March 13: National Coconut Torte Day

I love coconut. And chocolate. So I decided to make a Chocolate Buttercream Coconut Torte for today! It was a good choice. I was a little nervous after the Blueberry Popover incident/failure, but I am confident to say that I have redeemed myself. This cake tasted like something I am sure royalty eats! It was very fancy and I felt like I was eating a true delicacy!

Isn't she a beauty?

Before beginning this baking adventure, I might recommend putting on a cute pair of slippers. I think the reason this torte was a success was because of my cute slippers!

Here is some fun information about tortes. What exactly is a torte you may ask? (I did actually ask this.) Tortes are normally flour-less or near flour-less. They are thinner than cakes and sometimes are made out of ground nuts. They are very fancy.

Personally, I think the reason why I like tortes so much is because they sound like turtles. We all know I love turtles.


Coconut Torte Recipe

Ingredients:
- 3/4 cup coconut flakes
- 1 cup flour
- 1 tsp. baking powder
- 1/4 tsp. salt
- 4 eggs, separated
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 tsp. vanilla
- 1/4 cup butter
- 2 tbsp. rum (optional)


Directions:
1. Grease an 8 inch springform pan. Sprinkle 1/4 cup coconut flakes on the bottom and on the sides of the pan. However, I couldn't figure out how to get the coconut flakes to stick to the side of the pan, even when greased, so I just sprinkled them on the bottom and it turned out fine.

At this point, you may question why your mother has four different, yet similarly sized springform pans when you cannot ever remember her using them. Maybe she only bakes with them when I am out of the house?

2. Stir together the rest of the coconut (1/2 cup), flour, baking powder, and salt.

3. Beat the egg whites in a separate bowl until stiff peaks form and then gradually beat in 1/2 cup sugar.

4. Beat the egg yolks, 1/2 cup sugar, melted butter, vanilla, and rum until thick and pasty.

Note: It is important that when you add the melted butter into the egg yolks, it is cool. If not, you risk the hot butter cooking the eggs. We are not making an omelet here, we are making a torte.  You don't want it to turn out egg-y.

Another note: You may decide, since you have the rum out, to take a swig. You may then quickly remember that you are not a pirate, and that rum tastes better in cakes or in mixed drinks. You may need to recover by drinking some water. This is nothing to be embarrassed about. 

5. Fold the egg yolk mixture into the egg white mixture, and then into the flour. Don't over mix.

6. Spread mixture in the springform pan and bake at 325 degrees for 50 minutes.

7. Let cool until completely cool once out of the oven, then remove the sides of the springform pan.

8. The recipe I loosely followed (which should be noted that this recipe showed no pictures which I thought was a little sketchy) said to cut the cake into three equal layers. Well that's a joke! This cake was about one inch tall. How was that supposed to turn out well? I cut mine into two layers and just frosted between the layers and on top. The recipe also said to put chocolate shavings on top. Yes, because I have time to make my own chocolate shavings - NOT. Anyways, as you will see from the pictures, I only had two layers and no chocolate shavings and it still was something to admire!

Springform pan covered in coconut!

Ready to bake!

Baked!

See how thin it is? And you are supposed to make three layers out of this? I think not!

The two layers. If you look at the one to the left, you will see it is very coconut-y, that's what was on the bottom of the pan which was covered in coconut.



Buttercream Frosting

Ingredients:
- 1 cup butter, softened
- 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 3 cups powdered sugar
- 1/2 cup coconut flakes
- 3 tbsp milk or almond milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 2 tablespoons rum (optional)
- 2 tablespoons cinnamon (see below)

So I realized that while I love cinnamon, and add it to almost anything, I have never added cinnamon to frosting. So I did today. I added about 2 tablespoons cinnamon to the frosting, and well, it gave it a kick! I was a fan! Only for the adventurous though :D

Mix the softened butter, cocoa powder, vanilla and rum together. Alternately add the powdered sugar and milk until you like the taste and consistency. Then add the coconut and stir well.

Frost between the cake layers and on top and then enjoy!

March 10: National Blueberry Popover Day

I love blueberries. My dad has several blueberry bushes and every summer I eat approximately 87% of them by myself. I refer to them as "my blueberry bushes" even though I have little to no responsibility for their care. Anyways, because of my blueberry "addiction", I was stoked for today.

Are you prepared to laugh? This was my first "fail" of a baking recipe. I blame it on the fact that I used a muffin pan instead of a popover pan. I guess popover pans are actually important. It's on my list to buy one in the near future though. A lot of people rave about them and I'm never actually had one.

Zesting that lemon!

Lemon Blueberry Popover Recipe:

-1 cup of milk (as usual I used unsweetened almond milk)
-2 eggs
-2 tbsp melted butter, separated
-1 cup flour
-zest from 1 lemon
- juice from 1 lemon (I ended up with a huge lemon so I only put in the juice from half of it)
-1/2 cup blueberries

Directions:
1. Preheat over to 400 degrees. Mix milk, eggs, and 1 tbsp of melted butter together. Then add in the flour, zest, and lemon juice.
2. Place the popover pan (or in my case the muffin pan) in the oven for a few minutes to warm it up. Then pour a little bit of the remaining 1 tbsp melted butter into the bottom of each hole. Fill each hole 2/3 of the way with batter. Top with blueberries.
3. Bake for 15 minutes and then turn heat down to 350 degrees and bake for 15 more minutes.
***DO NOT OPEN OVEN WHILE THEY ARE COOKING***

4. Take out of oven and slit the tops with a knife to let steam escape.
5. If you are me, and you have now realized that this is a FAIL, you should probably laugh about it.

Did you notice I got new mixing bowls?

I did end up eating two of these, but they were a little "heavy" and they were very short. They tasted like a condensed muffin. However, pictures I have seen on the internet look very airy and fluffy and delicious.I imagine, they would taste a little like you were eating a cloud.

See? BIG FAIL!

I'm not giving up. Once I get an official popover pan, you better believe I will be trying this recipe again.

So, knowing me, I had to tweak the recipe. I added about two tablespoons of cinnamon to the batter because...well cinnamon. Cinnamon is good! You know how I pretty much add cinnamon to anything. I also probably added too many blueberries to the tops of the popovers (blame it on my blueberry addiction), so that could have possibly weighed them down. I then added a cinnamon-sugar mixture on top of the popovers. Once again, that was not in the recipe.

A limp, very short, condensed muffin thing.

I will update you the next time I make these with a real popover pan. I may even stick to the original recipe.