Tropical Treats: Fresh Coconut Cake and Fresh Coconut Cookies for Critters a Tasty Tuesday Blog Hop Post

What with Hurricane Irene passing by here (we certainly hope all of our blog friends are ok) and flooding our basement, and seeing this delicious looking recipe onLulu and Wally's blog last Tuesday I got thinking tropical, and specifically coconut. So I decided to celebrate the end of summer by making fresh coconut cake and fresh coconut cookies for the dogs.  The recipe for the cake is very similar to one on epicurious. I used two  coconuts to make the cake and the cookies and I had a little coconut left over.

not a good picture, but a tasty cake

Fresh Coconut Cake  

Cake

• 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour, King Arthur brand is the best
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter at room temp
• 1 tbsp coconut rum liquor (you could easily leave this out or replace with coconut extract but Ive had the rum for years since someone gave it to me and figured it was time to use it).
• 4 lrg eggs at room temp
• 3/4 cup of whole milk
• 1 1/2 cups of fresh coconut chunks
• zest of 1 lime

Dealing with a fresh coconut can be tricky, here is a good video from e.how that tells you how to do it.   Set aside the coconut water after draining it from the coconut for use in the cookies.   

You could grate the coconut fresh with a box grater once you have peeled the coconut, but I think its easier to grind it in the food processor.   Just put chunks of the coconut flesh in the processor and pulse for one second intervals until you have small chunks no bigger then your pinkie nail.  Set the coconut aside.

Once you have prepared the coconut preheat the oven to 350 and line a 9 inch cake  pan with parchment paper.  Butter and flour the paper and the sides of the pan to prevent the cake sitting.  Set the prepared pan aside.

Sift the flour and baking powder together in a small bowl and set aside.

Beat the butter in an electric mixer fitted with the paddle atatchment on high speed for one minute, then add the sugar and beat for 3 minutes.   Add the eggs one at a time beating well after each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl with  a rubber spatula.  

Add the flour and the milk in two additions beating until just blended after each addition and scraping the sides of the bowl with spatula to make sure everything is incorporated.

Add the 1 1/2 cups of  coconut and the lime zest and fold into the batter with the rubber spatula. 

Pour the  batter into the cake pan and smooth the top.  Bake for one hour until golden and the cake tester comes out clean.

Cool the cake in the pan for ten minutes and then transfer to a cake rack to cool completely.

Cream cheese or Mascarpone Frosting

• 8 oz of cream cheese or 1 cup of Mascarpone cheese at room temp
• 4 tbsp of butter 
• 3 tbsp of heavy cream (only if using cream cheese)
• 1 tbsp coconut liquor or 1 tsp coconut extract (optional)
• zest of 1 lime
• 3-4 cups of powdered sugar
• 1/2 cup of coconut chunks

Beat the cheese, butter, and heavy cream (if using) in the mixer on high speed until light and creamy, about three minutes.

Add the coconut liquor and lime zest and beat to combine.

Gradually add the powdered sugar until you get the consistency and sweetness you desire.

Spread the frosting on the cooled cake and sprinkle the coconut chunks on top.

 Store in the refrigerator.

Now if you made the cake you will have coconut left over and lots of coconut water, if your a dog blogger you will also have some hungry hounds.  So the obvious choice is to make a dog friendly coconut treat.  Coconut has lots of benefits for dogs.   

Coconut oil has been shown to lower cholesterol, improve digestion, reduce the risk of cancer, promote normal thyroid function, and reduce arthritis.  If you subscribe to the Whole Dog Journal's website  (a great magazine by the way) you can read their article on the subject.  You can buy coconut oil and coconut chips for dogs from Olive Green Dog.  Fresh coconut is also chock full of vitamins and protein and coconut water promotes kidney health (good for our Dr. Zira who has mild kidney disease.)

Fresh Coconut Cookies for Critters

 3 cups whole wheat flour 

1 1/4 cups coconut water (if you don't have enough water from your coconuts you can add some regular water to equal this amount)

1 cup of coconut chips 

2 tbsp coconut oil (or vegetable oil)

Preheat oven to 350 and line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.  Pour all the ingredients into a large bowl and stir together well.  You should have a slightly sticky dough.   Roll heaping tablespoons of the dough into balls and place 1 inch a part on line cookie sheets, flatten the dough balls gently with your fingers.  Bake cookies for 20 minutes until golden brown.

Note: If you want to make the cookies without using the coconut, you could get unsweetened coconut chips and some coconut water, such as Vita Coco and use those.

Ping approves of the batter

Cookies Please!

Norbert (no damage done), but I decided everyone needed some cool down time.  Since then we've been using the cookies during quick training sessions and they remain a big hit with everyone. One cookie sprinkled over his Wellness Core kibble got super picky Norbert to eat every kernel in bis bowl.  

Check the link below to see more great recipes on the Tasty Tuesday blog hop hosted by Kolchak puggle