Evolving

Right now lots of delicious things are evolving in the kitchen, good but not just-so, heady scents lacking texture...beer bread that rises yet is brick-ish, too sweet dark beer chocolate cake, biscuit style one vs biscuit style two, chocolate mousse resembling a melted milk shake that churns into a decent ice cream, cherry marmalade epic fail via operator error. Eventually they'll all be ready to share, just not yet.

It is a bit discouraging when a string of recipes don't come together perfectly on the first, or even third, attempt. The fun of playing in the kitchen fading, making it time to bake a no-fail treat. This means an old standard or anything ever tried from David Lebovitz. Today, it might mean both.

Starting with these Baci di Dama cookies - hazelnut with a kiss of chocolate on David Lebovitz's blog.
http://www.davidlebovitz.com/2012/11/baci-di-dama-cookies-recipe/

And some simple savory cooking, like sausage & lentil stew.

Man Catcher Brownies

There is a long tradition of handy single men doing projects in exchange for food. In my case, specifically of barn roof’s being repaired, paddock fences mended, and hay moved for fresh baked brownies and lemonade. Since my teens the one bowl brownie recipe on the Baker’s© Chocolate was the go-to recipe for an excellent cake-y brownie.

Three Bowls to create Brownie Bliss

Then in 2007 I read a Boulder Daily Valentine’s article on Leigh Lambert and her quest for the perfect brownie, entitled Man Catcher Brownies. Given brownies caught guys for barn repairs and home maintenance tasks, the title had me giggling. Reading the recipe reminded me of my chocolate chip cookie recipe with equal parts sugar and brown sugar, a hefty slug of vanilla, the dash of salt. Then the mixing directions made mental connections…techniques elevate the results, so even so-so ingredients make a better brownie:

Mixing the cocoa into the melted fat releases more of the cocoa polyphenols maximizing the flavor.

Brown sugar enhances the caramel & bourbon notes…substituting vanilla infused bourbon for the vanilla extract is pretty tasty too; as is having a finger of bourbon with a warm brownie!

The large grains of kosher sea salt prevent too-sweet with piquancy in each bite.

Unless you’re buying generic store brand cocoa, higher-grade cocoa isn’t necessarily more expensive cocoa, and makes a tremendous difference. The higher grade will contain more cocoa butter fat, have a deeper color, and more phenols (chocolaty smell.) To a chocolate fiend the bigger, rounder, richer taste experience will be readily apparent. I keep a stock of Mama Ganache (Natural and Dutched), Penzey’s (High Fat), Savory (Midnight), Guittard (Rouge) or Scharffen Berger cocoa’s in my freezer.

Once you bite into these, dirtying three bowls will never seem like too much effort. Hand mixing them is still as simple as the old one-bowl recipe.

moist and dense with a crackle top

Ingredients
8 oz / 227 grams coconut oil or palm shortening
5.86 oz / 167 grams dutched cocoa powder
5 eggs
4 tsp vanilla
9.42 oz / 267 grams light brown sugar
9.42 oz / 267 grams sugar
5.88 oz / 187 grams of Gluten-Free All-Purpose flour
2/3 tsp kosher sea salt



Directions
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line a 9x9 pan with parchment paper.
In a small bowl whisk together the flour and salt until no lumps remain.

In a medium bowl heat the coconut oil until just melted. Immediately whisk in cocoa powder until smooth. Let cool. Don’t give into the visual temptation to lick the whisk…straight fat & cocoa will be an unpleasant junior high Home Economics flashback.


In the largest bowl, while the cocoa mixture cools, whisk eggs together and add in sugars. Then whisk in the vanilla. Stir in cooled cocoa mixture. Now the whisk is perfect to swipe a dab from…sticky with sweet, intense chocolaty goodness.

Fold flour and sea salt into wet mixture until just mixed…hand mixing these is the easiest route to not to over-mixing and ending up with rubbery, tough brownies. The dough is thick. It won’t spread while baking, so push it into the pan corners and level all over with the mixing spatula.

Bake 40-45 minutes or until a crust forms and toothpick comes out mostly clean. Completely clean will be an over baked brick.

Cool in pan for 10 minutes. Then it is safe to lift the parchment out of the pan and divvy up warm brownie bliss.

Torta de Regina de Notte

Alone a chunk of bittersweet chocolate is redolent with night blooming floral scents, of garden paths still warm from the sun's kiss, expressing passions that unfurl only during night's dark embrace. For me citrus fruits grant the ability to taste sunshine. Bursting and bright, it is no wonder humans have long heralded oranges as symbols for the sun's rebirth. The perfect globes contrasting the scant arch of a Northern hemipshere's winter day, especially an overcast, grey day like today.

In this torte the contrasting & complimentary are wedded together by earthy hazelnuts, resulting a sensory experience exceeding the sum of its parts. It tastes better than the recipe reads, better than the gorgeous photo by Helen Dujardin, which is no small feat as her photos are always lush...Queen of the Night fits this torte.

Since citrus isn't in season yet I cheated with a premium organic store-bought marmalade. I always use bittersweet chocolate, not semisweet, use either. The simplicity of baking by weight, not volume means you can grind your own hazelnuts or buy flour/meal at the store. Ditto the chocolate - ground chocolate (not cocoa!) also makes this recipe faster to assemble. Otherwise use the standard grate side of the box grater, it will result in a fine grate chocolated, not chunks or the melted mess the fine side will make (ask me how I know that...) Prepping each ingredient before starting to mix the cake helps maintain the egg-based structure.

 

Each winter one new-to-me cookbook becomes 'the' cookbook of the season. Winter 2012 will be Marmalades Savory & Sweet. In a few months when citrus peaks I'll make a batch and repeat this recipe. May even cheat again so I can dally with this Queen again. Waiting for good citrus to have this cake was not an option. Despite cheating on the citrus marmalade, the cherry marmalade cannot be ignored, especially as twelve ounces of fat Bing cherries in my freezer are chorusing in siren song. By next week there will be a post extolling another pleasure awaiting between the covers of Ellen's delightful book.

Here's how I made the Queen of the Night: it took only one ingredient change to make this safe for me to eat, and I think the coconut oil enhanced the main ingredient floral notes.

Cake Ingredients
7.06 ounces / 200 grams ground hazelnuts, plus half an ounce more to dust the pan
9.52 ounces / 270 grams granulated sugar
8 large eggs, separated
Finely grated zest of 2 oranges
4 ounces orange juice (the juice of 2 oranges)
1 tbsp hazelnut liqueur or vanilla extract
7 ounces / 225 grams semisweet chocolate - ground or finely shaved
pinch of salt

Glaze Ingredients
8 ounces marmalade
1 tablespoon hazelnut liqueur
1-2 tablespoons orange juice

Lightly grease a 9" springform pan with coconut oil. I like to parchment the bottom of the pan then oil the paper & sides. Dust with extra ground nuts.

Combine the egg yolks and sugar, mixing until ribbons form...about 5 minutes with a stand mixer. Add in the orange zest, ground hazelnuts, chocolate, orange juice, hazelnut liqueur and the pinch of salt. Blend until fully incorporated and set aside.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees - 325 if you have a convection oven.

Whip the egg whites until stiff peaks form. Fold 1/4 to 1/3 of the egg whites into the rest of the ingredients. Gently, this is where the cake's crumb and texture comes from. Repeat until all the egg whites are folded in. Pour into the prepared springform and set in the oven.

The book says to bake the cake for 55 minutes, mine was done in 40 minutes. Keep toothpicks handy and pay attention to the baking scents. Once a pick comes out mostly dry, pull the cake and set to cool for 10-15 minutes. Run the back of a knife edge around the outer rim, pop the spring form off and make the glaze.

While the cake baked I cleaned up and made the glaze. If you like the rind in marmalade, just combine the marmalade, liqueur and orange juice, warm in a small pan until runny. I'm not a fan of the rind, so I strained the glaze, let it cool to room temp and then brushed the top and sides, using a silicone brush.

The first sliver was slightly warm when I devoured it. The second  cooler slice was just as good...and the house smells delicious. Whipped topping & chocolate shavings complete the presentation. Coffee or champagne or prosecco are the ideal accompaniment to this rich, yet not too-sweet cake. The book says 8 servings from the 9" round, at my table it is 16 servings/decadent slivers.

If the cake isn't going to be consumed within a day, wrap servings of the completely cooled cake in plastic wrap, and freeze it.

Blondies

In the 80s and 90s a favorite gathering spot was the Gemini. An alternative restaurant known for a spiced house tea and daring food options like a curried chicken salad with strawberries. That is, daring for a suburb west of Denver. The house iced tea was easy to drink by the glassful, tucked into a big booth, chatting with girlfriends or doing tarot readings for each other. Wired on caffeine from gallons of house tea, we'd split a Blondie brownie. Each serving decadent, warm, and surely full of butter, chocolate chips, nuts, plus the sweet surprise of chopped dates.

The restaurant is long gone, but the craving for a Blondie happens fairly often. Blondies are a brownie's paler sibling; a bar cookie grown up to be a chocolate chip cookie's bigger, sturdier brother. This winter it was time to recreate this favored treat. Redolent with warm brown sugar, vanilla, and gooey bittersweet chocolate chips these bar cookies are an aroma therapy category all their own. Mixing up in the time it takes the oven to preheat, it is pure bliss to sit in the kitchen with a cup of tea, basking in the scent of them baking. If I'm really lucky the scent lingers in the house, rich and smooth.

One pan makes nine servings that are half-size from what the huge slabs Gemini used to serve. Lately, I've taken to quartering each serving so the pan yields 36 Blondies. What I don't eat or give away the day I bake them get frozen. Popped from freezer to the microwave for 30 seconds they instantly resurrect to gooey decadence.

No stand mixer? No problem! As long as the sugar and palm shortening are thoroughly mixed the rest of the recipe calls for minimal mixing.

Blondies

3 oz or ½ cup shortening
4 oz or ½ c + 2 tbsp light brown sugar
4 oz or ½ c + 2 tsp cane sugar
2 eggs
1 tbsp vanilla
4 oz or 1 cup gluten free flour mix (I use Pamela's)
1 ½ tsp baking powder (corn & gluten free I use Hain)
½ tsp sea salt
2 oz or ½ cup crushed walnuts
2 oz or ½ cup chopped dates
2 ½ oz or ½ cup bitter sweet chocolate chips

Preheat convection oven to 325 (350 if not convection)
Line 9x9 baking pan with parchment paper.

Mix shortening, sugars, and vanilla in stand mixer on medium, occasionally scraping down the bowl, until well creamed, verging on fluffy.
Scrape down the bowl.
Add in eggs, beating on medium-high for 2 minutes. Scraping down the bowl.

In separate bowl whisk together flour mix, baking powder, and sea salt until well incorporated.

Add gluten free flour mix to the bowl, mix on low until just blended.

Detach paddle to hand stir in nuts, dates and chocolate chips until just blended.
Spatula into parchment lined pan, pushing stiff dough into corners.
Garnish with additional nuts, chocolate chips and dates.
Bake for 30 minutes, rotating half way through baking time. May take longer to bake at higher altitudes.

Cool for about 5-10 minutes then devour at will.

Chocolate Zucchini Bread

Here is the final recipe from our Lammas dinner, keeping the chocolate theme and honoring the harvest challenge of what to do with all the zucchini?! Baked into muffins or small loaves these pack into on-the-go breakfasts or sack lunches for professionals and students alike.

The mildness of the Dutch cocoa carries the orange zest and lets the cinnamon shine. The trio honors the South western blending of the Spanish (oranges), Native (zucchini), Aztec (chocolate), and European (cinnamon) cultures.

We eat it plain, but I've served it for tea by spritzing it with orange blossom water and a sprinkle of turbinado sugar. If more zucchini appears on my door step this season I may play with some different glazes for it.

Chocolate Zucchini Bread

16 oz zucchini, chopped

4 oz coconut oil

14 oz or 2 c organic cane sugar

3 eggs

2 egg yolks

2 tsp vanilla

4 oz or 1 c walnut pieces

12 oz or 2 ¼ c Pamela's gluten-free flour mix

3 oz or ½ c potato starch

2 1/8 oz or ½ c cocoa powder, dutched

2 ¼ tsp baking powder

2 tsp baking soda

1 1/3 tsp sea salt

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tbsp Penzey's orange peel or zest from one fragrant orange

4 oz coconut milk

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees with the racks in the lower third of the oven.

If using dried orange peel place in coconut milk to rehydrate.

Lightly grease preferred pans with coconut oil. Parchment line the bottom of any round pans you may be using.

Puree zucchini in food processor. Scrape down the bowl.

Add the walnuts, puree until smooth. Scrape down the bowl.

Add coconut oil, sugar, eggs, egg yolks, and vanilla. Puree for two minutes, then scrape down the bowl.

In a large bowl, whisk all the dry ingredients together. Then, yes, whisk them a bit more.

Add the flour mixture and the coconut milk to the processor, lightly pulse until just incorporated.

Spoon into pans and bake.

Bake muffins or bundt-shaped muffins for 20 minutes or until tooth pick comes out clean.

Bake 4” bundts for 30 minutes.

Bake 6” spring form rounds or two 8x4 loaves for 50 minutes.

This batch of batter is enough to bake two 8x4 loaves or 30 muffins or twelve 4” bundts.

Mixing this bread with a food processor for the texture of a mild chocolate cake has the side benefit of hiding the zucchini, if you don't tell no one will ever know.

Stand mixer directions:

Grate the zucchini on the large side of the box grater, it takes less time than you'd expect. Set aside.

Mix the coconut oil, sugar and vanilla until smooth. Scrape down the bowl.

Add the sugar, beating until smooth. Scrape down the bowl.

Add in the eggs and egg yolks, beat on medium-high for two minutes.

Add the zucchini, mix until just incorporated. Scrape down the bowl.

Add the walnuts.

Whisk together the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Whisk until fully incorporated and then whisk a bit more.

Alternately add the flour mixture to the bowl, beating on low speed, with zested coconut milk.

Beat until just blended.

This method yields a more traditional appearing quick bread with the zucchini shreds and walnuts clearly visible.

Chocolate Chili Chicken

By southwestern standards this is a ridiculously mild dish, which makes it perfect for serving to younger children. It also highlights the bright, summery flavors of the orange zest and cilantro. Madman zinfandel made a wonderful accompaniment to this dish.

Our Lammas main dish is an adaptation from “Adventures with Chocolate”. While shopping for ingredients I met some challenges, the oranges at the store were scentless, thick skinned and hard, shallots were not to be found. So my many jars from Penzey’s came to the rescue.

This meal was such a joy to share. I don’t have any words to describe making this dish, enjoying it with the boys. Simply make the dish and taste the joy.

May the first bite be as delicious for you and yours!

Chocolate Chili Chicken

Adapted from Paul A. Young’s “Adventures with Chocolate”

8 chicken thighs

olive oil

4 shallots, minced or 2 tbsp Penzey's freeze dried shallots

2 cloves garlic, minced

6 tbsp orange zest or 2 tbsp Penzey's dried orange peel

2 c orange juice

4 red mini bell peppers, diced

6 arbol dried chiles

2 cascabel dried peppers

1 tbsp dark brown sugar

1 tbsp coriander

2 heritage tomatoes of a meaty variety, chopped

5.3 oz 72% dark chocolate, chopped, Sweet Earth Organic

Fresh cilantro

Preheat oven to 400 degrees

In a large dutch oven brown the chicken in a slight amount of olive oil. Place aside.

Add shallots, garlic, zest to pan with a slight amount of orange juice. If using dried shallots, zest, and chiles, rehydrate in orange juice while browning chicken.

Add the diced bell pepper and the rest of the juice and simmer for 10 minutes.

Add coriander, dark brown sugar, the chicken thighs, simmer another 10 minutes.

Add the chopped tomatoes, and put in the oven to bake for 30 minutes.

Remove chicken to serving platter. Reduce the sauce until thickened a bit. Remove the dried peppers and toss. Add the chopped chocolate to the pan ladle over chicken as chocolate begins to soften. Garnish with cilantro leaves.

Next time I make this for my circle, towards Samhain, I'll use hotter chilies and perhaps a Chipotle to add a smoky flavor to reflect the descending darker season. With any dish that features chilies use what suits your mood, your guest's palates, and what you have on hand.

Chocolate Balsamic Vinaigrette

Was there a time as a child that you imagined chocolate at every meal? In every dish? Life being a veritable candy land? For the next three posts I’ll share the dishes from our Lammas feast, each showcasing a different dark chocolate ingredient – cocoa, 72%, and 85%.

For celebration meals I ask the guest of honor to pick an ingredient they’d like to be in each course of the meal. The purpose is tri-fold: the celebrant receives a unique meal, I get a challenge, and we don’t get stuck in a rut.

For Lammas the boys (really, they are young men, but at half my age I’m prone to call them boys) chose chocolate. This spring one gave me an autographed copy of British chocolatier Paul Young’s book “Adventures with Chocolate.” If you can find this book on the internet and have it shipped here to the US it will be more than worth your effort.

A complete 180 degrees from Caesar salad, this dressing is sweet, tangy, dark and purely surprising. Be sure to use a real balsamic vinegar, not a cheap caramelized imitation, not only will it taste poor, it will probably be contaminated with gluten.

Perhaps this dressing will intrigue vegetable-indifferent kids to enjoy salads?

Chocolate Balsamic Vinaigrette

Converted from Paul Young’s “Adventures with Chocolate”

2 ¼ oz balsamic vinegar

1 oz light brown sugar

.6 oz 85% dark chocolate, broken into pieces

Place the vinegar and sugar in a glass measuring cup, heat in microwave to a scant simmer, just starting to bubble. Don’t boil it! Whisk until the sugar dissolves, add the chocolate, again whisking until emulsified.

Cool slightly, add extra-virgin olive oil at two parts vinegar mix to one part olive oil, or one to one if you want a lighter dressing. Shake or whisk until emulsified. This will a dark, glossy dressing. It doesn’t need to be stored in the fridge, but if you do the chocolate will solidify and need rewarming in the microwave or in a sunny spot.

If you can find some late season strawberries at the farmer’s market, try them dipped in a bit of this dressing.

Serve!

I used Bolivian extra dark eco bar for this batch. If you don’t have 85% on hand use ½ oz of 100% baking chocolate and increase the sugar by ½ a tsp. Using a lighter chocolate will make this dressing unbearably sweet and lose the rich under note that good dark chocolate provides.

German Chocolate Cake for Lammas

Each year Lammas sneaks up on me. Summer is usually very busy and this holiday doesn’t have a Christian or Catholic Saint counterpart. The beginning of August and the first harvest holiday always appear on schedule, yet surprise me none the less. This year cakes, instead of the more traditional bread, symbolize the holiday, endings as the harvest culminates a season and beginnings as the seasons shift.

On Lammas eve a good friend’s aunt came home to die. As a diabetic she hasn’t enjoyed cake in a long time. In what is expected to be her last week, her family gathers with her to reminisce and share a piece of her favorite, chocolate cake. The dark chocolate cake and icing from “The Flying Apron Kitchen Cook Book” is so decadent only her niece knows this final treat is gluten, dairy, corn and soy free. I hope it makes her passing richer and sweeter.

The next cake I baked this holiday is for another girl friend’s first gluten-free birthday. It begins a new, healthier season for her. Baked with the intent of celebration, of food being a pleasure again, not a mysterious source of migraines and pain, this cake is my gift to her.

Her favorite is German Chocolate, a mild, dark cake with a caramelly, lush coconut and pecan filling then wrapped in a bittersweet chocolate ganache. Without the sweetened condensed milk or high-sugar chocolate this cake is divine with champagne, hinting at longer nights and the coming autumn damp.

If you are baking in the morning to serve the cake that night, make the filling first so it has longer to cool. Then the ganache. Too warm filings are a misery when assembling a cake.

I adapted the cake and ganache from Rose Levy Beranbaum’s “Rose’s Heavenly Cakes.” Her aptly titled “The Cake Bible” was the only cook book I count on for the rare occasion I’d bake with wheat flour and dairy products for friends. Not being able to taste test the batters didn’t matter, her recipes always turn out, always. Since the recipe uses cocoa this cake is also suitable for folks allergic to chocolate or caffeine, by substituting a premium carob powder. On the off chance you’re thinking of just using normal wheat flour or cake flour, please don’t! The adaptations that make it a good gluten free cake will turn this into an oozing volcano of wheat dough in your oven.

The structure of this cake relies more on the eggs than the flour. The directions look longer and more complicated than they really are. Just be patient, rushing can mean doing something silly like forgetting the sugar. Think of the person or occasion you’re baking this for, focus your intent for them. Being a kitchen witch is part technical skill and part meditation.

I tried making a sweetened condensed milk substitute with soy milk powder. It was horrid, suitable only for patching the garage concrete. So the German Maple frosting is directly from the “Flying Apron Kitchen Cook Book” and better than I remember any other version tasting. I’m including it here with the hope it will inspire you to buy a copy of your own. Filled with straight forward ingredients, a wide variety or excellent recipes it reminds me of Marion Cunningham’s “Fannie Farmer Cook Book” that I originally started baking out of as teen. The cook book I turned to again and again, and still do for inspiration.

Harvest sweetness and joy this season. Eat cake with people you love.

German Chocolate Cake

Adapted from “Rose’s Heavenly Cakes”

2.3 oz Dutch process cocoa (I use Penzey’s)

4 oz boiling water (if you live in an area with highly chlorinated water consider using filtered water)

4 oz extra virgin olive oil

4 egg yolks – at room temperature

4 egg whites

1 tsp vanilla (Nielson Massey is gluten free, but made with corn alcohol)

4 oz Pamela’s gluten free flour mix

2.5 oz potato starch

1.5 oz organic cane sugar

3 tsp baking powder

1 1/3 tsp baking soda

3/8 tsp sea salt

Palm shortening the bottom of two 8’ round cake pans, then parchment line them, Don’t oil or line the sides.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees with the rack in the bottom third of the oven.

Boil the water, whisk in the cocoa, then cover with cling wrap and let sit until room temperature. This took a bit over a half hour in my warm kitchen.

While the cocoa is steeping, mix the egg yolks, oil in a stand mixer with the whisk attachment. Start the mixer out on low or it can fling ingredients everywhere. Work up to whisking on medium speed. Set a timer for a minute, scrape down the bowl. If the mixture is shiny and smooth like an icing, add the vanilla and whisk just long enough to incorporate. Then mix in the cooled cocoa concoction. Scrape down the bowl.

In a separate bowl whisk all the dry ingredients together. You can use a sifter, for me whisking is simpler. When you think you’ve whisked all the ingredients into a uniform mix, do yourself a favor and whisk for a bit longer.

With the mixer on low mix half the dry ingredients in with the egg and oil. Scrape down the sides, be sure to get the bottom of the bowl as sugar tends to settle.

Add the rest of the dry ingredients, again start on low, then bump the speed up to medium- high and mix for a minute.

Scrape the bowl again. Add in the egg whites, mixing on low then increase to medium high for two minutes. Set a timer, it is easy to rush and not let the beautiful batter beat long enough, or get distracted and over beat it to a rubbery mess.

Split the batter evenly between the pans. Weighing them on a scale is so easy, making even layers a snap.

Don’t tap the pans or wait to put them in the oven. Successful gluten free baking hinges on capturing the in-dough gasses as they form. Bake the cakes for 15 minutes, then turn the pans 180 degrees, and bake for another 15 minutes. Even if you have a convection oven, turn the pans.

Test with a tooth pick. The cake should be pulled away from the pan edge, and lightly spring back when pressed in the middle. Remove from oven.

Set the pans out to cool for a couple minutes, then invert onto racks. The cakes need to rest on the top crust formed during baking. Once they’ve cooled lay pieces of cling wrap big enough to wrap each cake. Invert them again onto the cling wrap on the bottom of a jelly roll pan. Finish wrapping the cakes. Place in freezer for a couple hours or overnight. Gluten free cakes are more fragile than regular cakes. Freezing them makes assembling the cake easier, less likely for a layer to shatter into earthquake cake (still tasty, but not as attractive.)

Flying Apron Kitchen’s Maple Coconut Frosting

20 oz coconut oil (an entire small tub of the NOW brand)

8 oz maple syrup

1 tsp sea salt (I use Penzey’s)

1 tbsp vanilla

9 oz fine shredded coconut, toasted

5 oz toasted pecans, broken into uniform bits

Toast the pecans in a jelly roll pan at 250 degrees. Watch the pan, occasionally turning the pieces with a flexible spatula, like a pancake turner. Do Not leave the oven. This should take about 10-12 minutes, but varies depending on the humidity that day, how accurate your oven is, the moisture content of this batch of nuts and if you store them in the freezer. They can go from lightly toasted to a burnt crisp in that one impatient moment. Remove from oven to cool.

Now spread the coconut into an even layer covering the jelly roll pan. The coconut is finer than the pecans so it toasts quicker. Again, turn occasionally with the soft spatula and don’t leave the oven. Once the coconut shows hints of golden color remove it from the oven. Continue to shift in the warm pan to help it cool.

While the pecans and coconut cool, place the rest of the ingredients into a stand mixer with the paddle attachment. Start on low, easing the speed up to high. Beat the ingredients until inextricably incorporated. Add the coconut and pecans, beating on medium-high until fluffy.

I briefly chilled the frosting to make filling the cake easier. Cover the frosting in the bowl with cling wrap pressed onto the top of the fluff to prevent a skin forming.

Dark Chocolate Ganache (optional frosting for sides of cake)

Also adapted from “Rose’s Heavenly Cakes”

8 oz 64% bitter sweet chocolate (I use Sweet Earth Organic it is vegan and soy free)

9 oz Silk cream (use coconut milk cream if you’re allergic to soy)

½ tsp vanilla

The super easy way to make ganache is place the chocolate pieces into a food processor or blender, pulsing into fairly uniform, small pieces. Heat the cream in the microwave until it just starts to bubble. With the blades running pour the hot cream over the chocolate until a smooth liquid forms. Add vanilla. Pour into small bowl, cover with cling wrap, pressing to the top of the mixture to prevent a skin forming. Cool a couple minutes on the counter then place into the fridge. The rapid chill will give the ganache a suede or velvety texture instead of a glossy sheen.

If you don’t have a blender or food processor use a small to medium whisk in the bowl of chopped chocolate. Whisk continuously while slowly pouring the hot cream into the bowl. Add the vanilla and whisk until smooth. Follow the directions for chilling the ganache. Oh! Try not to eat it by the spoonful from the bowl.

To assemble the cake

Remove the cakes from the freezer. Place one layer on the serving dish, with wax paper strips lightly tucked under to keep the plate edges clean or be prepared to use a damp paper towel to clean the dish before presenting the cake.

Stir the maple coconut frosting, spread as thick or thin a layer you want on the top of the cake. Place it in the fridge for five minutes to set the frosting, that way the top layer is less likely to squish the filing down the cake sides.

Bring the cake back out of the fridge and repeat the process. Now is the perfect time to use a small, flexible frosting spreader to fill in any gaps in the filling. The frosting makes enough to fill a three layer cake. Store the rest in the freezer.

Hold the spreader parallel to the cake and smooth the ganache along the sides. By not using hot water on the spreader to smooth the ganache it will have a velvety texture instead of a glossy sheen.

There is enough ganache to pipe a top and bottom boarder on the cake, to play and decorate.

Alternatively, skip the ganache and serve the cake casual style with just the filling.