I'm back with a Coconut Cream Cheese Pound Cake!

I have been away from here for way too long! I don't intend on staying away like this again, I have missed you guys! So, what better way to make a come back than this pound cake? You will want to try this one! I am not really a coconut lover, it seems that the older I get, the more I can tolerate it, but I really think that I could eat this whole cake. Maybe because it makes me think of a tropical island. Not sure, but I really like it! Sweet, coconutty, moist...just delicious!

I hope you all have a safe and fun holiday!!

Coconut Cream Cheese Pound Cake

1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
1/2 cup shortening
1 8oz cream cheese, softened
3 cups sugar
6 large eggs
3 cups all purpose flour
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 3/4 cups flaked coconut
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp coconut extract

Beat butter, shortening and cream cheese at medium speed with an electric mixer 2 minutes or until creamy. Gradually add sugar, beating 5-7 minutes. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating after each addition just until yellow disappears.

Combine flour, baking soda, and salt; add to butter mixture, beating at low speed just until blended. Stir in coconut, vanilla, and coconut extract.

Pour batter into a greased and floured 10 inch tube pan. Bake at 325 degrees for 1 hour and 30-40 minutes (mine only baked for 1 hour and 10 minutes), or until a wooden toothpick comes out clean. Cool in pan on a wire rack 10-15 minutes; remove from pan and cool completely on wire rack.

Beach Bound and Brownies

Tomorrow morning I will be up and on the road at 4 am. Heading to my favorite place south, Seagrove Beach, FL. I will be around and checking on my daily reads at night, I mean, when you are a blogger it is quite obsessive and you can't stay away for too long! So, I will leave you with these brownies. I saw them over at Valerie's and new that I had to make them, they are quick and easy to throw together and gooey in the middle. Just like I like my brownies! Have a great week!


Chewy Cocoa Brownies
From: Valerie
1 2/3 c. sugar
¾ c. butter, melted
2 T. water
2 large eggs
2 t. vanilla
1 1/3 c. flour
¾ c. cocoa
½ t. baking powder
¼ t. salt
¾ c. chopped nuts (optional)
Powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350°. Grease 9x13-inch baking pan. Combine sugar, butter and water in large bowl. Stir in eggs and vanilla extract. Combine flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt in medium bowl; stir into sugar mixture. Stir in nuts. Spread into prepared baking pan. Bake for 18 to 25 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out slightly sticky. Cool completely in pan on wire rack. Sprinkle with powdered sugar or frost with frosting.

Deep Dish Crumb Topped Caramel Apple Pie

I think that I will just let the title of this speak for itself on this one! Remember the stack of recipes that I had talked about before, you know, the ones that you just print off, or rip out of a magazine? Well, this is one of them and the date is 1/03!!! I can't believe that I haven't made it before now!!

Deep Dish Crumb Topped Caramel Apple Pie

Crust:
2 cups pecans, chopped and divided--I used Walnuts
2/3 cups all purpose flour
1 pkg (18 oz) refrigerated sugar cookie dough

Filling:
3 lbs Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored, cut into 1/2 inch thick slices
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp cinnamon
8 individually wrapped caramels, unwrapped and quartered

Crumb Topping:
3 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
1 cup butter or margarine, melted
2 tsp vanilla
1 cup confectioner's sugar

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spread pecans on ungreased baking sheet. Bake until lightly browned, 2-3 minutes, cool.

Crust: Coat bottom and inside of 9 inch springform pan with cooking spray. In food processor process 1 cup pecans until finely ground, or finely chop with a knife. At medium -low speed beat flour into dough until combined. Stir in ground pecans. Press dough onto side and bottom of pan, creating scant 1/4 inch thick crust, refrigerate 20 minutes. Reduce oven temp to 350 degrees. Bake crust 15 minutes or until lightly browned.

Filling: Toss apples with sugar, flour, cinnamon and remaining pecans; spoon into pan. Sprinkle with chopped caramels. Cover tightly with foil and bake for 45 minutes.

Crumb Topping: Meanwhile, at low speed combine flour, sugars(except confectioner's sugar) and cinnamon. Increase speed to medium; gradually add butter and vanilla, beating until wet crumbs form. Remove pie from oven; uncover. Using hands press tablespoonfuls of crumb mixture together to form large crumbs; place over filling, covering the entire surface. Bake, uncovered, 45 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool on rack, remove sides from pan.

Stir together confectioner's sugar and 4 tsp. water until smooth. Drizzle over top of pie.

Raspberry Tea Cake

My friend over at the 3 B's made this a week or so ago and new that I had to make it. It is delish! She made hers with mixed berries, but I decided on just raspberries and I am so glad that I did! This recipe truly is simple and quick to throw together and it definitely worth it! I will be making this again, but maybe I will try cherries or blackberries...even blueberries would be great!

Raspberry Ripple Tea Cake

For the filling
1 (12 ounce) package frozen raspberries
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch

For the batter
2 & 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup cold butter, sliced into thin pats
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 egg
3/4 cup buttermilk


Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour a 10″ round tart (I used two 4" spring form pans) pan that has a removable bottom; set aside.

To make the raspberry filling: in a heavy-bottomed saucepan, combine raspberries, sugar and cornstarch over medium heat; cook and stir until thickened and bubbly. Remove from heat.
Push raspberry mixture through a fine, mesh sieve, discarding seeds and pulp. Set filling aside to cool slightly; alternatively you may store airtight, refrigerate and use within 3 days.

To make the tea cake batter: in a large mixing bowl, stir together flour and sugar. Using a pastry blender, cut in butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. *Measure and set aside 1/2 cup of this flour-crumb mixture and reserve for crumb topping. To remaining flour mixture add baking powder, baking soda and salt; stir well to combine. Make a well in the center of flour mixture to accept wet ingredients. In a small mixing bowl, beat egg; stir in buttermilk until combined. Add all at once to the well you just created in the center of the flour mixture. Stir gently until just moistened; batter will be thick. Spread two-thirds of this batter over the bottom and up 1″ of the sides of prepared tart pan, using fingers to pat into place if necessary. Next, carefully spread the prepared raspberry filling on top of this batter. In small, irregular mounds, drop remaining batter on top of filling, spreading ever-so-gently with fingers or back of spoon if necessary. Allow mounds of batter to rest atop raspberry filling without pressing into bottom layer of batter. Sprinkle entire cake with the *reserved flour-crumb topping.

In the center of a preheated oven, baked tea cake at 350 degrees F for approximately 30-35 minutes (I checked mine at about 25 minutes and they were done. Use your best judgement if you're not using the 10" tart pan) or until a wooden toothpick inserted in center of cake comes out clean (filling will turn toothpick red). The cake should appear lightly browned (baking times may vary from oven to oven, so keep a close eye on your cake after 30 minutes). When tea cake is properly baked, remove tart pan from oven and allow to cool on wire rack for 15 minutes. When time has elapsed, remove cake from tart pan and place on cake stand or serving plate.

Fantastic Giveaway!

Megan is having this fantastic giveaway! She is giving away this Diva Apron, some recipe cards, and from what I hear, wonderful Chocolate Raspberry Sauce. You don't want to miss out, and there are a different couple of ways to get you name in. Go ahead and check it out! You can find it right here! Oh, and make sure you go and vote for her too!

TWD- Parisian Apple Tartlet

This weeks TWD recipe was chose by Jessica of My Baking Heart. This little tart was very simple, but honestly, I thought it was a little bland. I think that if I added a little cinnamon to it I would have liked it better. Will I make these little treats again, probably, I will just make a few little changes.

Next week is ice cream! I am super excited!!

Lime Meltaways

I have been on a cookie kick for the last few weeks. It first started with the Mississippi Mud Cookies, then the TWD Chocolate Chip Cookie topped brownie, after that was the Strawberry and Cream cookies. Over the weekend I made Peanut butter chocolate chip cookies, they kids loved them, I loved them, the hubby loved them...so saying all of that, they were all gone before I could snap a pic, but they were from BFMHTY by Dorie.

So now, I give you these little dainty Lime Meltaways. I have seen these in both lime or lemon, and just hadn't taken the time to make them. So, my friend from Icing Heals All Wounds, don't you love the name? She really is just stating the facts!, made these little babies and I had a couple of limes just hanging out ready to be used. Perfect!

I love them! The good thing is that the dough makes 2 logs, so you can bake one now and freeze the other log for later. If you can contain yourself and not bake them right away. I want to make them with the lemon and maybe with an orange.

Lime Meltaways
From Martha Stewart

3/4 cup butter, softened
1/3 cup confectioner's sugar
2 Tbs. lime juice
Zest of 2 limes
1 Tbs. vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups plus 2 Tbs. flour
2 Tbs. cornstarch
1/4 tsp. salt

Cream butter and sugar. Add lime juice, zest, and vanilla extract and mix until well-combined.

In a separate bowl, sift together the dry ingredients (flour, cornstarch, and salt). Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture and beat until just combined.

Divide the dough into two halves.

Shape each half into a log that is about 1 1/4 inch in diameter, wrap in freezer paper, and freeze for at least one hour.After one hour, remove the dough from the freezer. Slice the logs into thin slices, between 1/8 and 1/4 inch, place the slices on a cookie sheet with some space between them (there will be minimal spreading), and bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes. Make sure you only slice as many cookies as you can fit in the oven at a time--if you have part of your log left after filling your cookie sheet, return the uncut portion to the freezer until it's ready to bake.Remove the cookies from the cookie sheet and allow to cool on a cooling rack for about 5 minutes. Roll cookies in bowl with additional powdered sugar.