Coconut Cream Cookies

I am so tired of the cold weather. Come on Spring! and Summer!! *insert amazing story of fun times and such...enough blabbing on to food* 

I am such a big big fan of simple recipes. Although I love newer recipes sometimes I feel they are overly complicated just for s&g. Delicious food does not have to be complicated! Here's a great example:

I had the sudden urge to bake goodies and a quick search found this interesting sounding recipe. I don't think I've made cookies with this much cream.

Naturally cream was the one ingredient I had to go out and buy. Can't remember why I had coconut.

Didn't feel like busting out the standing mixer. The hand mixer is doing a great job! 

Still mixing...

I had to grab a spoon to mix in the flour mixture. I tried the hand mixer...not my best idea. 

I missed a step here. The coconut was supposed to go on top and rolled into the dough. Opps. the dough was very sticky and I had to add a fair amount of extra flour.

My cheap set of round cutters does an amazing job. Even with a bent handle. I can't even remember how that happened. 

Cookies!

Just realized I forgot the coconut topping so I just added it now. Should work out just fine!

Aren't they cute?! They puffed up nicely and smell heavenly...yum! There is no time on the recipe so I started with 10 minutes. 12 minutes browned the bottom nicely. 15 was too much. Not burnt but just a touch too brown on the bottom.

My kitchen smells sooooooo good! I like to bake because I like to eat desserts but I love how it just makes the whole house smell welcoming and warm. 

These were super easy to put together and bake. Adding the cream made the dough stickier than I'm used to handling but not too difficult to figure out. These were light and fluffy with a delicate flavor. A little too delicate in my opinion but my co-workers loved them. I had to make another batch!

My Rating: Not bad but not flavorful. I won't make these again for myself.

Dylan and Friend Rating: "These are so delicious. I can't stop snacking on them" "Can you make a dozen just for me?"

Lady Baltimore Cake

Happy New Year! 2020 was a year of change and learning but now it on to 2021. Dylan has been bugging me about doing videos so that may happen. No promises. I am hoping to get a lot more baking done and really start to work on my sewing pile. 

In the mean time here is a recipe from last year. I always make a dessert for Thanksgiving. Last year I was planning on making a daffodil cake but upon further reading it sounded too much like an angel food cake. Too light and summery. I need something rich, heavy, and fattening! Another recipe that seemed to pop up in several of my cookbooks is the Lady Baltimore Cake. The recipes varied a little but they all included layers of white cake separated by either a mixture of dried fruits or icing and all of it topped with boiled icing.

I decided to use the recipe from The Boston Cooking-School Cook Book, 1924 edition, since it seemed the easiest and the best sounding filling. My family is very picky when it comes to fruit in cake. I love fruit! I am the only one. This is not fruit cake but close enough that I got looks.

This recipe is simple enough. Lots of egg whites. I'm not certain what I'm going to do with all the yolks.

A stand mixer is a necessity when whipping egg whites!

I had to purchase another cake pan just for this recipe. Yep, that is the reason why I bought it. I went with round pans because I think they have a more traditional look. And I already had 2 pans.

These smell heavenly! There was no time given so I just had to keep watch. Just have to wait until they cool to do anything else. The one really annoying part aspect of baking cakes: the wait.

I could not find figs so I went with dates and extra raisins. 

Yummy fillings! Every Lady Baltimore cake recipe I found had different fillings.

As I was following the recipe, it never occurred to me that I was making boiled icing. If I had known than I probably would have done a bit more online research about it.

Hot sugar syrup and egg whites...interesting. It took a considerable amount of time for the bowl to cool off and start to form the icing. I may have let the egg whites sit a little too long and it may have caused the icing to come together slower.

Eventually the icing started to thicken. It is still a little soft but I think it is thick enough to ice the cake.

Making the filling! It looks like I will have more filling than I need. Tastes good!

Well, the filling seems a little soft...kinda nervous about the rest of the icing. Did not use all of the filling. I may have snacked on the filling.

Looks so pretty! So bright white!

Still feels kinda soft. I do not think this will stay upright and iced over night. It has to last until tomorrow afternoon! I hope.

Well, the icing do not last well overnight, even in the fridge. It is still tasty, just oozy. I'm feel lucky that my cake carrier locks or my fridge would have been filled with oozy icing.

It looks prettier sliced than whole! 

We may have scooped some of the icing back onto the slices of cakes. Some of the filling oozed out as well. I was definitely missing some fruits and nuts!

Pretty slices! 

This was an interesting cake both to make and eat. The cake was quite dense, very similar to other cakes from that time. I have noticed that older cake recipes tend to be dense and not light a fluffy. The icing needed more fruits and nuts. Maybe less icing mixed with the fillings, maybe a different filling. I have many recipes to choose from. I liked the boiled icing! I liked the thickness of it and the slight crunch as you bite into it. I need to do a bit more research on it so that it doesn't flow off the cake. It does not last very long. The sugar starts to crystalize after a couple of days and changes the texture completely. I can see why you never see it anymore but the taste is fantastic. I highly recommend!

My Rating: Not bad. A fun experiment. I might have to try another version. I am definitely making the icing again!

Friends and Family Rating: Good! Why is the icing half missing?

Lemonade

Holy Crap! It has been hot out. Usually I love the heat but this year it is killing me. Probably because I can't do anything but stay home and attack the vines in the back yard. Last year was great when Dylan lived on the beach and I had to visit almost everyday, somedays when he was still at work. This year we are in a cute little house and I am finally able to have a garden. So after gardening one day I was feeling a little old fashioned so I needed an old fashion summer drink. Lemonade! The 1924 edition of The Boston Cooking-School Cook Book by Fannie Merritt Farmer delivered.

This super easy recipe didn't call for as much lemon juice as I thought it would. But, I can do this!

I always have lemon juice on hand for cocktails but I thought I should probably go with fresh lemon juice for this drink. Don't you just love my parrot glass? It's huge!

There is something very satisfying about juicing the crap out of a lemon. I strained out all the seeds and pulp. Almost left some of the pulp in. For texture.

So this basically made a simple syrup with lemon. Sorry there are no pictures of boiling water. It was boring.

First I had to do the basic lemonade, ice, water, and the lemonade syrup. It was a lot sweeter than I thought it would be. I don't know why I was surprised. I saw the amount of sugar that is in it.

Let's have a little fun with this! I have watermelon and peaches! The drink on the left has a couple of scoops of watermelon muddled at the bottom. The one on the right has about half a peach.

The basic lemonade was too sweet for me. But it was great mixed with other fruits! The peach was my favorite but I could see keeping this on hand and making fruit lemonades all summer. Strawberry, raspberry, and blueberry would be tasty. Next time I will make it with more lemon juice to give it more of a bite.

My Rating: Too sweet as is but great as a mixer.