Lime Cake with Coconut Frosting

I am in love.  It's true.  I find myself wanting to bake all the time and make scrumptious things; the slightest reason to make something and I'm off to the kitchen!  With whom am I in love, you may be asking?  Well, with what might be the more appropriate question.  It's a cookbook. Weekend Baking by Sarah Randell.  She's British (I think) and has you tipping in and whisking about!  I'm pretty sure she means add and mix - or at least that's what I do and it seems to be working.  Anyway, it's a great cookbook with thoughtfully paired flavors - not your regular run-of-the-mill recipes that you see everywhere.  And the recipes are pretty simple, because who wants to spend your weekend working on a complicated recipe?

This particular recipe is one I've made 4 times.  Well, twice really; the second time I made 3 cakes.  It's deliciously limey and fresh.  The cake itself is a little on the sweet side, which pairs perfectly with the less sweet, but very coconutty frosting.  It's paradise in a slice.  Literally.

Lime Cake with Coconut Frosting
1 1/2 sticks butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
1 1/3 cups self-rising flour
3 eggs
finely grated peel of 2 limes

Lime Drizzle
1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
freshly squeezed juice of two limes


Coconut Frosting
6oz. cream cheese, room temperature
5 T coconut cream (I also used coconut milk, and reduced on the stove to cream)
2 T confectioners' sugar
grated peel of 1 lime (use a zester, if you have one, rather than a fine grater)

a 7-in. round, deep cake pan, lightly buttered and baselined with baking parchment

1.  Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and prepare the pan. If your pan is not deep, I found that lining the sides with parchment that stuck up over the edges slightly helped the cake rise straight as well as kept the edges from getting too dark.

2.  Combine the first 5 ingredients in a large bowl with an electric mixer and beat until combined.

3.  Spoon the batter into the prepared pan and spread evenly. Bake in preheated oven for about 50 minutes - check 10 minutes early as mine have sometimes finished that quick! Bake until cake is golden brown and a skewer comes out clean when inserted into the center of the cake.

4.  While the cake is baking, make the lime drizzle sauce: sift the confectioners' sugar into a bowl and stir in the lime juice. Set aside.

5.  To make the frosting, combine the first three ingredients in an electric mixer until smooth and creamy. (If you are reducing coconut milk to make the coconut cream, it will take almost a whole can of coconut milk to get 5 tablespoons and will take a bit of time!  It's probably the most time-consuming part of making this otherwise quick cake! Feel free to do this step ahead of time and refrigerate the cream in an airtight container a day or two in advance.) Refrigerate icing until needed.  Allow a few minutes for the frosting to warm before spreading on cake - doesn't take too long to be spreadable though!

6.  When the cake is done baking, remove it from the oven and with a fine skewer, make holes all over the cake, about 1-inch apart, that reach down the bottom of the cake.  Spoon the lime drizzle over the entire cake, allowing it to soak in.  Let the cake cook completely in the pan on a wire rack.

7.  Once cold, pop the cake out of the pan, remove the parchment paper, and spread the frosting over the top. Sprinkle with the lime peel.

Enjoy!

Sweet Chili Stir Fry

A wonderful discovery - made the first time out of leftovers! Discoveries don't get much better than that. How many times do we find ourselves staring into the depths of the refrigerator, wondering what we can make for dinner? The second time it was perfected (with more vegetables).  Behold, I share with you Sweet Chili Stir Fry!!

Sweet Chili Stir Fry
3/4 large red bell pepper, large dice
1/2 large orange bell pepper, large dice
1 cucumber, thinly sliced
3 scallions, 3greens ends only, chopped into 1-inch sections
1/2 chicken, boned with meat chopped into bite-size pieces
4 Roma tomatoes, sliced length-wise into eighths
3 cups diced broccoli
1/3 cup sweet chili sauce, or to taste
Soba noodles (about 3 cups, cooked)
2 T olive oil

1. Heat olive oil on medium heat, add broccoli and cook for a minute, then add bell peppers. When bell peppers.  After a minute, add the rest of the vegetables. 

2.  When tomatoes and cucumbers start to look tender crisp, add the noodles, 1/4 cup water, chicken, and chili sauce.  Cook a minute or so more until noodles are warm and al dente.

Enjoy!  (Pairs well with a Riesling wine.)

Homemade Teriyaki Sauce

Trying to find the best teriyaki place? It's most likely that you'll get as many answers as people you ask.  Now you don't have to leave home to get it! This was a sauce originally designed for chicken wings, but I find there isn't much meat on a wing - and their kinda messy.  I used this sauce for chicken legs as well as chicken breasts and both turned out great.  The recipe makes quite a bit and it keeps for a few weeks in your fridge.

Homemade Teriyaki Sauce
1 cup low-sodium soy sauce
1 cup grapefruit juice
1/4 cup hoisin sauce
1/4 cup ketchup
3 T rice wine vinegar
1/4 cup light brown sugar
1/2 fresh, hot red chile, seeded and de-ribbed (use both halves for a spicy sauce!)
5 garlic cloves, halved
2-inch piece fresh ginger, peeled and smashed with the side of a large knife
cilantro and sesame seeds to garnish

1.  Roast your chicken in the oven as normal (rub with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper and bake at 350 until thickest part reaches 160 degrees - I'm assuming you're using chicken pieces, not a whole chicken!).

2.  While chicken is cooking, combine the ingredients in a large saucepan. Simmer over low heat until sauce is slightly thickened.

3.  When chicken comes out of the oven, put it in a bowl large enough to cover the chicken with sauce.  Pour enough sauce over the chicken to completely cover all the pieces.  Let the chicken marinate for 5 minutes.  If using chicken breasts, you might want to cut the meat into smaller pieces to get better coverage.  Remove  garlic, pepper and ginger and store remaining sauce in an air-tight container in the refrigerator.

4.  Place pieces of chicken on a platter and sprinkle with cilantro leaves and sesame seeds to garnish.

Enjoy!

Rice Krispie Cake

Ever wonder what you can take to a party that no one else is going to bring - or if someone else does bring the same thing how you can guarantee that yours will be the one that everyone eats?  Well, this is THAT THING. It's fun for kids and delicious for adults. It's quick and easy to make and ready to eat a few minutes later.  It's a classic favorite kicked up with a little sweet and a little salty. It's a party all by its self. It's.... a Rice Krispie Cake!

I made this for my Super Bowl party and it was definitely a favorite on the table - by kids and grownups alike!  While I used a chocolate/butterscotch/peanut theme, you can really use whatever combination of flavors you'd like. The premise is still the basic Rice Krispie, but you add one flavor of cereal, broken pretzel sticks, a baking chip, a candy if you'd like (such as M&Ms) - get creative.  Some combinations could be:

• Captain Crunch, peanut butter chips, M&Ms (plain or peanut) or Reese's Pieces, pretzel sticks

• Fruit Loops, white chocolate chips, mini-marshmallows, pretzel sticks, (drizzle melted semi-sweet chocolate on top!)

Be aware that the baking chips will melt when you mix them in, so if you use chocolate, you'll have brown smudges all throughout (might not look so good!).  Also, if you use a chocolate cereal, be careful if it's chocolate coated for the same reason! Below is the recipe and candy combo that I used (add-ins are flexible, you can increase or decrease to taste).  Another thing that is unique about this Rice Krispie treat is the shape - it's molded in an angel food cake pan. To serve, slice with a sharp knife. Make a double recipe to make a taller 'cake' that is the height of a normal angel food cake.

Rice Krispie Cake
4 cups Rice Krispies cereal
2 cups Cinnamon Toast Crunch
4 T butter
1 whole bag mini marshmallows
1/2 - 3/4 cup butterscotch chips
1 small bag (snack size) regular M&Ms
1 cup Peanut M&Ms
1 cup pretzel sticks, broken in half

1.  Spray an angel food cake pan with Pam or other cooking spray and set aside.

2.  Melt butter in a large pot on the stove on medium heat, add the marshmallows; reduce heat if necessary to prevent marshmallows and butter from burning.  Stir constantly.

3.  When marshmallows are completely melted, remove from heat and add both cereals. Stir quickly to coat cereal evenly.  Add the rest of ingredients and stir until just combined. Careful to not over stir so candies do not melt - otherwise colors will melt and smear on the cereals!

4.  Pour cereal mixture into angel food cake pan and gently pat down into pan to ensure it takes on the shape of the pan. Let cool for a few minutes in the pan, then turn out onto plate for serving. Slice pieces of cake to serve when completely cool.

Enjoy!