Day 30: Coconut Cake

After baking so many cakes, I was kind of running out of ideas at this point. After surveying my baking ingredients cupboard, I noticed that I had a lot of coconut left over. Thus, coconut cake.

This cake travelled by train and tube all the way to a London park for a picnic with friends. It is an annual get together, and one of our group is expecting a baby, so we created a throw-it-together baby shower as well. I didn’t make the sugar baby, just in case you were wondering.

Recipe found on Sainsbury’s recipe forums, posted by seth25. Thanks!

The Recipe

4oz butter
4oz caster sugar
2 large eggs
6oz self raising flour
2oz desicated coconut
Approx 2 tablespoons of milk

Cream butter & sugar till soft and pale, beat eggs and add to mixture. Gradually fold in coconut, then flour. Add milk to give soft dropping consistency. Sprinkle top of cake with coconut and caster sugar and bake at Gas mark 3 for 1 to 1 and a quarter hours.

My Alterations

I was really tempted to add more coconut to the recipe, just because I wanted to use it up. I didn’t, because I was worried about messing up the cake. Normally, I wouldn’t mind taking the risk, but this was going to be on public display, so I played it safe.

The Result

This cake was very easy to put together and bake. It took a long time, which surprised me, but I just kept a close eye on it.

The Verdict

This is a yummy cake! It’s not a strong coconut taste, but it’s very soft and moist. I only managed to eat a small slice, but the others at the picnic seemed to like it.

The Rating

5/5

Easy, simple recipe with great results. Can’t go wrong!

Day 28: Better than “Homework” Cake. Yeah… “homework”…

I freely admit that this is a cop-out sort of cake for this blog. The foundation is from a boxed cake mix, and the only fancy things that I had to do were decor-type things. Can you blame me for choosing an easy recipe? This is the 28th cake!

I have mostly heard this cake called “Better than Sex Cake” but I really didn’t want to google that term, so I found this version instead on About.com’s forum, posted by Pamiam12.

The Recipe

1 pkg, 2 layer-size German chocolate cake mix
1 – 14 oz. can sweetened condensed milk
1 – 12 to 12.5 oz. jar caramel ice cream topping
1 – 8 oz. carton frozen whipped topping
3 – 1.4 oz. bars chocolate covered English toffee, chopped

Prepare and bake the cake mix according to pkg. directions for a 13×9 inch baking pan. Cool the cake in the pan on a wire rack.
Using the handle of a wooden spoon, poke holes about 1 inch apart over the surface of the cooled cake. Pour the sweetened condensed milk over the cake.
Pour the caramel ice cream topping over the cake. Spread the whipped topping evenly over the top of cake. Sprinkle the chopped toffee bars over the whipped topping.
Serve immediately or chill up to 24 hours.

My Alterations

I had a bit of evaporated milk left over from a previous cake recipe, so I just used whatever was left in there. I didn’t measure it. I also bought some cream and whipped it up myself, but didn’t add any sugar to it because I figured this cake would be sweet enough!

The directions aren’t entirely clear. Should I have poked holes in both layers of cake? Only spread the caramel topping in the middle of the cake? My husband suggested that I spread whipped cream in the middle of the cake, making it prettier for the pictures (good idea, actually), but that wasn’t stated in the recipe. I just sort of did what I thought it said, which was to poke holes in the bottom cake layer and pour the milk in, spread the caramel on top, and left the top layer for whipped cream and chopped candy only. I used Dime Bars for the topping.

The Result

Very easy to make and put together. The cake itself came out soft and fluffy, as one would expect from a boxed cake mix. No problems with any of it, really.

The Verdict

I like this cake, but I wouldn’t classify it as better than sex. Homework? Of course! But not sex.

It tasted much better warm than cold, and because it has to be stored in the fridge to keep the cream, I wasn’t very happy with it. I don’t like my cakes cold.

The Rating

4/5

Good, but not AMAZING. A lazy cake that’s easy to put together and that will please the crowds. Nothing wrong with that!