Chelsey's Coconut Cake!!

Ahhhhhhh I'm soooooo excited that in 4 days my new brother Mark will be marrying one of the sweetest, most gorgeous girls I know! Since Matt and I both came up for Mark's bachelor party, Adrianne (my new mom!) decided to take us out to Edmonton for a girls day. Needless to say, I was excited. I wanted to do something special for her since every girl deserves to get spoiled, especially before her wedding. I picked out some lingerie since we were kind of making this trip into a VanKoughnett thrown stagette and I figured what the heck, I'll make a cake. I practiced making a corset cake (and it actually turned out ok) but when I went to make the real one nothing turned out right and it ended up in the bin... urgh, not my finest moment :S After looking through some photos online I figured I'd give it a whirl and hope for the best...

Coconut Ombre Cake

- 1 1/2cup white sugar (It was a little sweet, I would only use 1 cup next time)

- 1/2 cup shortening

- 1 tsp vanilla

- 1/2 tsp almond extract

- 1/2 tsp coconut extract

- 1 cup milk

- 2 cup unsifted flour

- 4 tsp baking powder

- 1/2 tsp salt

- 4 eggs whites, beaten

- 3/4 cup unsweetened shredded coconut

- Food coloring

As this recipe makes only two 9" rounds, I ended up making it twice. I decided to try wrapping the pans in aluminum foil and then spraying them with pam so the cake wouldn't stick. This worked SO well!!!!! Like amazing!! I will definitely do this again next time. The recipe is super simple... First beat the egg whites until stiff, then set aside. 

 Then cream the sugar, shortening and flavorings. In the second batch, I added blue coloring at this step too.

Next I sifted the flour, baking powder, and salt several times until there weren't any little clumps of powder yet. Then I alternated between adding milk, coconut and the flour mixture to the sugar/shortening, mixing after each addition. Once combined, I carefully folded in the egg whites. I poured half the batter in a pan, then added 2 drops of blue coloring and continued to fold over the batter. Once the color was mixed in evenly, I poured it in a second pan and baked at 400F for 20 minutes. While the cakes were in the oven, I made the recipe again, the only difference was adding more blue color to make the batter two darker shades. Once cool, I carved a thin layer off the top and bottom of each cake. This ensures that no brown lines will show when the cake is sliced and served.

Coconut Buttercream Frosting

- 2 sticks room temp margarine

- 2 cups shortening (omg... I know... ahh)

- 1/2 tsp salt

- 1 tsp vanilla

- 1/2 tsp almond extract

- 1/2 tsp coconut extract

- 8 cups powdered sugar (it was a little sweet.. I think I could get away with 7 cups, might help)

- 1 tbsp meringue powder

- Water or milk if necessary

- Food coloring
- White chocolate curls (optional)

I didn't pay too much attention to the icing while I was making it (Matt had just come home so we were chatting and packing for our visit). I mixed the margarine, shortening, salt and extracts together. Once they were smooth I added the meringue powder and icing sugar. I made 1 1/4 batches total, adding drops until I had made white and 3 shades of blue. I left a larger amount of icing white to crumb coat and layer the cake.

In preparation of constructing the cake, I layered pieces of aluminum foil around the edges of a plate and then placed the darkest layer in the center. Any crumbs or icing that falls onto the plate will land on the foil, which can then be easily removed once finished. It makes the plate clean up time about 5 seconds. Between each cake layer I spread white icing and sprinkled blue white chocolate curls. I had melted, dyed, and re-solidified white chocolate before and decided to add it, figured it couldn't hurt. Once the layers were finished, I thinly covered the entire cake in white icing. 

Making Pretty Petals

Before you start anything.... make sure you have enough icing bags!! I made the mistake of having 4 icing colors but only 2 bags :( So I had to empty, clean, and re-fill the bags when I needed to switch colors. Urgh... so annoying!! I was using a #10 piping tip but it got stuck on one of the bags. Since I don't have anything close to it, I just piped icing out of the coupler base. It actually worked better!

I started at the top of the cake side, completed the circumference and continued to work my way down to the bottom. I decided to mirror the cake layers... white fading to darker blue on the bottom. For each petal, add a dime-nickel size button of icing, then line your thin spatula to its center and drag to the side. Add another dot over the icing smear and repeat. At the end of the row, simply make a button (it won'v be very noticeable!!). 

For the top of the cake, I made a dark blue button in the center. Using the same method, I made concentric circles of petals fading through the shades of icing. It took me about 3 hours to do the icing. However, quite a bit of time was spent changing icing bags. 

Matt's Grandma spoiled me with two amazing cake carriers that I absolutely LOVE (you can bring anything anywhere when you have a round and rectangular carrier :) lol This cake survived an 8 hour drive from Fernie to Whitecourt and then another 2 hours to edmonton... Not a scratch on it! We surprised Chelsey with it and some presents after our girls day of lunch, pedicures, a movie and drinks.. it was so much fun!!!

My Attempt at Michelle's Dinner....

A few weeks ago while visiting Abbotsford, our great friends Michelle and Peter invited us over for a double date. Michelle made her famous sangria (I'm slightly addicted now :P), ceasar salad, asparagus, and bbq chicken covered with shrimp and a bernaise sauce. It was delicious!!!!! We followed that up with the pool and hot tub.. making it a perfect evening.

This morning I decided to try and replicate that yummy dinner, as best I could anyway. Looking through the fridge I picked ceasar salad and corn on the cob for our sides (sadly we had already eaten all of the asparagus). I took out the tiger prawns, thawed them with a little warm water, and removed the shells. I know this might sound strange but I love peeling the shells... don't judge haha. I needed half a grapefruit for ribs tomorrow so I squirted the rest of it on the prawns and added a little salt and pepper. I left them to marinate all day... I think this is my new favourite way to do prawns - citrus all the way! I just rubbed some pre-made garlic pepper mix on the chicken and left it to Matt to bbq.

Once the corn and chicken were on the bbq and the prawns were starting to cook in the juice (just in a frying pan for a few minutes), I went to grab my packet of bernaise sauce. To my shock there wasn't one. I must have decided on the hollandaise instead :S So I was like.. shhhhhiiiiiittttt..... and decided to whip up an asiago cheese sauce. I melted a few tablespoons of butter, whisked in a few more tablespoons of flour. Poured in some milk and added some salt and pepper. Once it was thicker, I stirred in grated asiago until it all melted. I kinda threw together a super boring salad while this was happening :(

At this point... Matt walked in with the corn and chicken. I dished up the toppings while Matt chucked the corn (my girly hands can't handle the heat). It turned out sooooo good, Matt ate his left overs as seconds. So It wasn't exactly like Michelle's but it turned out pretty good!! Thanks for the inspiration girl :D

The Great Cheesecake Adventure

Ok... so I'm going to start off by saying I am NOT a fan of cheesecake. I very rarely like and more often than not, refuse to eat it. However, Matt LOVES it and has mentioned it every time I ask him what dessert he wants me to make. I decided to finally make one!! If only I knew what I was getting myself into...

My dad swears by my mom's cheesecake (I usually take an automatic pass when she makes it). Matt swears by his mom's cheesecake (I've never had it). I decided to try Matt's favorite... We bought everything we needed, mixed it up, and threw it in the oven. After 40 minutes I was wondering why it separated and looked gross so I phoned and asked. To my surprise it was a NO BAKE cheesecake :( ahhhhhhhhhhhh. Needless to say, I was bummed. I poured it down the toilette (it looked like something out of a horror movie) and I tried it again.. but with my mom's recipe. Here's the details in case you want to try it. I actually loved it, so it must be good :) 

Cake Crust 

- 1 cup graham cracker crumbs

- 1/4 cup butter, melted

- 2 tbs granulated sugar

Preheat oven to 325F. In a medium bowl, combine crumbs, butter and sugar. Press onto the bottom of a 9" springform pan. * I don't have one so I used a square casserole dish. bake for 10 minutes, then cool. 

Lemon Cake Filling

- 3 packages cream cheese (250g each)

- 1 cup granulated sugar

- 2 tbs flour

- 1 tbs lemon rind

- 1/4 cup lemon juice

- 4 eggs

Heat oven to 425F. With a mixer or food processor, blend together cream cheese, sugar, flour, lemon juice and lemon rind until smooth. Add eggs one at a time, blending well after each addition. Pour over crust. 

Bake for 10 minutes, then reduce heat to 275F and bake for 35-40 minutes or until the center of the cake is just barely firm to the touch. If you're using a springform pan, loosen the cake from the edges with a knife. do not remove the cake until it has cooled. 

This was one of the easiest cakes I've made. It was super fast, I always thought cheesecakes were hard to make. Earlier in the morning we had bought some blackberries from a sunday market so I made a classic coulis for it. Normally my mom uses raspberries but any fruit works!

Blackberry Coulis

- 2 cups blackberries

- 1/4 cup granulated sugar

- 1 tsp lemon juice

Using a blender or food processor, puree the fruit, sugar and lemon juice. Strain using a fine-meshed sieve. Press firmly with a spatula or spoon until there are only seeds left. * You can use frozen fruit but remove some of the liquid first. 

This is what the final product looked like... YUM!!

Seafood Pasta and Green Beans

I have been OBSESSED with the deals at save on lately. I guess in a small town fish and meat  don’t sell as fast as they do back in Abby. Yesterday I bought 3 red snapper fillets for $1.50!! I decided to make a seafood pasta sauce with them and some prawns I had in the freezer. Green beans were on sale as well so I grabbed a big bag of those. (On a side note... we had a rotisserie ham on the bbq and some sesame green beans last night... yum!). I saw some fresh thick sliced bacon on for $3 this morning and decided to make green beans with bacon and onions tonight. I got a call to come into work early so I prepped everything so Matt can make dinner when he gets home. I decided to make some of dinner early so I could bring it to work J

 My multitasking skills were put to the test since everything was going to take about the same time to cook. I chopped up the snapper and took the shells off the prawns. I had half a grapefruit in the fridge and squeezed as much juice out of it as I could :P I threw in some olive oil and garlic for good measure. The fish were left to marinate in the grapefruit juice for a few hours. 

  

For the beans... I first cooked the bacon, set it aside, and then cooked the onions with some garlic. I added the beans and a touch of water, stirring occasionally until cooked. 

For the seafood sauce...  I pan fried the seafood while making a lemon dill sauce I had bought the seasoning pack for. While the pasta boiled away I stirred and mixed like a mad woman. Everything turn out great! So excited for my yummy dinner at work tonight :P

Lime Snapper and Broccoli Salad

Yesterday I picked up some red snapper fillets on sale (the best before date was today so they only cost $3!). I decided to make a easy marinade with the magic bullet... just some olive oil, lime juice (I was out of lemons), pepper and 2 garlic cloves. I poured it in two tin foil bowls, put the fillets over top, and then poured the remainder over the fish. I closed the little packets and left them in the fridge for a few hours.

I had a few heads of broccoli in the fridge so I decided to try and make Julie's Broccoli Salad (it's insanely delicious... the only way I'll eat raw broccoli haha). I cut up the broccoli into small pieces, including the peeled stem. I added some cranberries, strawberries, diced red onion, shredded cheddar cheese and sliced almonds. I whipped up some dressing using mayo, white vinegar, sugar, and a pinch of dried mustard, paprika, and pepper. I threw on the dressing and gave it a good mix.

The snapper took about 20 minutes on the BBQ to cook. It all turned out great! Matt ate three huge helpings of salad so it must have been ok :) I'm definitely making this fish again.

Cucumber Bacon Muffins (I know this sounds weird...)

For a few weeks I've been wanting to make some kind of savory muffin but a lack of muffin tins has stood in my way. I was trying to think what I could make with a cucumber that's been hanging around and figured what the heck... lets make muffins out of it! I found a recipe for salami and cucumber muffins. However, I ended up changing almost everything. So here's my big experiment...

I cooked approximately 150g of bacon (helpful hint - cut bacon while its frozen, it makes it so much easier). 

Next I peeled and grated a medium cucumber, as well as one medium white onion. I also grated about 1 cup of cheddar cheese.

In a bowl, mix together 150ml milk, 100ml light sour cream, 2 eggs, 1/3 tbsp dried dill weed and 1 tbsp olive oil.

In an electric mixer, combine 2.5 cups flour, 1 tbsp baking powder and 1 tsp salt. Then add all remaining ingredients, be careful not to over mix.

I only have mini muffin tray so I used these... One GIANT problem was that I followed part of the recipe. It said to use muffin liners (which I'm always a fan of because it means easy cleaning). When I pulled them out I discovered the muffins wont come out of the liners. Next time I'm going to just pam the tray before pouring the batter in. I baked the muffin at 400F for about 20 minutes, until the tops were golden.

This recipe ended up making exactly 48 mini muffins. Honestly, I was a little skeptical about how good they would be but they are actually great!! Except for having to work to get them out of the liner :)

Tequila prawns, mushrooms, and corn!

I don't have much time to write so this will be quick..... We bought some frozen prawns a few days ago since they were on sale so I decided to experiment with them. We had discussed using tequila to marinade something so I figured prawns were as good as anything to try it with. I found a recipe for tequila-lime BBQ prawns. I blended some tequila, olive oil, lime juice, salt, pepper, cumin, an onion slice and garlic together. I poured it over the shrimp and left it in the fridge for 6 hours.

Matt requested mushroom caps... so easy and so yummy! I diced some orange pepper, onion, mushroom stems and through them into a pan with cooked diced bacon. When the veggies were soft, I mixed them with shredded cheddar and goat cheese. After the caps had cooked for 10 minutes in the oven, I filled them and cooked them for an additional 5 minutes. These were a nice little appie while corn was cooking on the BBQ

Once the corn was done, we threw the shrimp on. It only took a few minutes for them to cook.

Thanks to our landlord for the BBQ!! :P

The prawns smelt soooooo strong, I was convinced they would taste disgusting!

Perfect corn!

The prawns ended up delicious! Matt loved them. They definitely had some zip though :)