Piña Colada Cake

Who loves coconut?!! Who loves pineapples?!! And what do they remind you of?

SUMMER!!

Yes, it is summer! We have been waiting for this weather for a very long time. It is finally here, and everyone is enjoying the sun in the park. People are throwing frisbee across your head while you sip on that ice cold beer. Everyone is taking every opportunity to barbecue or go for a picnic, and of course the very important sun tanning. Some workaholics actually sit in the park with their laptops too!! Looks like no one wants to miss out on the sun.

If you are dreaming of being in a tropical country but is stuck here with a moody summer, I bring you my version of piña colada cake. Hopefully this will give you some joy of being in a pretend tropical holiday.

The piña colada cake!!

PINA COLADA CAKE RECIPE

adapted from Craving Chronicles

Coconut Cake
Makes 1 x 9" square cake; Half the square cake to assemble a 9" x 4.5"

Ingredients

• 160g plain flour


• 25g corn flour


• ½ teaspoon baking powder


• ¼ teaspoon baking soda


• ¼ teaspoon salt


• 160g cups caster sugar


• 100g unsalted butter, room temperature


• ½ cup canned sweetened cream of coconut


• 2 large eggs yolks (whites reserved)


• ½ tsp vanilla extract


• ½ tsp coconut extract


• ½ cup buttermilk

• 2 (reserved) egg whites


• pinch of salt

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180°C.


2. Line and grease your cake tin.


3. Whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a bowl.


4. Beat the sugar, butter and coconut cream until fluffy for about 3 minutes.


5. Add in the egg yolks, vanilla and coconut extract. Beat until combined.


6. Mix in the dry ingredients then buttermilk until blended. It is okay if it looked curdled.


7. On a separate clean bowl, whip the reserved egg whites with a pinch of salt to stiff peaks. Gently fold into cake batter until just combined.


8. Pour into greased cake tin and bake for about 30 minutes.


9. When ready, let it cool for 10 minutes. Run a knife along the sides and invert the cake on a rack to cool completely.

Tips

• I used  9 inch square cake tin but you can always double it up to make a 2 x 9 inch round/square cake.


• This cake can me made ahead and frozen.

Left to right: Pineapple compote; Spread the pineapple compote on half of the coconut cake.

Pineapple Compote

adapted from CDKitchen

Ingredients

• 260g pineapples


• 3 tbs brown sugar


• 10g butter


• 2 tbs pineapple juice


• Freshly ground black pepper

Methods

1. Melt the butter and sugar in a small pot on low heat.


2. Add the pineapples and let it cook in medium heat for about 10 minutes.


3. Put the pineapple juice and black pepper in to the pot and let it simmer for another 10 minutes or until almost dry.

Mascarpone Cream Frosting

Ingredients

• 240g mascarpone


• 150g double cream


• 1 teaspoon lemon juice


• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract


• 1 teaspoon coconut extract


• 1 tbs rum (optional)

Methods

1. Whisk the mascarpone, rum, vanilla extract and coconut cream until creamy. In another bowl, whip the double cream to soft peak.


2. Fold gently until well combined.

The assembled cake;

Pineapple compote sandwiched between the coconut cake, frosted with mascarpone cream, covered in shredded coconut.

Assembly 

Components

• 1 x 9 inch square coconut cake cut in half


• Cooled pineapple compote


• Mascarpone cream frosting

• 2 tbs coconut rum (optional)


• 2 tbs pineapple juice

• 1 ½ cup shredded coconut

Cake assembly

1. Set one half the coconut cake on a plate. Poke a few holes into the cake with a toothpick or fork.


2. Mix the rum and pineapple juice and brush the cake with half of the mixture and allow it to soak in.


3. Top the cake with pineapple compote.


4. Layer it with mascarpone cream, just covering the pineapple compote.


5. Place the coconut cake on top of the pineapple and cream layer.


6. Brush the cake with the rest of the pineapple rum mixture.


7. Spread remaining mascarpone cream over the top and and sides of the cake.


8. Press the shredded coconut lightly on to the top and side of the cake.


9. Lastly, place the pineapple rings on top of the assembled cake to give it some colour. Make sure the pineapple rings are dry before placing it on the frosted cake.

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Mango chocolate cream layer

Crushed digestive biscuits in individual pots

On my way home one friday evening, I decided to treat M and myself to some homemade dessert but was only willing to spend a minimal amount of time making it. So I came up with something really quick and easy during my zoned out journey in the tube. What can be easier than a non-baking dessert? The best thing about this dessert, it is very flexible! Swap the ingredients with anything you fancy. Instead of using fresh mango, swap it with orange or strawberry. If you do not like fresh fruits, use any jam you have. If that is not easy enough for you, you can even top it off with Rice Krispies or Coco Pops instead! Like I said, anything you fancy.

Chopping up the fleshy mango

MANGO CHOCOLATE CREAM LAYER RECIPE

Serves 2

• 150g digestive biscuit (crushed)


• 150g dark chocolate


• 50ml milk


• 300ml double cream


• 2 tsp vanilla extract


• 1 mango (diced)

Methods:

1. Give the digestive biscuits a quick blitz in the food processor or crush them with your hands.


2. Melt the dark chocolate in a bain marie. Take it off heat when chocolate is almost entirely melted. Stir gently until smooth. Add in the milk and combine well. Set aside to cool.


3. Whip up the double cream with vanilla extract until soft peak and fold in the melted chocolate.


4. Place the crushed digestive biscuits into little individual pots, tumbler glasses or ramekins, depending on how you would like to serve them.


5. Scoop the chocolate cream mixture into the pots that are filled with crushed digestive.


6. Finish off with diced mangos.

Tips:

• To save time, you can melt the chocolate in the microwave. It is a lot quicker.


• Also instead of using fresh fruits, there is always the option of using jam or marmalade.

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Date Night In : Chocolate Thyme Cake with Orange Cream

..... a continuity of the Date Night In post with the Beef Stew recipe

Have you had thyme hot chocolate? It is one of my recent favourites. It gives the hot chocolate a very lovely scent and a smoother texture in mouth that I like. It has a calming effect too. There is just an extra step and ingredient added in your usual making of hot chocolate. All you need to do is add a sprig of thyme while heating the milk, remove it and froth the milk. Put a few teaspoon of your favourite hot chocolate powder and add the heated milk into the mug and stir well. The froth is poured in after for a finer finish of smoothly frothed milk. Try this and let me know how you like it. If you do not have a milk frother, omit that step or buy one. I currently use the Bodum Latteo Milk Frother but my I am itching for the Aeroccino that heats and froth at the same time.

From the above experience of the perfect combination of chocolate and thyme, it gave me the idea of adding thyme to the chocolate cake.



CHOCOLATE CAKE WITH ORANGE CREAM RECIPE

adapted from Sweet Paul's Fallen Chocolate Cake

serves 8

Ingredients:

• 250g dark chocolate


• 225g butter


• 6 eggs, seperated


• 4 sprigs of lemon thyme


• 6 tbs sugar


• 250ml double cream


• 1 tsp vanilla extract


• 1 tbs caster sugar


• 1 orange

Methods:

1. Preheat the oven to 180C.


2. Melt the chopped chocolate with the butter and lemon thyme in a bain marie or in the microwave.


3. Beat the yolks and sugar until pale. Mix in the chocolate.


4. Whisk the egg whites into stiff peaks and gently fold into the chocolate mixture.


5. Pour the mixture into ramekins or into a 12 inch cake tin.


6. Bake for 12 minutes if using ramekin or 16-20 minutes if using cake tin.


7. The cake will rise and fall so don't panic.


8. While the cake is in the oven, zest half an orange and squeeze out juice from half an orange.


9. Use the remaining half of the orange for decoration of the cake. Cut them into small wedges.


10. Whip the double cream with a teaspoon of vanilla extract and sugar until soft peak.


11. Combine orange juice and zest and mix well.


12. Scoop the whipped cream on top of the cake and decorate with the orange wedges.

Tips:

• The cake tastes much better when warm. So heat it up before serving and scoop a generous amount of orange cream onto it afterwards.

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Kaya cream pie with love

The first time I heard about Mikey Perillo is a news feed from Tastespotting facebook page inviting all food bloggers to commemorate him by making Peanut butter pie. It was his favourite. Jennifer Perillo, a food writer, editor and a mother, lost her husband to a heart attack. I cannot imagine losing someone I love so dearly in such an unexpected way. It is devastating and I wish Jennie well.

Let us take this opportunity to reflect. Think about our loved ones and let them know how you feel when you are able to, before it is all too late. The last thing you want to do is take them for granted and regret it later. So to all my friends and family, although I don't say this very often, every single one of you have touched my lives and enhanced it in many different ways. I really appreciate having you by me all this while.  You are always close to my heart.

I hope you enjoy this Kaya Cream Pie, inspired by peanut butter pie. I would like to dedicate this pie to all my friends and family and to everyone that I have encountered with, including you, the very few readers of my post.

Kaya cream pie slice

Kaya Cream Pie

For the Pie Base:

• 150g digestive
• 90g butter (melted)
• 40g instant white coffee powder (I used 1 instant packet of the Old Town white coffee)

For the Kaya Cream Filling:

• 250ml double cream
• 50g butter
• 200g homemade kaya
• 200g cream cheese

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C. Add the digestive biscuits into a food processor and pulse it until finely crushed.
2. Mix the crushed digestive, white coffee powder and butter until well blended.
3. Compress the base mixture on to a 9" pie base.
4. Bake in the oven for 15 minutes. When ready, cool and refrigerate.
5. Next, whip the double cream until soft peak. Refrigerate to keep cool.
6. Cream the butter and sugar. Blend in kaya until well mixed.
7. Then mix in the cream cheese until soft and creamy.
8. Fold in the cream cheese mixture onto the whipped double cream.
9. Pour the mixture into the pie base and chill for 4 hours or over night to set.

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