pecan Crunch Granola Bars

So, I've seen plenty of granola bar recipes floating around on several websites, that I finally decided to make my own granola bars. My dad was especially happy about this; Being that these were going to be homemade granola bars. He doesn't like anything store bought. He likes anything that is homemade and thats the way he likes it. So he was especially happy about this.

I originally wanted to have dried blueberries in these, however, I could not find any in the store, and I didn't have the time or the patients to make my own dried blueberries. I wanted to make granola bars today. And I had to make granola bars with my favorite nut; Pecans! In the end, it was much better that I used raisins instead of blueberries. I have a feeling that the blueberries the pecans wouldn't have made a good pair. With the cinnamon, everything just came together wonderfully.

One tip I have when making these; LET THEM COOL! If you do not let them cool completely, they will fall apart on you. Then you would had destroyed a beautiful creation.

Recipe

2 cups rolled oats
1/2 cup sunflower seeds
1/4 cup wheat germ
1/4 cup shredded coconut
1 cup pecans, chopped into little pieces
1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup brown sugar, packed
2 tbsp. butter, melted
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. salt
2 tsp. vanilla
1 cup dried raisins (or any dried fruit)


1. Butter a 9 by 9-inch glass baking dish and set aside. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

2. Spread the oats, sunflower seeds, almonds, and wheat germ onto a half-sheet pan. Place in the oven and toast for 15 minutes to toast.

3. While thats going, combine the honey, brown sugar, butter, cinnamon, extract and salt in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Cook just until the brown sugar has completely dissolved.

4. Once the oat mixture is done, remove it from the oven and reduce the heat to 300 degrees. Immediately add the oat mixture to the liquid mixture, add the dried fruit and coconut, and stir to combine.

5. Turn mixture out into the prepared baking dish and press down, evenly distributing the mixture in the dish and place in the oven to bake for about 35 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely. Cut into squares and wrap up for snacks or store in an airtight container for up to a week.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk Blondies

You know, I think that maybe no one would ever have guessed that I liked blondies more than I liked brownies. Since I make brownies all the time, one would most likely think that I loved brownies more than a decadent, lushes blondie. Oh how wrong people would be if they were to believe such a thing...

I'm a serious addict when it comes to blondies. One of the reasons that I don't make them that often is because, if I have the chance to eat the entire thing of baked blondie, I will... No joke. Not it one day, but I'll defiantly be snatchy when it comes to my blondies. If I see someone taking one, I'll be right behind them as they walk, staring them down with evil eyes for they had taken one of my precious blondies! Haha, ok, that may seem crazy, and I'm not to the extreme of such, but I really do love blondies and I will eat loads and loads of them, which, is the reason why I don't make them all the time.

With brownies, being that they are so extremely rich, that just having one is far enough for me. It's to rich that I can't extend even just one. With blondies however, I never get tired of the chewy, melt in your mouth taste. I find that any blondie taste amazing and I also find it hard for there to be a 'bad' blondie. Same as how I feel about brownies. I don't think there is really a 'bad' brownie; Not that I've experienced yet.

I find that blondies are best with pecans, chocolate, and coconut. I think the combination is just wonderful and amazing together. I think the combination of pecans, chocolate, and coconut alone is a great combination (as you will seem to find out...)! But, when you put that combination into a blondie; Ohh! It's just to die for. But, you'll die of true bliss happiness if you take a big, huge scoop of ice cream and top it on a blondie. Just to die for.

Recipe

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 1/4 cups firmly packed light brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate, chopped
1/2 cup pecans, chopped
1/2 cup flaked coconut


1. Preheat the oven to 350. Butter and flour a 9" x 12" baking pan. In a medium bowl, whisk or sift together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. Set aside.

2. In another bowl, mix the butter and peanut butter until fluffy. Add the sugar and mix until combined. Add the eggs and vanilla and mix until combined. With the mixer running on low speed, slowly add the dry ingredients, mixing until just combined.

3. Using a spatula or wooden spoon, fold in the chocolate, peanuts and coconut. Bake for about 30 minutes, or until the blondies have just begun to brown around the edges. Allow them to cool completely before cutting.

DBC: Perfect Party Cake

This month's Daring Bakers Challenge has finally came. And this months was the Perfect Party Cake. I don't know about everyone else, but these last few challenges has been sort of easy. I'm still waiting on something that just really challenges me. But lately that hasn't been the case...

None the less, I was still excited about this months challenge. I'm mean, who doesn't like cake? I pretty much followed the recipe all the way threw, except for the filling. I did not use raspberry because my mothers actually allergic to them. I decided to make a strawberry frosting for the filling because everyone likes strawberries.

I was sort of suprised at how fast this cake went! On the first day I made it, I didn't think to many people would really want to eat some, however, by the time it was 6 pm, more than half the cake was gone! Apparently, my aunt and cousins found out that I had made a cake, and came over to get some. Not that it bothered me, I was actually flattered that they came and got some and loved it.

And it was a very nice came. I especially loved the coconut on top. I toasted my coconut because that how I generally like coconut. It being toasted just tastes so much better in my opinion. This months challenge was a very great cake, and now I'm ready for the next challenge. I'm hoping for something very challenging.

Recipe

For the Cake

2 1/4 cups cake flour
1 tbsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/4 cups whole milk or buttermilk
4 large egg whites
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 tsp. grated lemon zest
1 stick (8 tbsp.) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 tsp. pure lemon extract

For the Buttercream
1 cup sugar
4 large egg whites
3 sticks (12 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice (from 2 large lemons)
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

For Finishing
2/3 cup seedless raspberry preserves stirred vigorously or warmed gently until spreadable
About 1 1/2 cups sweetened shredded coconut


1. To make the cake, center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter two 9 x 2 inch round cake pans and line the bottom of each pan with a round of buttered parchment or wax paper. Put the pans on a baking sheet.

2. Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. Whisk together the milk and egg whites in a medium bowl. Put the sugar and lemon zest in a mixer bowl or another large bowl and rub them together with your fingers until the sugar is moist and fragrant. Add the butter and working with the paddle or whisk attachment, or with a hand mixer, beat at medium speed for a full 3 minutes, until the butter and sugar are very light. Beat in the extract, then add one third of the flour mixture, still beating on medium speed. Beat in half of the milk-egg mixture, then beat in half of the remaining dry ingredients until incorporated.

3. Add the rest of the milk and eggs beating until the batter is homogeneous, then add the last of the dry ingredients. Finally, give the batter a good 2- minute beating to ensure that it is thoroughly mixed and well aerated.

4. Divide the batter between the two pans and smooth the tops with a rubber spatula. Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until the cakes are well risen and springy to the touch – a thin knife inserted into the centers should come out clean

5. Transfer the cakes to cooling racks and cool for about 5 minutes, then run a knife around the sides of the cakes, unfold them and peel off the paper liners. Invert and cool to room temperature, right side up (the cooled cake layers can be wrapped airtight and stored at room temperature overnight or frozen for up to two months).

1. To make the Buttercream, put the sugar and egg whites in a mixer bowl or another large heatproof bowl, fit the bowl over a plan of simmering water and whisk constantly, keeping the mixture over the heat, until it feels hot to the touch, about 3 minutes.

2. The sugar should be dissolved, and the mixture will look like shiny marshmallow cream.
Remove the bowl from the heat. Working with the whisk attachment or with a hand mixer, beat the meringue on medium speed until it is cool, about 5 minutes.

3. Switch to the paddle attachment if you have one, and add the butter a stick at a time, beating until smooth. Once all the butter is in, beat in the buttercream on medium-high speed until it is thick and very smooth, 6-10 minutes. During this time the buttercream may curdle or separate – just keep beating and it will come together again.

4. On medium speed, gradually beat in the lemon juice, waiting until each addition is absorbed before adding more, and then the vanilla. You should have a shiny smooth, velvety, pristine white buttercream. Press a piece of plastic against the surface of the buttercream and set aside briefly.

1. To assemble the cake, using a sharp serrated knife and a gentle sawing motion, slice each layer horizontally in half. Put one layer cut side up on a cardboard cake round or a cake plate protected by strips of wax or parchment paper.

2. Spread it with one third of the preserves. Cover the jam evenly with about one quarter of the buttercream. Top with another layer, spread with preserves and buttercream and then do the same with a third layer (you’ll have used all the jam and have buttercream leftover). Place the last layer cut side down on top of the cake and use the remaining buttercream to frost the sides and top. Press the coconut into the frosting, patting it gently all over the sides and top.



Serving
The cake is ready to serve as soon as it is assembled, but I think it’s best to let it sit and set for a couple of hours in a cool room – not the refrigerator. Whether you wait or slice and enjoy it immediately, the cake should be served at room temperature; it loses all its subtlety when it’s cold. Depending on your audience you can serve the cake with just about anything from milk to sweet or bubbly wine.

Storing
The cake is best the day it is made, but you can refrigerate it, well covered, for up to two days. Bring it to room temperature before serving. If you want to freeze the cake, slide it into the freezer to set, then wrap it really well – it will keep for up to 2 months in the freezer; defrost it, still wrapped overnight in the refrigerator.

Playing Around
Since lemon is such a friendly flavour, feel free to make changes in the preserves: other red preserves – cherry or strawberry – look especially nice, but you can even use plum or blueberry jam.

Fresh Berry Cake
If you will be serving the cake the day it is made, cover each layer of buttercream with fresh berries – use whole raspberries, sliced or halved strawberries or whole blackberries, and match the preserves to the fruit. You can replace the coconut on top of the cake with a crown of berries, or use both coconut and berries. You can also replace the buttercream between the layers with fairly firmly whipped sweetened cream and then either frost the cake with buttercream (the contrast between the lighter whipped cream and the firmer buttercream is nice) or finish it with more whipped cream. If you use whipped cream, you’ll have to store the cake the in the refrigerator – let it sit for about 20 minutes at room temperature before serving.

Tropical Coconut Cheesecake

Easter has come! Yes! Easter is always so fun; For me and my family at least. Even now, I still go easter egg hunting. Makes me feel like a little kid again. Plus, I do it for my little brother. I mean, he's still younger than me. But as I grow up and get older, my parents kind of stop doing the things they did for me as a kid for my brother. Because they've already done it. So it forces my little brother to grow up faster. And I don't want that. I want him to have fun as a little kid like I did. Plus, I'm still a kid inside. I still love doing these kind of things.

For Easter, we usually go to a brunch at a restaurant called Dubsdread. This is the only time they actually do a brunch, and it's always packed! You have to make reservations a month in advance just so you can have a table! But we always make sure to do such. They're food really good to. There's so much to choose from. This year, my boyfriend got to come with us for the first time. He loves buffets (which he shouldn't!!), so he was in heaven we he saw all what they had. It was fun with just the 5 of us, my mom, dad, brother and Chris. But, then we had to go see the ENTIRE family after words.

We went over to my aunts house to see everyone; And I mean everyone. Had to of been 100 people in that house. We're a big family here. Which, I like my big family :]. After going to my aunts, we head back home to have dinner with my grandparents (on my fathers side). And they love it when my mom cooks and I bake. They'll eat everything to. They're big eaters. I decided to make a cheesecake for them. I know my Nana loves cheesecake, and my grandfather, well, he'll eat anything really. With all the sugar he eats, you'd never know he was actually diabetic!! But he's started to get his sugar intake under control.

After a long day, it was great to get to sit down, with your close family, and have a slice of a delicious cheesecake. I even gave the cheesecake a light pink color to it for the holiday. It was so cute; And it was so good. And everyone loved it, which was what I was hoping for. Everything turned out great.

Recipe

Coconut Cake Base

2 eggs
2/3 cups granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup sweetened coconut
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 (18-ounce) jar pineapple ice cream topping, divided

Cream Cheese Filling

24 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
1 (8.5-ounce) can cream of coconut
4 eggs
1 cup sweetened coconut
1 tablespoon rum

Garnish

1/2 cup toasted sweetened coconut


1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease the bottom of a 10-inch spring form pan.

2. Combine the eggs, sugar, vanilla, coconut, baking powder and flour in a medium bowl and spread in the bottom of the pan. Bake for 25 minutes, then remove from oven and set aside to cool slightly. Spread with 1/2 of the pineapple topping, reserving remaining topping for use later in the recipe.

3. Place cream cheese in the bowl of a heavy-duty stand mixer. Beat on low speed until smooth. Add the sugar and beat until combined. Add the cream of coconut, and beat again. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition until well incorporated. Add the rum and coconut and beat until just combined. Pour over prepared base and bake 1 hour and 15 minutes.

4. Remove from the oven and cool at room temperature for 1 hour. Place the remaining 1/2 cup of sweetened coconut in a glass pie plate and toast in the oven for 10 to 15 minutes, until it becomes golden. Sprinkle the toasted coconut around the outside of the cheesecake. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Makes 12 to 16 servings

Dark Chocolate Coconut Cookies

Ok. So, I've become a huge fan of watching Bobby Flays show 'Throwdown with Bobby Flay.' I love to see all the people he goes up against and the real people out there that can bake and/or cook so good, that it even better than Bobby Flay (And I use to think Bobby Flay was the best!). The latest episode, Bobby Flay had a cookie throwdown against one of New Yorks favorite bakeries; Levain Bakery.

I've seen this little bakery a few times when walking down 74th st., but, I've never gone in to try anything of theirs. I really wish I did now. After seeing this episode of throwdown, I just wanted to kick myself in the butt and tell myself just how dumb I was for never going into they're bakery while I had the chance.

Soon after watching the show, I was on the internet in search for a recipe of they're delicious looking cookies. It took me awhile, but I came across one. Tried it right away, didn't waste time, wanted to have the cookies right away. And oh my lord! They were so sinful, you can tell just by looking at they're size, but, they were so, so, so flippin delicious! It was heaven...

Now, their original cookies were with walnuts instead of pecans, however, I'm a pecan girl. So I replaced the walnuts with pecans. I'll be sure to go to they're bakery next time I'm in New York. I need to try the real things!

Recipe

2 1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup dark cocoa powder
1/4 tsp. baking powder
pinch of salt
2 sticks butter, softened
1 1/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 cup large pecan pieces
1 1/8 unsweetened shredded coconut


1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. In a medium bowl, cream the butter and the sugar together until well blended and fluffy. Add the eggs and beat until well incorporated, then beat in cocoa powder.

3. Mix in flour, salt and baking powder until just combined. Gently fold in remaining ingredients.

4. Transfer dough to a clean work surface and gently mix dough by hand to ensure even distribution of ingredients. Divide into 12 equal portions and transfer on a sheet pan with parchment paper.

5. Bake in the oven for 12-15 minutes. Take care not to over bake. Let cool on rack.

Be sure to store in an airtight container!

Banana Cookie Bars

I don't know if I have really ever tasted a cookie bar that tasted as good as these. I didn't think anything could necessarily beat my love for banana bread, but this is really making me question whether or not these are better or not.

These cookie bars are really rich and chewy and so darn delicious! To describe what they taste like me would be to say... It's like a slice of banana bread in between two chocolate brownies. That's how I would describe these bars. When you take the first bite, the bananas and the chocolate really come threw very strong. If your a chocoholic, I would defiantly recommend these. If not, a good alternative for instead of a chocolate crust would be a graham cracker crust or even a shortbread version. You could even switch the dark chocolate chips for butterscotch chips or peanut butter chips or even white chocolate chips. Theres a variety away to change it around, but this one is defiantly meant for the chocolate lovers out there.

Recipe

1 1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/8 tsp. salt
1 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup confectioner sugar
1 can (14 oz.) sweetened condensed milk
2 bananas, mashed
2 cup dark chocolate chips
1 cup walnuts
2/3 cup shredded coconut


1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 13 x 9 inch baking pan with parchment paper.

2. In a large bowl, soft together flour, cocoa powder, and salt. Set aside. In another bowl, beat butter and confectioner sugar until creamy. With two spoons or by hand, stir butter mixture with flour mixture to mix together. Take both spoons and push down the butter mixture with the flour mixture. It will take time, but batter will become moist, but kind of stiff.

3. Press mixture into prepared baking pan and bake for about 15 minutes.

4. In a medium bowl, Mix together condensed milk and bananas until incorporated. Once the crust has baked for 15 minutes, take out and pour the banana mixture over it. Combined chocolate chips, walnuts and coconut together in a bowl and sprinkle over the top.

5. Bake for abut 25-30 minutes. Let cool completely, roughly around 10-15 minutes. Then, chill in the fridge for about an hour. To chill quicker, place in the freezer for 25 minutes. These are much better when chilled. After chilled, cut into desired sizes.

Tahiti Blondies

Oh. My. God.

I honestly don't know if I have ever had a blondie that tasted to good. I can't even come up with words that can simply describe the oozing goodness these delectable little delicious things of goodness are! They're just... So good!

I saw these blondies the other day while watching Food Networks 'Throwdown with Bobby Flay' with a throw down on Blondies. He has against these two guys with a little company called 'Sugar Daddys' that specialize in Blondies and Brownies.

They're most popular blondie, the Tahiti Blondie caught my eye. It's a blondie with coconut, pecans (or cashews), dark chocolate and white chocolate. It has a hint of pineapple in it, however, I did not add it because I didn't have it on hand. Nonetheless, they still came out wonderful.

After seeing they're blondie, I just had to make those blondies! Sad things about them; Sugar Daddy doesn't give out they're recipe. So, I did the best I could to copy they're recipe. I didn't do everything as they did for certain reasons. They used cashews, but I used pecans. They used pineapple, but I added none. Though these aren't the real Sugar Daddy's blondies, I think that they're close enough, and are just delicious! I added extra coconut and pecans for topping and I cut them into circles with a round cookie cutter.

Recipe

1 1/2 cup flour
1 1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
3/4 cup butter, melted
2 large eggs
4 tsp. vanilla
1 cup pecans, chopped
1 1/2 cup shredded coconut
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup white chocolate chips


1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line a 9 x 13 baking pan with parchment paper.

2. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt and set aside.

3. In another bowl, whisk together butter and brown sugar until combined. Add eggs and vanilla to mixture and mix well. Take the dry ingredients and fold into wet ingredients until combined.

4. Fold in chocolates, coconut and pecans into batter. Try not to over mix. Pour batter into prepared baking pan and smooth out with a spatula or spoon. Top with extra coconut, chocolate and pecans (optional).

5. Bake for about 25-28 minutes, or until top light golder brown on the top. Do not over bake! Cool to room temperature before cutting.

Banana Coconutty Cake

Fathers Day came; And my dad wanted me to cook. So did my grandfather. So my grandpa and nana came over for dinner. I told my dad to choose what it was he wanted to eat. It took him about a week and then when he finally chose what he wanted to eat, it was such a simple meal to make; A Steak and Pasta toss. To simple!

I wanted to bake something for fathers day as well; My grandpa and dad both love nuts! And bananas. So, firstly, I made a Banana Cake. I added walnuts, cashews, almonds and coconut. Plus Bananas, obviously. So I called it Banana Coconutty Cake. I made Banana Walnut Bread as well. Mainly I did that one cause I've been craving it like crazy. They all thought it was strange when I took two slices of Banana Bread and crumbled it into a mug, poured milk in it, chocolate syrup and whip cream. So delicious! They looked at me like, "WTF?" They soon came to realize why I liked it when they tried it :]

Now I feel like a fat cow; I ate too much for my own good. My eyes were bigger than my stomach. Now I have to fast once again; eh, oh well. I'm just glad everyone liked it :]

Recipe

2 cups Gold Medal® all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup butter or margarine, softened
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 cup mashed bananas (about 2 large)
3/4 cup of nuts [your choice]
1/2 cup coconut


1. Heat oven to 350ºF. Grease bottom and sides of rectangular pan, 13x9x2 inches, with shortening. In medium bowl, mix flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt; set aside.

2. In large bowl, beat 1 cup sugar and 1 cup butter with electric mixer on high speed, scraping bowl occasionally, until fluffy. Beat in eggs and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Gradually beat in flour mixture alternately with buttermilk until smooth. Stir in bananas. Pour into pan.

3. Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center of cake comes out clean. Cool completely, about 1 hour.