I’d been wary of banana “nice cream” for a while but I decided to give it a try the other night when I had an ice cream hankering but no ice cream. It turned out pretty good! It’s all about the toppings though.
My mom kept dropping hints about wanting German Chocolate Cake for her birthday so I thought I would make the best German Chocolate Cake she’d ever had! I used Smitten Kitchen’s recipe for the most part but free styled my own “frosting” with dates and subbed out the sugars for coconut sugar. I also used slightly bigger pans so I increased the cake ingredients by half. I don’t have 6 inch pans and I figured probably a lot of people don’t. You’ll probably have leftover date-coconut paste but it’s great for a cheese accoutrement or on banana ice cream! Since the cake was pretty much shades of brown I topped with some berries 🙂
{serves 8}
3 oz bittersweet chocolate (I used scharffenberger chunks)
1/4 + 1/8 cup hot coffee (I used Lion Coffee)
3/4 cup buttermilk
3 large eggs, seperated
 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cup coconut sugar
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 + 1/8 cocoa powder
1 1/8 cup all purpose flour
1/4 + 1/8 tsp salt
20 medjool dates
3/4 cup unsweetened coconut
3/4 cups pecans
1/2 tsp coconut extract
sea salt
berries for garnish (optional)
CAKE:
heat oven to 350ºF, line the bottoms of two 8 inch cake pans (or somewhere close to that size, I used heart shaped pans) with parchment paper, coat the bottom and sides with butter
pit dates and soak them in hot water in a big bowl
in a medium sized bowl whisk together chocolate and hot coffee until the chocolate is all melted. whisk in buttermilk; set aside
in another medium sized bowl beat egg whites until stiff using (I highly recomend using an electric beater!)
in a large bowl (use the same beaters, no need to clean them), beat butter, sugars and salt together until fluffy. beat in yolks and vanilla until smooth, then buttermilk/coffee/chocolate mixture
sprinkle baking soda over and beat well to combine again. scrape down sides, add cocoa powder and flour and beat until just combined
fold in a quarter of the egg whites to loosen batter. fold in the rest gently until fully combined
divide between the baking pans, bake for 24-26 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. set out to cool
DATE COCONUT CARAMEL:
line a small baking sheet and spread coconut and pecans out evenly, bake for 10ish minutes, stirring occasionally until toasty and fragrant, let cool
chop pecans coarsely
in a small food processor blend dates, coconut, pecans, coconut extract and a dash of sea salt until paste-like
I don’t know when I discovered matcha but I’ve been hooked ever since. When I visited my cousin in Vienna last summer, there was a traditional Japanese tea house that specialized in matcha. They would make each drink by hand with a whisk in a delicate little china bowl. It was always the same three women working, wearing beautiful silk and you could watch them, expertly whipping up the frothiest, creamiest matcha lattes I’ve ever seen. My mom made matcha shortbread cookies for Christmas for a couple years and they were delicious. Recently I saw this Food & Wine article about all the things you could do with matcha and it’s been on my mind ever since. Luckily, my mom’s friend owns a specialty tea company that carries some incredible matcha powder and she shared some with me for experimentation. This is my version of the Food & Wine pound cake recipe. I used coconut oil, coconut milk and coconut sugar to make it a little healthier and give it a coconutty twist. It is very dense, I’d recommend enjoying it with tea, white wine or a hoppy beer.
2 cups flour
1 tsp kosher salt
2 tbsp matcha powder
1/4 cup butter
3/4 cup coconut oil
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup coconut sugar
3 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup coconut milk
glaze:
1/2 cup powdered sugar
5 tsp coconut milk
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
shredded coconut (for sprinkling)
1 tsp cardamom (optional)
2 tsp orange zest
preheat the oven to 350°F and line a 9-by-5-inch loaf pan with parchment paper
in a small bowl whisk together the flour, salt and matcha powder and set aside
melt the butter and coconut oil then beat in the sugar, don’t worry if it doesn’t completely emulsify, it will when you add it to the dry ingredients
add the eggs one at a time and the vanilla extract, beating after each addition
beat in the dry ingredients and the milk in a few additions; scrape down the bowl as necessary
pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for about 30 minutes or until the top is golden and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean
let it cool in the pan for 10 minutes
to make the glaze, pour milk into a small bowl and slowly whisk in powdered sugar as needed, until it is a glaze consistency, add orange zest, cardamom and vanilla extract. Pour the glaze over the warm cake and sprinkle the coconut on top
