chocolate, cashew & honey granola

This is an amazing granola recipe. The chocolate intensity comes from using pure Dutch-processed cocoa rather than cocoa mixed with sugar and other ingredients.

In fact, the recipe is quite healthy with only small amounts of oil, sugar and honey in comparison the amount of nuts and grains involved.

The flavour is a wonderful mix of chocolate and honey, with your cereal milk turning into a beautiful chocolatey drink at the end. I adored the results.

The recipe was one of the four granolas I managed to create this year, as part of my 2011 Food Challenges.

Chocolate, Cashew & Honey Granola

Anna’s very own recipe. Makes around 8 x ¾ cup serves.

Ingredients:
3 cups rolled oats
2 cups halved raw cashews
½ cup raw sunflower seeds
½ cup linseeds
¼ cup dedicated coconut flakes
¼ cup chia seeds
½ cup Dutch processed cocoa
⅓ cup honey
¼ cup raw sugar
⅓ cup canola oil
Pinch of salt

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 120’C.

2. Combine oats, cashews, coconut flakes, sunflower seeds, linseeds, chia seeds, Dutch processed cocoa, honey, sugar, salt and canola oil until fully combined and all the grains are well coated. You want the granola to clump together, so if it’s too dry or too wet adjust with a little extra oil or oats.

3. Cook in oven for around 1 hour, stirring granola every 10 minutes until it’s crunchy. Take care when stirring not to break clumps up too much.

4. Remove from heat and leave to cool. Store in an airtight container.

czech garlic soup

Česneková Polévka

Back in 2003, I went on a little road trip through Slovakia and the Czech Republic with my cousin (Jožko), his girlfriend (Miška) and his pal (Braňo). It was an awesome journey taking in Prague, Karlštejn, Hluboká, Tabor, České Budějovice (Budweis) and Český Krumlov, not to mention the ingestion of copious amounts of beer and wine and slivovica - as only people in their youth can do!

Since the crew were Slovaks, we often ate in tiny traditional restaurants that rarely saw foreigners. It meant I had fantastic guides who explained the indecipherable menu thoroughly which allowed me to try some seriously delicious, authentic, local food.

My favourite food memories were the Bryndzové halušky (Slovak potato gnocchi with a sheep’s cheese sauce), utopenec (Czech pickled sausages), smažený sýr (a crumbed cheese steak, like a schnitzel made entirely of cheese) and this wonderful garlic soup.

We were eating in a small sporting club, somewhere in Bohemia, and the little restaurant served this rich, clear garlic broth. It was cold outside so the broth was intensely warming.

But what really lifted the soup to dizzying heights was the discovery of melted cheese and smoky pieces of pork at the bottom of the bowl. Each mouthful was an oozing spoonful of molten cheese and garlicky broth. Perfect!

For these past 8 years I have thought of that soup so often. Now that I’ve made it, as part of my 2011 Food Challenges, I can honestly say my own version is an excellent tribute to the original experience.

Cook it, and you can experience the joys of Czech food too.

Česneková Polévka (Czech Garlic Soup)

Anna’s very own recipe. Serves 4 as an entree (starter).

We used Eumundi Smokehouse's
pork fillet

Ingredients:
1 bulb garlic
1.5 litres chicken broth
Grated zest of one lemon
1 tablespoon marjoram leaves, picked over
300g peeled and cubed potatoes
50g smoked pork fillet, thinly julienned
125g edam, grated
Salt and pepper, to taste
Knob of butter, for frying
Teaspoon olive oil, for frying
A few extra marjoram leaves, for garnish
Crusty bread rolls, for serving

Method:
1. Peel the skin from all the garlic cloves and slice each into thin slithers.

2. Heat the butter and olive oil in a large pot then sauté garlic until very soft.

3. Add lemon zest and chicken stock, then bring to the boil.

4. Add salt and pepper, marjoram and potatoes. Boil for 8 minutes or until potatoes are soft.

5. Meanwhile, either in a large oven proof serving dish (or individual oven-proof serving bowls) spread the pork on the base and top with grated cheese. Grill for a few minutes until the cheese has completely melted. This way it sticks to the bottom of the dish when you add the soup.

6. When the potatoes are ready, taste the soup is seasoned properly, then ladle into the serving dish and sprinkle with a little more marjoram leaves. Eat immediately with crusty bread.

Note: If you can’t get hold of smoked pork, use a smoky ham. Also, you might be able to tell from the photos that I used thyme. Marjoram is the traditional ingredient; I just couldn’t find any that day! Thyme is a good substitute in a pinch.

chicharrón

Pork Crackling Snacks

OK these are just terrible for you health-wise, but if you’re making a pork dish and you’ve got a lot of skin you’re not using, then don’t throw it away – make these pork crackling snacks!

Chicharrón are popular all over Spain and central & south America (and the Philippines), I suppose it's not a surprise when you consider how popular pork is across the region and the people's skills when it comes to cooking up all the bits and pieces of the animal.

There are other recipes out there that dry the boiled skins out in the oven on low heat for hours and hours and hours so when you deep fry them they puff up into light and airy treats. Admittedly these are much better but they take ages to make.I'm too lazy.

My recipe is much less labour intensive because the longest cooking time is the boiling, where you can throw the skins into water and walk away as they boil. Much less hassle than watching strips of pork skin slowly dry out in an open oven.

When it came to the deep-frying part, this is where I got ridiculously girly. The oil was spitting like crazy and I’m ashamed to say I hid behind Jonas who bravely did the hard work on this one.

In this recipe, ingredients do not have amounts because it’s a rustic dish and it’s best to make it all by feel depending on how much skin you're using.

As long as you make sure you have enough oil for deep frying, nothing else matters.

Chicharrón

Anna's very own recipe.

Ingredients:
Pork skin
Rock salt
White vinegar
Vegetable oil, for frying
Paprika
Black pepper
Garlic powder
Salt flakes

Method:

1. Cut away as much meat and fat as you can from the back of the pig skin. Ensure hairs have been removed too.

2. Bring a pan of water to the boil. Add a little rock salt and a dash of white vinegar.

3. Boil skin for around 2 hours or until the skin is soft and the remaining fat can be scraped off the back. Cut into strips.

4. Fill a deep pot with at least 5cm of oil and heat until a cube of bread goes brown in 30 seconds.

5. Dust pig skin with paprika, pepper and garlic powder.

6. Deep fry skin until curled and crispy. (careful, the oil will spit like crazy!)

7. Drain on kitchen paper, dust with more paprika and salt flakes and serve immediately while still crunchy.

vanilla & rhubarb soda

The weather in Sydney has been awful. And by awful I mean hot.

All winter I have been looking forward to the warmer months, longing to slip into a pair sandals, drift about in light summer dresses and laze in the afternoon sunlight.

Hmmm. It seems I forgot that my sandals get so hot my feet slide about, the summer dresses stick rather than drift and the afternoon sun is less tropical holiday and more lost in the desert.

Yes, it’s been stinking hot.

Sweaty, nasty, sticky hot. Melting, searing, muggy hot. The kind of heat that trickles down your back and chaffs at your thighs.

Now I’m begging for winter to return.

But today was wonderful. The sun was out, and yet the wind was cool and refreshing, and Jonas’ mamma is visiting from Sweden.

We started the day off with brunch at the Abercrombie Hotel, with my sisters Stinky and Shamu, and strong man Tombolina. The Abercrombie make the world’s best cheeseburger [no arguing!] not to mention awesome lageritas and cameltoes [drinks people!].

As Jonas declared at the end of the meal “that burger was an express ticket to Flavour Country”. Indeed.

With our guts full of delicious burger, we waddled through the back streets of Darlington and the purple jacaranda lanes of Sydney Uni before hitting the hubbub of the Newtown festival.

The festival was too much for me. Waaaay too many people, no where to sit, drunks lurching unpredictably, gangs of hipster youths looking ironic, yummy mummies with strollers, hippies with unleashed dogs.

I was exasperated after 5 seconds and decided I’m too old for this shit.

Instead we headed to a more civilised bar and drank frozen margaritas while a random band played some surprisingly good tunes.

Great day.

Now that I’m home, the only thing that can save me at the end of a scorching hot day is an ice cold beverage.

And what better than a soda flavoured with a home-made syrup? Simple, but just a little bit fancy.

Try this little jewel on for size and tell me you don’t love it!

Vanilla & Rhubarb Soda

Ingredients:
450g rhubarb
3 cups sugar
3 cups water
1 vanilla pod
Juice and zest of 1 lemon
Chilled soda water

Method:

1. Split the vanilla pod in half, then combine all ingredients (except soda water!) in a pot and simmer for around 15 minutes or until rhubarb is very soft and liquid has turned a pretty pink.

2. At this point you can choose between:
- Clear Syrup: strain the ingredients (through muslin) and allow it to drip through for a few hours until the liquid has passed. Return to stove and reduce by a third. OR
- Chunky Syrup: puree softened rhubarb in blender with the syrup. (I prefer this one!)

3. Store syrup in the fridge until ready to use.

4. For a rhubarb drink, add chilled soda water and mix well. Feel free throw in a little vodka for an extra kick.

aceitunas rellenas fritas

stuffed, fried olives

First off I just want to say that I am quite a bit auspicious when it comes to numbers. I am particularly fond of 1s, 3s and 7s and 11:11 is a very special time of day when I close my eyes and make a wish!

Today is the 11th Day of the 11th month of the 11th year of our century. That's pretty special in my books, so I plan to make the biggest wish ever at the 11th second of the 11th minute of this day.

~ ~ ~
But let's move onto the food!

I recently wrote a guest blog post for a blog celebrating Olives and Olive Oil from Spain. Although I will include my recipe here, you should definitely visit this site of you want to read my story and learn about all the olive varieties Spain has to offer. There are hundreds!

The recipe I cooked for them was stuffed, fried olives!

My favourite thing about tapas is that you can drink all night and never get drunk. The constant grazing lines your stomach and allows you to enjoy a myriad of delicacies and drinks without regretting anything the next day. It’s a wonderful invention!

This particular tapa is great in cooler weather, but it’s good enough to eat any time of year. Just take your preferred variety of stuffed olives (anchovies, cheese, tomatoes, capsicum) cover in this cheesy, spicy batter and fry until crispy.

There’s a dash of beer in the batter, but that’s just a convenient excuse to finish off a cold one while you cook. The chef’s privilege!

Serves these snacks with a crisp white wine, an ice cold beer or a tangy cider, all Spanish of course!

Aceitunas Rellenas Fritas (Stuffed Green Olives)

Anna’s very own recipe. Serves 4 as tapa / appetiser.

Ingredients:
200g large green olives from Spain (I prefer stuffed varieties without pips)
1½ cups panko (Japanese bread crumbs)
1 tablespoon (20ml) beer
1 tablespoon (20ml) chilli sauce
4 tablespoons (about 50g) grated manchego cheese
2 eggs, beaten
Salt and pepper, to taste
Olive oil from Spain, for deep frying

Method:

1) Mix together the manchego cheese, chilli sauce, eggs and beer. Add salt and pepper.

2) Add 1 cup panko crumbs to the liquid and mix roughly into a paste.

3) Wipe the olives with kitchen paper so their surface is dry, then coat them with the batter paste, forming balls. Set aside to rest.

4) Heat the olive oil until a sprinkle of panko browns in a few seconds.

5) Roll the olive balls in the remaining panko to create a crispy exterior then drop into oil and fry until golden brown.

6) Dust with a smattering of salt and serve hot.

Enjoy!

wholemeal blueberry bundt cake

Wow.

Am I allowed to say that about my own cake?

I don’t care.

Wow.

One of my oldest pals, Kath (who I met at school when I was just 11 but whom I became close friends with after we finished school aged 18), just had a baby. Little Scott came into this world earlier than expected but completely healthy and complication free.

Before his arrival our other high school comrade, Suzy, hosted a baby shower where we devoured sweet and savoury treats and gossiped about babies, childbirth and our distant youth. As part of my tribute upon the Altar of Baby, I baked this wow-inducing cake.

A few weeks beforehand, the friendly boys that run www.cookandkitchen.com.au, offered me my pick of their gourmet online food shop. I greedily snapped up some interesting items like Bitton Milk & Coconut Jam, Australian native dehydrated quandongs and bush tomatoes, smoked almonds, rye flour and this amazing Kialla organic stoneground wholemeal flour.

This flour is made by stone-milling the whole wheat grain sourced from Australian growers with certified organic crops. The final flour is highly nutritious because it contains the bran, germ and endosperm of the wheat. It’s a truly beautiful flour that gives an earthy, richness to your baked recipes.

And the best thing? It's only $5.95 per kilo, which is amazing when you consider the quality.

Having made a very successful apple bundt cake only recently, I decided to stick to a theme that works and developed a recipe using frozen blueberries and the wholemeal flour given to me by www.cookandkitchen.com.au. It was a masterpiece of rich healthy flavours, crunchy exterior, moist crumbled interior, bursts of fresh berry and all topped off with a pretty, pink sour cream glaze.

Although everyone was quite full by the time we brought the cake out, those that did take a slice were just as happy as I was.

If you decide to make it, I hope you’re happy with it too.

Wholemeal Blueberry Bundt Cake

Anna’s very own recipe. Serves 10-12.

Ingredients:
2 eggs
2 cups of sugar
1 cup of canola oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 tablespoons (40ml) pouring cream or milk
Juice and zest of 1 lemon
3 cups wholemeal flour (I used Kialla Organic & Stoneground)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1½ teaspoon bicarbonate soda
½ teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon salt flakes
3 cups frozen blueberries, thawed and strained (but juices reserved)

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180’C. Grease a bundt cake tin.

2. In a big mixing bowl, beat eggs.

3. Add sugar, oil, vanilla, lemon juice and zest.

4. Beat in pouring cream (or milk if using).

5. In another bowl combine flour, baking soda, bicarbonate soda, cinnamon, salt and flour.

6. Start adding the flour mixture to the wet ingredients in batches until a sticky mixture is formed.

7. Carefully add blueberries to cake mixture without over mixing and bleeding blueberries throughout batter. To do this, they have to be fairly well drained (or fresh).

8. Pour into bundt cake tin and cook for 45 – 70 minutes (mine took 60 minutes but every oven is different).

9. When the cake is completely cool, drizzle with blueberry & sour cream glaze.

Note: you can easily use fresh blueberries in this recipe without any changes, but just note changes to glaze recipe below.

Blueberry & Sour Cream Glaze

Anna's very own recipe. Makes a lot!

Ingredients:
¼ cup blueberries, thawed & juices reserved
Reserved juices from thawing blueberries from cake
100g sour cream
2 cups icing sugar

Method:

1. Combine blueberries and their juices in a blender and purée.

2. Strain mixture through a fine sieve or muslin to ensure blueberry skins are removed (discard pulp or use in another recipe). You should have about ¼ cup juices.

3. Put icing sugar in a bowl then beat in the sour cream and half the juice. Check for consistency - it should drizzle in a slow stream from the spoon (ie not too firm and not too runny). Adjust with more juice as needed.

4. Taste to ensure a sweet-sour flavour and a buzz of blueberry.

5. Refrigerate to stiffen slightly before pouring over cake.

Note: if you used fresh blueberries for cake and/or glaze you won’t have the excess liquids to make the glaze, therefore just add a tablespoon of water to the blender.


Kialla organic stoneground wholemeal flour supplied by the friendly folks at the gourmet online food shop www.cookandkitchen.com.au

sorrel & goats cheese egg bake

This recipe is basically a savoury custard flavoured with sorrel, an interesting leafy vegetable often found as a wild weed.

As a child my mother taught me to identify sorrel in the wild and I used to eat it when playing in fields or out on walks. I love the sour flavour.

These days, I suppose I’m more risk adverse and less likely to start chomping on random weeds in case I identified it incorrectly or someone has sprayed them with pesticides.

If you have sorrel growing as a weed in your garden, I encourage you not to kill it but to harvest it. It’s great in a salad, makes a wonderful soup (hot or chilled) and pairs perfectly with goats cheese in this wonderful breakfast dish.

Sorrel & Goats Cheese Egg Bake

Anna’s very own recipe. Serves 4.

Ingredients:
8 eggs, beaten
500g sorrel, roughly chopped
3 garlic cloves, grated
Juice & zest of 1 lemon
125g sour cream
100g soft goats cheese, crumbed
⅓ cup parmesan
Salt and pepper, freshly milled to taste

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 180’C. Grease 4 x 250ml (1 cup) ramekins.
2. Pick over sorrel and remove any tough stems from the larger leaves.
3. In a food processor, blend eggs, garlic, lemon juice and zest.
4. Add sour cream and blend again. Season to taste.
5. Add sorrel and pulse until it’s chopped through, but not completely pureed into oblivion.
6. Pour into grease ramekins, dot with crumbled goats cheese.
7. Sprinkle with parmesan.
8. Bake in oven for 30 minutes or until completely set on top and risen. Eat hot.

This sorrel recipe is my contribution to Weekend Herb Blogging, this week hosted by Cinzia from Cindystar. I don’t participate in WHB all that often anymore, but every time I do it seems to be Cinzia’s turn to host!

salmon sashimi w chilli sesame oil

 
食べるラー油がけ サーモンの刺身

Recently we were visited by two wonderful friends from Tokyo, VB Samurai and Green Ninja.

VB Samurai terrorised pubs across Sydney in his quest for the [im]perfect beer, while Green Ninja is a known enemy of electricity, preferring to undertake her clandestine activities in darkness.

Yes kids, there's a story in there. A big one.

Anyway . . . we had an awesome time hanging out, catching up and sharing our favourite places around Sydney. We also visited the Sydney Fish Markets and hosted a BBQ at our house with a group of friends, gorging on oysters, sashimi and even kangaroo skewers.

I served my finger lime oysters, as well as three types of sashimi: Snapper Sashimi w Soy & White Truffle, Tuna Tartare w Green Chillies, Crispy Shallots & Guacamole and this lovely salmon sashimi drizzled in la yu, a chilli & sesame oil which VB Samurai and Green Ninja brought us from Japan.

It seems la yu became incredibly popular last year in Japan, and after tasting it I understand why.

Chips of crispy fried onion and garlic floating in rich sesame oil and a hint of chilli. What’s not to love?

It’s used on rice, udon, salad dressings, fish – you name it! I can imagine happy uni students hunkering down with a bowl of ramen tossed in la yu as a quick fix dinner.

So why not drizzle this awesome sauce over sashimi? White fish isn’t a good option, since the flesh is too mild in flavour, but the richness of salmon was a perfect match.

Salmon Sashimi with La Yu

Anna’s recipe inspired by VB Samurai and Green Ninja.

Ingredients:
450g sashimi grade salmon, thinly sliced
1 tablespoon good quality la yu

Method:

Assemble fools!

baba ganoush

baba ghanoush - baba ghanouj - baba ghannoug

This was the first time I’ve made baba ganoush. Jonas had made it once before, which is strange because Jonas hates eggplant.

Nonetheless it was my first time in the driver’s seat and I was determined to make the best version I could.

Recently, I’d been at my friend Suzy’s house and – while she redesigned my blog with pretty new banner, favicon and business cards – I stuffed my face with delicious, intensely smoky baba ganoush from her local grocer.

The memory was vivid in my mouth and so I reached out to the man I knew would have the best baba ganoush recipe on the interweb: Fouad from The Food Blog.

On top of delivering the most delicious baba ganoush you ever will find, Fouad’s recipe is presented as a whimsical poem and is full of tips at each step, like not overpowering your eggplant with lemon and garlic, or only mixing with a fork to ensure the right textural consistency.

His advice is sage. His baba ganoush is divine.

This is how I turned his poem into my own recipe.

Baba Ganoush

Anna’s recipe based on Fouad’s poem. Serves 8 as a dip.

Ingredients:
3 eggplants (aubergines)
3 tablespoons tahini
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 cloves garlic
1 teaspoon salt

Method:

1. Pierce eggplants with a fork or knife all over (to prevent explosions).

2. Blacken over fire – best to use charcoal (the ONLY way according to Fouad) but gas or BBQ flames are a good alternative. This can take around 15 minutes or so. You want the whole eggplant to be completely black (smokiness) and limp (cooked flesh).

3. Put the hot eggplants in a bowl and cover with plastic wrap, or seal in a plastic bag. The steam from the hot eggplants keeps cooking them and helps the skin loosen from the flesh.

4. When completely cool, peel off the skin but don’t fuss over tiny specks of charred skin.

5. Drain the flesh very well (maybe leave over a strainer for an hour or so).

6. Add to the eggplant the tahini, lemon juice, garlic and salt and crush with a fork.

7. When well mixed, drizzle in olive oil and whip through.

8. Taste to ensure right ratio of tahini, lemon, garlic and salt.

9. Serve drizzled with olive oil and, if you want a little colour, a sprinkle of sumac.

Eat with abandon!

grilled avocado w melted cheese & hot sauce

Snacks are wonderful. Even better when they’re quick and easy to make.

This is my lazy fall back dinner. It’s made from four ingredients and couldn’t be easier to throw together.

Assemble, grill, eat.

After a long day at work, when all you want to do is crash on the sofa and watch TV, this is the kind of comfort food I turn to: quick and delicious.

Grilled Avocado w Melted Cheese & Hot Sauce

Anna's very own recipe. Serves 1 as a snack.

Ingredients:
1 avocado
1 tablespoon chipotle sauce (Tabasco or Louisiana)
1 tablespoon lime juice
¼ cup parmesan cheese
Salt and pepper

Method:

1. Slice the avocado in half and remove the stone. Prick all over with a fork, or cut criss-cross patterns with a knife. This allows the sauce to penetrate the flesh.

2. Pour the sauce over each half, then top with lime juice and salt and pepper.

3. In the cavity where the stone has been, put a fourth of the cheese on each avocado half. Place under the hot grill for 2 minutes.

4. Top with remaining cheese and grill (broil for Americans!) for another 2 minutes until completely melted and avocado warmed through.

Eat hot with a wedge of lime and chipotle sauce on the side!

Avocadoes are wonderful fruits, which is why I've chosen them as my theme ingredient for WHB in 2007 (cold avocado soup from the Ivory Coast), 2008 (avocado shake from Vietnam) and 2009 (prawn salad from Mexico).

The word avocado comes from the Aztec (Nahuatl) word ahuacatl, via Spanish aguacate and means “testicle”. Perhaps because of its appearance, the Aztecs believed avocadoes were an aphrodisiac and called it "the fertility fruit". Apparently during avocado harvesting, virgins were kept indoors to prevent any promiscuity taking place.

This reputation stuck with the avocado for such a long time and many people in South America wouldn’t eat it because they wanted to appear wholesome. Companies had to undertake serious PR campaigns to dispel the myths and get the fruit out to the public.

The Nahuatl word ahuacatl makes up other words like ahuacamolli, meaning "avocado soup/sauce” which the Spanish transformed into guacamole.

Propagation by seed takes around 5 years to produce fruit and the quality is never as good as the parent tree. Commercial plantations therefore graft new seedlings.

Avocadoes mature on the tree but ripen once harvested. The fruit is high monounsaturated fat contents and contains 60% more potassium than bananas, vitamin Bs, vitamin E, vitamin K and folate.

It is also interesting to note that avocado foliage, skin and pits are said to poison animals such as birds, cats, dogs, cattle, goats, rabbits and fish.

Good for us, bad for Fido.

This WHB is hosted by Graziana from Erbe in Cucina (Cooking with Herbs).

earl grey & rhubarb jam

 

This is one of the best jams I’ve made in a while.

The sweet-sour flavour of the rhubarb goes so well with the aromatic bergamot in Earl Grey. The jam is a perfect balance of rhubarb flavour and the hint of Earl Grey at the end.

I am so happy with the results and long to devour it heaped upon warm scones and clouds of clotted cream. With a cup of Earl Grey, of course!

Earl Grey & Rhubarb Jam

Anna's very own recipe. Makes 2 x 250ml jars.

Ingredients:
2 tablespoons Earl Grey tea leaves
1 cup water
350g rhubarb
350g sugar
15g Jamsetta (optional)
1 lime, juiced

Method:

1. Chop the rhubarb into small pieces.

2. Boil the water and pour it over the tea leaves. Leave to steep for about 15 minutes.

3. Strain the tea into a large saucepan and bring to boil.

4. Add the rhubarb and lime juice, cover and stew until the rhubarb has softened (no more than 5 minutes).

5. Add sugar and jamsetta, stirring until dissolved.

6. Bring to the boil and allow jam to bubble away for 5-10 minutes until it reaches setting point.

7. Pour into sterilised jars and seal.

Note: to check setting stage, drop a small amount of jam onto a chilled saucer for 30 seconds, run finger through the mixture and if it wrinkles or remains separated it has reached its setting poin.

ono coconut cake w coconut frosting

This is a luscious, coconut-ty dessert. In fact, you can't get a whiter, more coconut-rich cake than this Hawaiian recipe.

The first time I saw this on the Saveur website I swooned, and when I made it for my work colleagues they swooned too (special shout out to Kylie, who ate the leftover icing with a spoon).

It's not very healthy, but the best things never are.

Ono Coconut Cake w Coconut Frosting

Recipe from Honolulu's Moiliili Community Center via Saveur Issue #56. Serves 12.

Ingredients:

Cake
3 cups plain flour
2 tablespoons plain flour, for dusting
1½ cups sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
400ml unsweetened coconut milk
8 egg whites
½ teaspoon salt

Frosting
100g butter
½ teaspoons salt
5 cups powdered sugar
165ml (11 tablespoons) coconut cream
15ml (1 tablespoon) coconut rum
5ml (1 teaspoon) vanilla extract
1 cup shredded unsweetened coconut

Method:
1. For the cake: Preheat oven to 350°F / 180°C.

2. Grease 2 round 9" cake pans with butter. Dust each pan with 1 tbsp. of the flour, tapping out excess; set aside.

3. Sift together the remaining 3 cups flour, sugar, and baking powder into a large bowl.

4. Add coconut milk, stirring until batter is smooth, then set aside.

5. Put egg whites and salt into a mixing bowl and beat with an electric mixer on medium-high speed until stiff peaks form, about 5 minutes.

6. Fold whites into batter.

7. Divide batter between prepared pans and bake until toothpick inserted in centre comes out clean, about 25 minutes.

8. Set aside on a rack to cool, then remove from pans.

9. For frosting, beat butter until smooth. Add powdered sugar, salt, coconut cream, vanilla extract and mix until smooth. Add more coconut cream as needed for smoother frosting.

10. Cut cakes to ensure flat surfaces. Place first round on a cake plate, spread one-third of the frosting on top, and sprinkle with ¼ cup of the coconut. Set the remaining cake round on top, then ice cake with the remaining frosting. Sprinkle top and sides with remaining ¾ cup coconut.