[Inez] Tiered coconut cake

I may have mentioned that I'm going to be making my dear friend Steph's wedding cake this June. The plan is a three tier cake (12 inch, 9 inch, 6 inch) with layers in chocolate, hazelnut, and vanilla. The hazelnut is for Steph, the chocolate is because it's damn delicious, and the vanilla is for weirdos who don't like chocolate and/or are allergic to tree nuts. Okay, there's nothing weird about being allergic to tree nuts, I just don't know why you would pick vanilla over chocolate in that situation.

Anyway, my moms gave me a frosting decorating tip set for Christmas, which I will be needing to use for between the tiers on the wedding cake. Ruby came to visit (so long ago, now...) and we made a coconut cake in differently sized tiers and then we played around with the icing bag thingy.

This is not what the wedding cake will look like. There won't be any coconut shavings and there won't be any pink and that whole side won't be drooping.... but this was fun to put together and delicious to make. Coconut cake. Did you know it's one of the best things ever?

P.S. Sorry for the crappy nighttime pictures. If I don't take pictures at night I will never take pictures again, it seems.

[Inez] Hibiscus extract

Hibiscus extract is something Elise and I made while we were living together because we were on an extract kick and we happened to have dried hibiscus (or jamaica). Hibiscus makes a wonderful tea, which is very good hot (I like it by itself) or cold (excellent with lemon and sugar). It also, as it turns out, makes a beautiful extract which is delicious in drinks or baked goods. Now I sound like a commercial, but it it really is that good.

Making an extract (or essence, if you're feeling picky) is too easy. We started this because I wanted to make vanilla extract, and then we went a little crazy. Here's how it goes:

1. Put some of the desired item (hibiscus, vanilla, cinnamon, lavendar...) in a small bottle or jar. If you're impatient, be generous, because then you'll have to wait less time for the good stuff.

2. Add alcohol. I like to use vodka because it's a blank slate, but you could use bourbon or brandy or something. It should be strong, though.

3. Mix it up, and let it sit.

You should let it sit for 1-3 months, depending on how much of an alcohol flavor you can tolerate/want. Within two weeks, your hibiscus extract will look ready.

But if you close your eyes and take a whiff, you'll still think you're smelling a bottle of straight vodka.

So let me tell you the secret about hibiscus extract -- Elise discovered this when she was making my birthday cake last year. Add one or two teaspoons of hibiscus extract to something chocolate that you're baking, like chocolate cake. You won't be able to taste the hibiscus, per se, but if it's a recipe you use a lot you will notice that it is somehow more chocolatey than usual. It's amazing.

[Inez] Wedding cake plans

My dear friend (and roommate for three years) Stephanie Wu just got engaged to her boyfriend of 4 years! I couldn't be more happy for her. She's eaten many of my birthday cakes, and she loves them so much that she asked me to make her wedding cake!!! I just tentatively agreed. The wedding will be on the first or second weekend in June, so stay tuned while I become totally obsessed with wedding cake... done my way. A.K.A. beautiful, delicious, and not too fancy.

Here is where I'm starting:

• Joy the Baker (one of the food blogs I follow) chronicles her first step into Wedding Cakelandia, with advice on how to use dowels to support the layers needed to feed 100 people.
• The man in this couple made their wedding cake, and he had the clever idea to make a smaller pretty cake to cut and then a big ole sheet cake to feed the masses. Interesting.

I know, I know, there are no pictures in this post. I'll put up some pictures of a mocha cake I made last month soon. And Elise has promised to help me revive this blog, too!

Pink apron for Becca

So.... this is going up extremely late. It was supposed to go up during Pink Month (July), but.... I failed. Elise obviously can't talk because she's been kind of otherwise occupied and is now on a long-ass road trip so it's not like she's been posting, but I still feel bad because this has been done for ages.

So anyway, I made Becca a birthday present, um, three months late. It's an apron, and it's pink, and I think it's pretty. I made the pattern up myself, and in the process learned that sewing hearts is HARD. Here are some pictures -- probably more than you want to see of an apron, but humor me.

[Inez] Pink coconut cake

Okay, I actually made this particular cake a little while ago, but I was saving it for July (which is PINK MONTH), and then, well, I don't know why it's taken me 15 days to put up. Anyway, I made a coconut cake. I dyed it pink, and I put dinosaur sprinkles on top.

Let's talk about this cake for a minute. The process for making it is a bit different than any other cake recipe I've used. Also it asks for cream of coconut, which I didn't know was a thing. The result is a light, fluffy, very moist and flavorful cake. I highly recommend it. I actually now keep cream of coconut on hand specifically so I can make this cake when the urge hits without having to plan extremely in advance.


First of all, let me preface this recipe by telling you it's from The New Best Recipe (a cookbook by the Test Kitchen) which means two things: 1) guaranteed to be good, and 2) pretty much guaranteed to be a bit of an involved process. The first thing it asks you to do is mix your dry ingredients, and then add your butter one tablespoon at a time with the mixer running. At first it will look like this:

But keep mixing until it looks like this:

It should be kind of like sand, with little bits no bigger than peas. Then you add your wets (don't worry, I'll put the recipe at the bottom) and I also added red food coloring, just because. 

When everything is nicely mixed, divide it evenly between two (greased and wax papered!) cake pans and bake.

Okay, The New Best Recipe called for a very involved coconut buttercream and I was like, "First of all, that's a lot of coconut, and second of all, that is too many steps." I like my frosting to be simple and delish. So I made a simple cream cheese buttercream (the butter improves the texture). 

Have I talked to you about crumb coats before? A crumb coat is where you put on all the filling between the layers, and then you put a very thin coat of frosting to cover the entire outside, and you stick it in the fridge for 15 minutes. If you're in a hurry, this obviously won't work, but it really does make it easier to frost and eliminates the worry about getting cake crumbs on the outside of your frosting. It looks like this:

Okay, so your crumb coat is all set. Now frost this puppy for real. I'm a little OCD about this kind of thing, but you don't need to worry about making it too pretty. It will be covered.

Oh, my newfound trick for frosting is to put it on a lazy susan and then I can just go all the way around without stopping.


Okay so once your cake is all frosted, you cover the whole outside with your toasted coconut. Protip: set some of it aside so it stays whole and pretty. You kind of have to smush it on to the side, but you're going to want some nice full curls for the top.

If you're a normal person, congratulations! You're done! If you're obsessed with dinosaur sprinkles like I am, you should probably put some on your cake. You can pretend that your dinosaurs live in a coconut jungle if you want.

And voila! You're done. 

(I recommend smallish pieces because this cake is kind of intense.)

RECIPES

Coconut Cake (from The New Best Recipe)

• 2 1/4 c cake flour, sifted. If you don't keep cake flour on hand, you can add 1 T of cornstarch per cup (minus 1 T) of allpurpose flour
• 1 egg + 5 egg whites
• 3/4 c cream of coconut
• 1/4 c water
• 1 t coconut extract (I used imitation coconut and it was still good)
• 1 t vanilla
• 1 c sugar
• 1 T baking powder
• 3/4 t salt (but be sure to reduce this if you use salted butter)
• 12 T unsalted butter (1 1/2 sticks) cut into 12 pieces (Butter should be softened but still firm)

1. Grease 2 9-in cake pans and preheat to 325.
2. Mix your dries (including sugar) in a big bowl
3. With a mixer on the lowest speed, add the butter 1 T at a time, then beat until the mixture resembles coarse meal, with butter bits no larger than small peas. 
4. Beat eggs with a fork to combine. Add the cream of coconut, water, coconut extract, and vanilla and beat with a fork till combined.
5. Add 1 c of the egg mixture to flour/butter mixture. Mix at medium-high till light and fluffy (~45 sec). With mixer still running, slowly add remaining liquid. Stop the mixer and scrape sides down. Beat at medium high till combined (~15 sec).
6. Divide batter between cake pans.
7. Bake ~30 min. The recipe said till deep golden brown, but my cakes stayed fairly white even when they were clearly done. It took pretty much 30 min on the nose for me.

While cakes are cooling, toast 2 c of sweetened shredded coconut about 15-20 min until a mix of white and golden brown flakes (don't overtoast!).

Cream Cheese Buttercream (from Inez's head)

• 2 packages cc
• 1 1/2 c UNSALTED butter (I accidentally used salted the first time I made this and you could tell)
• 1 t vanilla
• 1 T cream
• powdered sugar to taste (not sure how much I added, maybe 1 c or so?)

1. Cream butter. Add cc and beat until smooth. 
2. Add vanilla and cream, beat.
3. Gradually add powdered sugar until it tastes amazing.

[Inez] Cold press coffee

Let's talk about coffee. Mmm, coffee. Coffee that's cold. I like cold press coffee because a) it's delicious, b) it's cold, and c) it feels like a treat, but it's not loaded with sugar.

Cold press coffee is coffee that is brewed over the course of several hours without getting the coffee hot. This means that it has no bitterness. It's usually made pretty strong, so that it can be diluted with ice and milk. For a regular sized french press, you'll need 2/3-3/4 cup beans.

Grind those babies, throw them in your french press, fill it to the top with water and stir it up. Then just cover it and leave it on your counter or in your fridge for at least 4 hours, or do like I do and leave it overnight.

Now, a certain coffee snob I know says it's much better if you filter the coffee rather than just pushing the press part of the french press down, and it has something to do with not stirring it after it's brewed or something. For a fairly non-coffee snob like myself, I can't taste the difference, and the french press is so much quicker.

So basically, filter it as you see fit, and then pour it over lots of ice.

Some people think it's perfect just like this, and it's true that plain cold press coffee, if you use good coffee, is sweet and flavorful and delicious as is. But I say, what can't be improved with some whipping cream?

Very little, that's what.
(Or half and half, or milk. It's all good).

[Inez] Chocolate cupcakes with Greek yogurt frosting

In honor of June being brown month, I made some chocolate cupcakes. Life is tough.

I used my go-to Compost Cake recipe for the cupcakes, because it's delicious and it's easy and it's delicious. Did I mention it's really delicious? Also I don't really have enough muffin tins so I ended up with like a cupcake's worth of batter left in the bowl that didn't fit, which I was forced to eat. Did you know it's a crime in some countries to let cake batter go to waste? Like my house, for example.

Uh, and then I forgot to take any pictures of the frosting-making process, which was New and Different. I wanted something a little bit tangy, but not cream cheese because I always do cream cheese. So I decided to try making frosting out of yogurt! Here's what I did:

• 2 c Greek yogurt
• ~1 c powdered sugar
• 1 c whipping cream
• 2 t vanilla
• 1 1/2 oranges worth of zest
• a splash of orange extract
• a pinch of salt

Mix the yogurt, vanilla, sugar, orange zest, and orange extract in a large bowl. 

Whip the cream until stiff but not too stiff.

Fold the whipped cream into the yogurt mixture.

Some thoughts about the frosting: I don't know if it's because it didn't have as much fat as frosting usually does or what, but it tasted a little bit flat.  That's why I added the salt. I think it would have been good with a bit more salt, maybe 1/4 t or so, but since I added it at the very end it was kind of difficult to incorporate adequately, so I didn't add a second pinch. It was also a bit too tangy for the cake (made the cake taste really sweet! even though it's more of a bittersweet cake usually), but that flavor did mellow out after the first day. Overall, it was a fun experiment and I would do it again but I would probably pair it with something fruity (especially citrus), rather than chocolate.

Anyway, since the frosting was white, I was worried the cupcakes wouldn't be brown enough for Brown Month. Grated chocolate solves most problems, as it turns out.