Coconut cupcakes with vanilla cream cheese

As per hubby's request... ta da! Cupcakes! He had been begging for
cupcakes for a while so I finally decided it was a good time to make them. I
found this recipe HERE, and made a few adjustments. Instead of using coconut milk for the batter, I replaced with coconut cream and reduced the sugar to about 1 cup since the cream was already sweet. And for the frosting, I used vanilla instead of coconut. All in all the recipe came out good. Next time I would probably add some coconut extract to the batter
to get some extra coconut flavor.

Thanks for visiting!

Here is the recipe.

Ingredients

Cupcake Ingredients

• 3/4 cup of unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 1/4 cup of sugar
• 3 eggs, room temperature
• 1 cup of canned coconut milk
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
• 2 1/4 cups of flour
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• 1 teaspoon of baking powder
• 1/2 cup of sweetened desiccated coconut

Coconut Cream Cheese Frosting Ingredients

• 1/2 cup of butter (1 stick), room temperature
• 8 oz of Philly cream cheese (1 package), room temperature
• 1/2-1 cup of powdered sugar
• 1/4 cup of sweetened desiccated coconut

Method

Cupcake Method

1 Preheat the oven to 350 F. Cream the butter until light and fluffy. Add sugar and cream till light and fluffy again, scraping down the sides halfway through to ensure even mixing.

2 Add the eggs, one at a time, beating for 30 seconds each to ensure mixing. Be sure to scrape down the sides after each egg to ensure even mixing.

3 Combine the flour, salt, and baking powder in one bowl. In another add 1 cup of a well shaken can of coconut milk and a teaspoon of vanilla. Add 1/3 of the dry ingredients and mix, then add 1/2 of the wet ingredients. Continue alternating with the wet and dry mixtures, ending with the dry. Stop mixing once just as the ingredients become incorporated; do not overbeat.

4 Fold in the coconut. Scoop into cupcake papers about one half to three-quarters of the way full. Bake for 18-22 minutes, rotating the pan after the first 15 to ensure even baking. Be sure to check with a toothpick to see if the cupcakes are done. If the toothpick comes out of the cupcake clean, then they're ready. Allow the cupcakes to cool for a minute or two in the pan, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Frosting Method

1 Cream the butter and cream cheese together, about 3 minutes. Scraped down the sides and bottom.

2 Slowly add the powdered sugar, taste as you go adding more sugar until you have reached the desired sweetness.

3 Fold in the coconut. Spread onto cooled cupcakes. Sprinkle on a bit of extra shredded coconut on top and serve.

Makes 20 cupcakes.

Fresh Start soon...

I haven't been able to actually cook or bake anything
due to the fact that my kitchen is currently being
built. You have no idea how exciting that is! I just
wish it would all be done already. It had been a while
since I posted anything because I was getting ready
to get married.. and you ladies know how stressful and
time consuming that is. Now that I'll be back and at it
soon, I'm sure I'll be posting often..if not every day
if I can. It would be awesome if any of you would be
willing to cook with me.. or just watch me..it would
be fun either way. We could work out like.. a recipe of
the week or something like that. Well, I'll be updating you
on how my kitchen is going and we'll go from there. Thanks
for stopping by! Have a happy Monday and a great week!!

- ivette

TwD- Banana Cream Pie

This week's recipe was chosen for us by: 

Amy of Sing for your Supper

I have to say that I had been waiting for this recipe for 

a VERY long time. I know I could have made it before

but... I don't know why I never did.

The recipe itself is very simple and consists of pretty

much basic ingredients. If you have not tried this...

TODAY is the day! 

I only have one question.. maybe its a dumb question..

but just like they would tell me in high school "the only

dumb question is the one NOT asked"... so I'll believe

it's true and ask.

Why is it called banana cream pie... if the cream doesn't

even taste like banana? Don't get me wrong.. I LOVED 

the pie... but I guess I was hoping for something with 

more banana flavor. Just wondering....

Back to the great pie... I was unable to get a good 

photograph of the delicious pie, simply because I was 

too lazy to make the pie crust that the recipe called for.

I know.. I know.. I could have bought it.. BUT... I also

love the way banana pudding tastes with vanilla wafers

so I decided to make a wafer crust..yay! Well... maybe

I just didn't let the poor pie rest enough... or at all!

As soon as I finished assembling it I started taking pics.

So when I decided that it was time to cut the slice to 

photograph it...my slice just kinda.. disintegrated.. or 

something.. the point is that I just couldn't manage to 

get it all in one piece.. especially with the crumbly crust.

I'm guessing that if I had refrigerated it I would have had

no problem but I was trying to get the last rays of sun

for my photographs. 

I really don't think I even need a good picture for this 

pie though... for those who made it...you know that 

no matter what it looks like, it tastes incredible...

right? right? .. Yeah.. maybe I'm just trying to make 

myself feel better.. 

Like I said... if you haven't made this pie... GO NOW!!!

You can find the recipe HERE. 

Please visit all the other TWD blogger's blogs for amazing

pics and different pie versions :)

                     

                       

TwD- Blueberry Crumb Cake

Today's recipe was chosen by: Sihan of Befuddlement

First things first... I thought this cake was really good.

I honestly liked it and would probably make it again

using just a little less nutmeg.. I wasn't too crazy 

about that particular flavor.  Other than that 

small detail.. it was fantastic... with coffee as I always

say :)

While making the cake.. I really don't know what 

exactly I was thinking.. that I made the topping 

first.. refrigerated it.. and proceeded to just 

put all of the cake ingredients in the bowl... 

that's not really what the recipe called for.

I was like OMG.. WHAT DID I DO!!!?!?!?

I just totally missed the part where you have to 

add the eggs slowly and the dry ingredients.. and

the buttermilk. Totally missed it. 

There wasn't much I could do at that point so 

I just decided to blend it all together... the batter

got SUPER thick..I thought "that's what I get for

not reading instructions properly" I just kept at it

for a bit more and prayed that it would all be fine.

Well.. my prayers were definitely heard because 

I baked it for about 55 min and LOVED what 

came out of the oven. The cake is simply delicious!

If you haven't tried it yet.. YOU HAVE TO! 

Thanks Sihan for the delicious recipe!

Please visit all the other TWD blogs out there.. 

I'm sure they baked delicious cakes :)

TWD- French Yogurt Cake with Marmalade Glaze

This Delicious recipe is brought to us by:

Liliana of My Cookbook Addiction

I have to say that I wasn't very happy about 

the lemon thing.But I decided I had to try it 

and ended up loving this cake. 

It's so simple to make.. and has SOOO much 

flavor! I really enjoyed eating it :)   The recipe

is also very easy to make and doesn't ask for any 

hard to find ingredients.. well... it does ask for 

lemon marmalade.. which many people couldn't 

find.. so I like many others, ended up using 

orange marmalade.. which goes fantastic with 

the lemon flavor. The only "tweak" on that was 

that I used 1/4c. of plain yogurt to go with it.. that 

I saw in Ree's blog and it looked and probably 

tasted better than plain marmalade. 

Liliana...thank you for choosing this 

recipe.. I loved it! 

My mother told me to let you know that this 

cake is fantastic. And being the coffee addict 

that I am... it goes great with a cup of coffee 

in the morning :)

My "new" brother in law also liked it a lot.. 

and ate about half of the little cake... jk.. 

maybe a little less.. but I'm glad he enjoyed it . 

Thanks Bere (sis) for helping me with the pics! 

LOVE YOU!

Please check out all of the TWD blogs! 

         And here are some pics to show you some of the steps..enjoy! 

                         

Thanks for visiting!! 

TWD- Lemon Cup Custard

Wow... its been a while since I posted. With

my sister's wedding and all, I hardly had any

time for anything! 

This weeks selection was Lemon Cup Custard

and it was chosen by 

Bridget from The Way the Cookie Crumbles

I have to say I was a bit skeptical about making 

this one, since a lot of people reported it had an 

eggy flavor to it and not enough lemon. 

Since I don't really care for lemon flavor I chose 

to make a vanilla-cinnamon flavored custard 

instead. I used a lime to decorate it.. but 

that was it. I really enjoyed the flan texture and

realized that it would have been much better had

I added some sugar caramel at the bottom before 

baking the custard. It was a little blah.. but it wasn't 

so bad. 

The recipe was very easy to make.. and I was thankful

I didn't have to go out and buy weird or hard to find 

ingredients. Great pick Bridget!!

You can find this recipe HERE. Please don't forget to 

check out all the TWD blogs!!

TwD- Devils Food White Out Cake

This week's recipe.. I believe a much anticipated recipe

by many, was chosen by 

Stephanie from Confessions of a City Eater. 

I baked this cake for our New Year's Eve celebration and

got good results. My boyfriends family really enjoyed it

although I'm not sure if they liked it more than the 

Berry Surprise cake.

To tell you the truth I don't remember if I had any issues 

with this cake. The frosting came out perfect and the cake

came out moist and delicious. I thought no one would ever 

pick this cake so I just decided to go ahead and make it and

it's fantastic. 

Hope everyone else enjoyed this cake as much as I did. The 

cake was renamed by my bf's family and is now known as 

"The Oreo cake". They say it looks similar to an Oreo cookie

which is kinda true. 

Don't forget to check out all of the other TWD member bloggs!! 

TwD- Floating Islands

According to Dorie, this desert is a French classic

.. and because of its great taste I must say it will 

become a classic here at home too. The dessert is 

composed of meringue puffs and a cream called 

Créme Anglaise. 

This recipe was chosen by Shari of Whisk: a food blog. 

Thank you Shari for helping me discover this great dessert. 

I thought making this recipe was fairly easy. The only 

thing that kinda drove me mad was making those little 

islands. I just couldn't get them to look "pretty". I just 

gave up and decided that the island on the recipe book 

didn't look that perfect either and felt just a tad better 

about mine. I absolutely loved the Créme Anglaise.. it 

has a great taste and I was even happier that this recipe 

called for no chocolate at all. Again.. I apologize if I offend 

any chocolate lovers. I just wanted something with out 

chocolate :)  

The whole recipe is super easy to make.. it just takes a 

little patience which I'm not really known to have, but 

if I could do it so can you.  I greatly recommend anyone 

to try this recipe out because I know you'll love it too! 

You can find the recipe HERE. 

OH... and please don't forget to check out all other TWD

bloggers HERE! 

TWD- World Peace Cookies

The recipe for this week was chosen by Jessica of 

cookbookhabit. Great pick by the way! 

The recipe for this week was fairly easy... and with the busy 

agenda that I had, it gave me just enough time since it 

was quick and easy.I have to say though that I am not a very 

big fan of chocolate. I willeat it, but that's if I have a big c

raving for it. I did think that the cookies were just a little 

bit too chocolaty for me.. but they had a good taste. I was 

tempted to leave them baking for a bit more than the recipe 

called for but then remembered that the book said they 

would look a bit undercooked. After they cooled down 

though, they held their shape better. The cookies were 

super moist which was one thing I did love about them. 

I took a bite after they had completely cooled down and 

the chocolate oozed from inside of it.. 

it was pretty cool. I'm guessing that if it had been a 

chocolate chip cookie it would have been better for me 

since they have less chocolate but don't get me wrong, 

they taste great! I actually only baked one roll.. the 

other one is waiting in thefridge. I had no problem 

shaping the roll since the dough came together fairly 

easy. I almost forgot to incorporate the chopped chocolate 

because I was being careful not to over work the dough 

but in the end they came together fine. I made the dough 

a day before I made the cookies and left it in the fridge to 

rest. The next day I took it out and it was pretty solid and 

it made the cutting a lot easier although they did crumble 

just a bit. Even if I'm not a chocolate lover I did think the 

cookies were good. 

I hope everyone enjoyed their cookies and don't forget 

to check out the other TWD blogs!

P.S.

Sorry for offending any chocolate lovers out there by 

saying they were too chocolaty, I'm just not the biggest 

fan of chocolate :) 

No baking this week! :(

Just want to let everyone know the reasons I wasn't

able to post this week... I guess the first and biggest 

reason of all is the fact that I will be the maid of honor 

in my sister's wedding.. and if you've been a maid of 

honor... you probably know that the last month is the 

"worst" not in a bad way of course. I've been pretty busy

helping out with the last details and things like that, 

that have kept me so busy and out of the kitchen. I do 

expect to post for next week though... I tend to leave 

things to the last minute.. which is often a big mistake..

so I plan.. hopefully... to make next week's recipe in 

advance. Well... I hope every one's recipe came out good! 

Please don't forget to visit the other TWD member blogs. 

With that said... hope everyone has a great weekend and

see you again Tuesday. 

TWD- Berry Surprise Cake

Today's Berry Surprise Cake recipe was chosen by   

Mary Ann from Meet me in the Kitchen. 

A yummy light cake filled with a very berry surprise! 

I have to admit that I was thrilled to make this recipe.

That's before I started making it. I really tried to make 

it work and tried my best to make the bread right since 

I read that many people were ending up with deflated 

cakes.  WELL... let me just tell you that I was NOT the 

exception on this one. My cake was maybe 2 1/2 inches

high. I was sooo disappointed :( .... but how????? I really

did try my best! Oh well... that's life.. and that's how one

learns for next time... OH yeah! NEXT time.. because there

will TOTALLY be NEXT TIME!!! I can honestly say that 

even when I was taking pictures of this cake my heart

was broken.. maybe because I had such high expectations 

for it. I even thought of NOT posting anything today.. but 

after I cut the slice.. took a picture.. and tasted the greatness

of this SUPER ugly but AWESOME tasting cake I was 

in heaven!!!! OH MY GOODNESS! This cake is amazing! 

I live in a border town next to Mexico and there is a place 

in Mexico where they sell this amazing cake that I always 

wanted to try to make...well.. without wanting to, I made 

it. This cake is maybe even better than the one they sell at

that restaurant and I'm so happy to have found the recipe.

I guess I just need to fix whatever I did wrong... and believe

me, I will find out.. if YOU find out please let me know :)

I hope everyone of you enjoyed the cake as much as I did! 

Oh.. and what better way to make a cake look better than 

with some beautiful roses! 

Dont' forget to check out other TWD bloggers! 

TwD- Savory Corn and Pepper Muffins

Today's challenge is brought to us by Rebecca of Ezra Pound Cake
chose Savory Corn and Pepper Muffins.

To tell you the truth, I have never liked corn bread much. There
is just something about it that I just don't really like but I have to
admit that these were some tasty muffins. The chili powder gave
them a really great taste. I added some cilantro and totally forgot
about the corn.. but I liked them anyway.

Since many people were accompanying their muffins with chili, I
decided to make some home made chili myself and went over to the
Foodnetwork.com and found a nice and overall easy to follow recipe
here. Extremely good chili if you ask me!I think that this weeks
challenge was very tasty and very easy to make. I honestly enjoyed
making and eating these little muffins, not to mention, my mom IS a
fan of corn bread and she loved them...which is great!

Anyways, don't forget to check out the other TwD members since I'm
positive that everyone made wonderful muffins!

This muffin recipe can be found here! Try it, you won't be disappointed!

Barefoot Bloggers- Banana Sour Cream Pancakes!

The first recipe for this new year was chosen by 

Karen of Something Sweet by Karen. (Great Pick!)

I admit I thought that there wouldn't really be anything 

too special about this pancake recipe eventhough I had

never tried them with sour cream. But let me just tell you...

WOW! I seriously thought that these pancakes were super 

good. I really enjoyed them! The bananas were especially 

sweet tasting and made the pancakes taste even better. 

It is true that you can't really taste the sour cream much

but the whole recipe is very very yummy. I will defenitely 

be making THESE again! I really encourage you to try them 

since the recipe is very simple and the result is awesome! 

I omitted the lemon zest and added just a bit more milk 

because I'm not used to thick pancakes. 

-Ivette

Here is the recipe which can also be found at Foodnetwork.com

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 3/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon milk
• 2 extra-large eggs
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
• Unsalted butter
• 2 ripe bananas, diced, plus extra for serving
• Pure maple syrup

Directions

Sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. In a separate bowl, whisk together the sour cream, milk, eggs, vanilla, and lemon zest. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ones, mixing only until combined.

Melt 1 tablespoon of butter in a large skillet over medium-low heat until it bubbles. Ladle the pancake batter into the pan to make 3 or 4 pancakes. Distribute a rounded tablespoon of bananas on each pancake. Cook for 2 to 3 minutes, until bubbles appear on top and the underside is nicely browned. Flip the pancakes and then cook for another minute until browned. Wipe out the pan with a paper towel, add more butter to the pan, and continue cooking pancakes until all the batter is used. Serve with sliced bananas, butter and maple syrup.

TwD- French Pear Tart

I'm super excited about this post for two
very good reasons.
The first reason I'm very excited is due
to the fact that this is my first challenge
as a TwD member. I am so happy to be a part
of this baking world I didn't know was out there.
My passion has always been baking but I never
thought that food blogs, forums, and
baking groups even existed.
The second reason for my excitement is that
this challenge was picked by Dorie Greenspan
herself! I really tried my best at creating
this delicious recipe. I think its one of the
best deserts I have tasted yet. I know that
I will probably be thinking the same for every
recipe since sweets are my thing.

I had a really fun time trying out this recipe and
was happy with the outcome. I will be honest and
say that I really wanted it to look better.. but
the flavor just didn't disappoint. I loved the
texture of the crust, it was so soft. And I really
enjoyed the almond flavor with the pears. I glazed
it with the apple jelly and it was delicious!
I still can't get over the crust's chewy texture
with the almond cream.. its was simply the best.
Well... I hope you'll enjoy the pics!!

The Cover cake.. again!

Well... like I said I was gonna make the cover 

cake from Dorie Greenspan: From My Home

To Yours I tried it again. This time I think I 

got WAY better results than the first try. It 

was also much easier to assemble than last 

time I guess because I actually waited for the 

cake to be completely cool and so it worked 

better for me. 

I took this cake to a New Year's eve get together 

and everyone seemed to like it very much which

was very rewarding. I wish the lighting would have 

been better but I think you can still appreciate 

the cake. Enjoy the pics and I wish everyone a 

Happy New Year! 

Goodbye '08

As I say goodbye to 2008, I gladly welcome 2009 wishing

everyone the best on this new year. I hope everyone 

achieves their goals this year and tries to live life to the 

fullest, since we only live once. I am so happy that I found

this world of baking that never knew existed. I have always

liked to cook and bake.. but never thought there were 

challenges out there.. or forums where people showed their

creativity and talent. I am glad to be a part of that now and

will do my best to become better at what I love. 

With that said.. I again wish everyone a Happy 2009, and 

let the challenges begin! 

Will be making

I will be making a couple of deserts for the Christmas

holidays which include "The Cover cake" again.. I told

you I was not gonna give up on it. I plan to make it 

again and definitely expect way better results than the

last time. I also have a Banana Cream pie that I saw on 

Dorie Greenspan's book From my home to yours. This 

pie looks super delicious and I think its gonna be a total

hit! Again.. I plan to make the pie in advance as a trial 

pie just to see what its gonna taste like and to see if it 

comes out right. Wish me the best! I will be posting pics

as soon as I can so you can see how it all turned out. 

Choco-Peppermint Cupcakes

...'Its the season to be jolly.... For some reason

this year the Christmas spirit is ever so present

everywhere you turn which is awesome. 

   I wanted to make something special for my co-workers

before we left for vacations today and I thought some

cute looking cupcakes would be a nice, small, and 

simple gift to show appreciation. These are very simple

cupcakes to make and delicious too! I basically bought

some chocolate cake flour to avoid the hassle of making 

them from scratch since it was late at night. It took me 

little time to get them done and the frosting was also 

easy to make. I made a marshmallow frosting that 

consists of egg whites and sugar candy. I added a bit 

of peppermint flavor to brighten up the flavor and also

topped them with candy cane pieces to give them the

final touch. The candy cane gave them that pretty 

look that I was looking for. 

PIZZA MIA!

It had been a while since I had been craving a home made pizza and on Sunday evening I decided to take up on the challenge. It had been several years since I had made a pizza. The last time I actually attempted with some help was while I was still in high school in my home economics class. Yeah... its been quite a while since then. So anyways... the dough is so easy to prepare being that it requires basic ingredients which most of us have handy. The ingredients are the following: flour, yeast, salt, water, and olive oil. TADA! That's about it so it doesn't take much time or effort. The only thing most hate about making any type of bread is that you have to wait such a long time to be able to make it. Don't take me wrong its worth the wait but Ohh boy do I hate waiting. So after the hour and a half of waiting, my dough was about ready... I know I should have maybe waited a bit longer to get a better rise but I was anxious to start. I had a bit of trouble forming the pizza shape since the dough would return to its original size but after working with it for a bit I finally got it to where I wanted it. 

 The ingredients on my pizza were pepperoni, mushrooms, bell peppers, onions, cheese of course, and just to add an extra flavor I added some VERY sweet pineapple. Let me just tell you that this pizza was amazing. I'm usually my worst critic and always have a comment about what I could have done better but this pizza blew me away. I honestly think that it was real good. I'm guessing I could use a lot more practice in the dough shaping department but it still came out real good. If you're interested in the recipe please let me know. For those of you who will give this a try, Good Luck to you! 

The COVER cake!

Well... I was wondering what I should bake next, and decided 

that the cover cake from Dorie Greenspan's book: 

From My Home to Yours looked absolutely delicious. I really 

didn't know how much trouble I would be getting myself 

into. I started off with the cake.. which was pretty easy 

I just needed to gather up a few missing ingredients but 

that was ok. So.. my cake was baking and about 8 min. till 

it was done I started making the frosting. NOW that's 

where the adventure starts. 

         

      

So I started with the sugars and water and I got them

to the boiling point so I started with the egg whites. 

To be totally honest I didn't have a candy thermometer, 

I had a meat thermometer so I was guiding myself with 

that but some how the candy didn't reach the desired 

temperature and only reached about 216 degrees F. I 

was like.. wellI'm sure it will still work so I added to my 

already at the moment whisking egg whites andwished 

for the best of the best of the best. Well.. bad decision. 

I whisked and whisked or maybe needed to whisk some 

more but it came out very frothy and I just didn't know 

what to do after that point so I just decided  to use the 

"frosting" as is. So I began to assemble my cake and 

frosting it. It just didn't hold the shape that I wanted 

for it but I guess it tasted pretty good. It is totally 

chocolaty and let me tell you chocolate isn't my favorite 

on the list.. but I'll eat it whenever I have a craving for it. 

The cake is super delicious and although unfortunately 

the frosting didn't get to the desired point its still ok. 

   

   

After I was done with the cake I had a lot of left over frosting... 

frothy frosting so I started to figure out what to do to make it 

better. I decided to add a few table spoonsof Light Corn Syrup. 

CHA CHING!! I started whisking again for about 3 min and it 

totallychanged the consistency of it. It became the marshmallow 

frosting that I should have ended up with in the first place.. 

but unfortunately was too late to add to the cake. 

LIVE AND LEARN right! 

 

Well.. that's why I'm here and that's why baking is an 

adventure. It not only creates delicious recipes but also

 lets you grow in the process. For next time... this cake 

will be the best of the best. I still have other cakes in mind

that are in the book... but I think I'll rest for a bit. My next 

adventure I think will be the LINZER Sable cookies with 

the jam in the middle. I don't think they'll be too hard

to make.. but HEY... one never knows how its gonna go till its goin'. 

 

Feel free to ask any questions!