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FeedCuckoo for Coconut
Coconut tastes like the tropics and looks like snow—a perfect midwinter treat. It’s a staple main-dish ingredient in southeast Asian cooking, but in the U.S., it’s used most gloriously in baking.
“Coconut is why I opened this shop,” says Leslie Fiet, owner and chef baker of Mini’s Cupcakes and the new Retro Cafe. “It’s my favorite flavor. I love Dean & DeLuca’s coconut cupcakes—they are worth the price tag of $6. Basically, I went into the food business because I had to have a place to get good coconut cupcakes.”
At Mini’s, coconut shows up in lots of cupcakes—the Blue Hawaii, a tribute to Elvis, mixes coconut and pineapple and replaces buttermilk with pineapple juice in the cake. The Snowball is a Madagascar vanilla bean cake topped with Swiss meringue and a shower of shaved coconut.
Fiet enjoys one—or two—with her tea every day at four o’clock, when she closes shop.
(Recipes by Barb Freda)
Coconut Cake with Gingered Cream Filling
Serves 12
White cake
1 ½ sticks butter, room temperature
2 tsp. vanilla
1 ½ cups sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
4 tsp. baking powder
1 cup milk
6 egg whites
Gingered cream
1 cup sour cream
3 Tbsp. light brown sugar
3 Tbsp. chopped crystallized ginger
1/8 tsp. ground ginger
½ cup mango ginger jam (or your favorite flavor)
White frosting
1 ½ cups heavy cream
¼ cup powdered sugar
½ cup sour cream
2 cups shredded coconut, toasted and cooled
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Line two 9-inch-square cake pans with parchment paper; spray with baking spray. Place butter, vanilla and sugar into bowl of mixer. Cream together on high about 5 minutes. Mix flour and baking powder together in separate bowl. In another bowl, whisk milk and egg whites together.
Reduce mixer speed. Add 1/3 of flour mixture. Blend in. Add ½ of milk/egg white mixture. Add another 1/3 of flour, remaining milk/egg white mixture and then remaining flour, blending well after each addition. Divide batter evenly between prepared pans. Bake 25 minutes. Cool about 10 minutes and then remove from pans to cooling racks to cool completely. Make ginger cream by stirring sour cream, brown sugar, ginger and jam together.
Whip cream with powdered sugar and sour cream. Slice each cake layer in half horizontally. Place first layer on cake plate and top with ½ of ginger cream. Top with second cake layer. Spread about ¼ cup frosting over layer. Top with third layer. Spread with remaining jam. Top with final layer. Spread remaining frosting over all. Sprinkle coconut on top. Refrigerate until ready to serve.
Bimini Bread
2 loaves
2 ¼ tsp. active dry yeast
1 cup warm (100 degrees) coconut milk (make it yourself or purchase it)
¼ cup nonfat dry milk powder
1/3 cup sugar
½ cup vegetable oil, extra oil to drizzle
1 tsp. salt
3 eggs, beaten lightly
3 to 4 cups flour
2 Tbsp. honey
2 Tbsp. butter
Dissolve yeast in ¼ cup warm coconut milk in mixing bowl. Let sit 10 minutes. Add milk powder, sugar, oil, salt and eggs. Use paddle attachment to mix until smooth. Add remaining coconut milk. Switch to dough hook and add flour about ½ cup at a time, until dough is cleanly pulling away from sides of mixing bowl. Knead at medium speed 5 minutes, until dough is smooth and elastic. Drizzle oil over dough, coating dough and sides of bowl. Cover tightly with plastic and let rise in warm spot about 2 hours.
Punch dough down. Form into 2 loaves or 12 small rolls. Place loaves into greased loaf pans or rolls into greased round cake pan. Cover with cotton cloth and let rise 1 hour. Preheat oven to 350 degrees during last 20 minutes of rising.
Bake loaves about 35 minutes and rolls about 25 minutes, until golden brown.
Remove from oven. Cool 5 minutes. Remove from pans and place on cooling racks. While bread is cooling, melt butter with honey. Mix well and brush over top of warm loaves or rolls.
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