Chocolate Crinkles II

Chocolate crinkles are beautiful cookies to give as gifts. They're especially perfect during the wintertime for they look like snowflakes. It has a soft chocolate center that conveys the idea of a cozy home, cookies and milk and a general warm fuzzy feeling.

Merry Christmas!

Season's greetings everyone.

Hope y'all are enjoying the holiday and spending it with loved ones.

Pichet Ong's Spot

Spot, a dessert bar on 13 St. Marks Place, between Second and Third Avenue, is an easy place to miss since they are located in the basement. Their sign, as photographed above, is noticeable at night but during the day, make an extra effort to find this gem. It's definitely worth it.

Lemon Buttermilk Pound Cake

This Lemon Buttermilk Pound Cake was from Allrecipes. The original recipe was a Buttermilk Pound Cake but the intensity of lemon was increased and turned into a different tasting cake.

Lady M Mille Crepe or Crepe Cake

Lady M, a dessert boutique located on 41 East 78th Street, between Madison and Park Avenue, is noted for their Mille Crepe or Crepe Cake. In French, mille means thousand and crepe is a thin kind of French pancake. The name alludes to a cake that is made with a thousand layer of crepe but in reality, it's made with a maximum of twenty-eight layers. In between the layers is cream, which acts as glue for all the crepes.

I ♥ Microplane Zester

I used to dread recipes that required zest because I had a box grater and it took twenty minutes to create a teaspoon of the stuff. Bits of the lemon would collect in between the holes and not enough would fall through for use. Using a tool to remove the zest particles that was stuck in between the holes cost more than it was worth because it would end up damaged. A box grater is dangerous because it's sharp and very easy to hurt careless fingers. In addition, I had to be mindful not to grate the pith, or the white part underneath the skin because that part of the lemon is bitter. Maintenance of the darned thing was annoying too. I had to take a toothbrush and slowly and gently scrub the top and the bottom side to make sure that it was free of food.

Coconut Lemon Cake

Welcome to the beginning of Tasty Confection! I decided to christen it with Mum's Coconut Lemon Cake from What's for Lunch, Honey? I found the recipe while searching for a lemon coconut cake. The recipes that were out there were 2 or even 3-tiered cakes. I wanted something simple and was quite happy when I found What's for Lunch, Honey?.

The original recipe uses a different measuring system since the owner is located in Germany and  I'm used to cups, teaspoons, etc. Weighing the ingredients wasn't a problem since I own a scale but such things as 180 degrees Celsius, approximately 356 degrees Fahrenheit, was difficult to achieve. I set my oven to a little bit past 350 and hoped for the best. The recipe calls for a 20cm in diameter cake pan. A 9 inch cake pan works perfectly for this and anything smaller would definitely have overflowed.  

Ingredients
For the cake 
185g all purpose flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
45g shredded dried coconut
1 tablespoon lemon zest
250g sugar
125g butter + more for brushing the cake form, melted
2 eggs
250ml milk

For the Coconut Frosting
185g icing sugar, sieved
90g shredded dried coconut
1/2 teaspoon lemon zest, coarsely grated
60ml lemon juice
Splash of Milk

Method:
Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees C. Brush a 9 inch cake pan with some of the melted butter, then line with baking paper.

In a large mixing bowl sieve the flour and baking powder. Then add the shredded coconut, lemon zest, sugar, eggs, butter and the milk. Using a wooden spoon mix into a smooth creamy mixture.

Fill the dough into the cake pan and bake for 40 minutes, until a slight crust forms on the surface. Take the cake out of the oven and let cool for 5 minutes. Finally, take out of pan and allow to cool completely on a rack.

For the Coconut Frosting
In a smaller bowl, mix the icing sugar and the shredded coconut. Add the lemon zest and pour in enough of the lemon juice to make a stiff, but still spreadable mixture. Add a splash or two of milk to make the frosting more supple.

Spread the frosting over the surface and the edges of the cake using a metal spatula.

Storing:
Stored in an airtight container and in the refrigerator this cake will last for 4 to 5 days.





This is the flour, baking powder, dried coconut and lemon zest.