Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Mmmm Good Monday on Tuesday...

I am a day late and dollar short I know. But the weather here has been sub par to say the least and when the weather is dreary so is the lighting in this apartment. But, today I managed to get a picture of a piece of the delicious cake I made yesterday.

Berry Coconut Cake

I have been holding on to this recipe all summer wanting to try it but with all of the birthdays to make cakes and cupcakes for it kind of got put on the back burner (no pun intended). With the dreary weather and no birthdays in sight yesterday I was able to buckle down and bake it. Even Wednesday gave me the breathing room I needed to bake up a storm. Gosh that kid is great. The result was a very tasty Berry Coconut Cake from Canadian Living Magazine's website. Recipe and nutritional information to follow.

Berry Coconut Cake

1/2 cup (125 mL) butter, softened
3/4 cup (175 mL) granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp (5 mL) vanilla
1-1/2 cups (375 mL) all-purpose flour
1-1/2 tsp (7 mL) baking powder
1 tsp (5 mL) baking soda
1/4 tsp (1 mL) salt
1 cup (250 mL) sour cream
3/4 cup (175 mL) each raspberries and blueberries
(I used a frozen mix totaling almost two cups)
Topping:
1 cup (250 mL) shredded coconut (I used sweetened)
1/2 cup (125 mL) packed brown sugar (I used 1/4 cup)
2 tbsp (25 mL) butter, softened
1 tbsp (15 mL) all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp (1 mL) cinnamon

Preparation:

Topping: In small bowl, combine coconut, sugar, butter, flour and cinnamon until crumbly; set aside.

In large bowl, beat butter with sugar until fluffy. Beat in eggs, 1 at a time; beat in vanilla. Stir together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt ; stir half into butter mixture. Stir in sour cream. Stir in remaining flour mixture.

Spread in greased 9-inch (2.5 L) square cake pan. Sprinkle with raspberries and blueberries. Sprinkle with topping. Bake in 325°F (160°C) oven for 60 to 75 minutes or until tester inserted in centre comes out clean. Let cool in pan on rack.

Nutritional Info
Per serving: about -
calories 425
protein 5 g
fat 21 g
carbs 54 g

A couple notes:
I don't know if my oven is baking hot these days but I used frozen berries and still baked it for 15 minutes less than the recipe called for (55 minutes instead of 60-70).
The same thing happened with the lemon loaves I baked last week so it could be my oven. But it could have been the glass cake pan I used for the cake. All I can say is watch your cake and start checking it at 55 minutes. (I use a wooden skewer.)

I only had sweetened coconut and was not about to go out to buy a lowly bag of unsweetened. So I halved the brown sugar amount in the topping. It was good, maybe a little sweet but not too sweet. Good. But if you have unsweetened I would probably recommend it.

Close up

There is one last piece sitting in the pan on the counter as I type this and it will take all of my will power not to eat it.

Bon Appetit ~!