Tag: coconut

Tropical Coconut Cake Recipe

This Tropical Coconut Cake recipe makes a tender, rich cake you are going to absolutely love. Coconut cream goes into both the cake batter and the frosting. This enhances the texture as well as the flavor.

Katie Knott won the King Arthur Great Cake Contest at the 2012 Minnesota State Fair with this recipe. She won first place and big-time bragging rights. Her cake was picked from dozens of competing cakes.

We think you will swoon over this cake’s scrumptiousness. Pro-tip here: a good coconut extract adds to the aroma and flavor, which contest judges closely evaluate. Crushed pineapple in the batter gives the cake a tropical theme and adds extra moisture too.

As always, we test the recipes before sharing them with you all. Our test runs turned out terrific! We love the look and taste of toasted coconut. It gives the cake a mouth-watering look, especially for coconut lovers, which we absolutely are.

This is such a tasty cake. One mouthful and you’ll know why it’s a blue ribbon winning recipe.

Make this Tropical Coconut Cake recipe soon, and then stay tuned! We’ll be sharing the winning coconut cake from the 2021 Blue Ribbon Baking Contest at the Minnesota State Fair soon.

-Cyndi

Almond Joy Cookie Bars

These Almond Joy Cookie Bars will bring utter joy to any almond, chocolate, or coconut lover. With three decadent layers, these bars are thick, dense and delicious!

Thanks to almond extract, whole toasted almonds, and sliced toasted almonds, these sensational sweet treats burst with almond flavor. The shredded coconut filling, chocolate, and almonds altogether give them an addictive texture that’s crunchy, chewy, and rich, all at the same time. AND…they are super easy to make.

3 Easy Pieces

Making these Almond Joy Cookie Bars, only takes three main stages. You par-bake a lush cookie crust made simply with butter, corn syrup, egg yolk, flour, baking powder, and salt.
Next you mix shredded coconut and sweetened condensed milk with almond extract, then bake that mixture on top of the cookie crust as the filling. Check out the gooey good look of the filling (image below).
You finish these fabulous treats with whole almonds, melted semi-sweet chocolate chips, and sliced almonds.

Top Preparation Tip

Using parchment to line your pan will make removing the bars from the pan and cutting them easy peasy. Once they’re chilled, all you need to do is lift them out by the parchment edges. Here’s a shot of the bars once they’ve chilled. This time I made them, I didn’t add the almond slices until just before serving. Just look at how is golden brown the crust is and how jammed the bars are with almonds.

Blue Ribbon Winning Sweet Treat

Recipe credit goes to Tammy Michalec of Leesville who won a KARO best recipe contest at her local fair, the South Carolina State Fair with this recipe.

Want More Almond Joyfulness?

Hey all you almond, coconut and chocolate lovers! If you love this recipe, be sure not to miss our Mounds of Joy Cake also. In January 2021, it was one of our #1 most popular recipe on the site.

Enjoy!

Cyndi

Coconut Rum Milk Punch

Coconut Rum Milk Punch: Imagine a creamy, spiked dessert drink made simply with just a handful of ingredients. Imagine a rum-spiked eggnog with no eggs. This Coconut Rum Milk Punch stars Puerto Rican white rum, and three different types of milk. Coconut milk, evaporated milk, and sweetened condensed milk–all combined together–make this cocktail magical. A dash of salt makes the flavors pop, and cinnamon is the finishing touch.

Festive & Flavorful with Extracts

This Coconut Rum Milk Punch, has become my go-to holiday cocktail that I make again and again. It is so simple to make, and you can easily change up the flavors. Speaking of flavors, a sort-of-secret, not-so-secret of mine is to enhance the flavor with coconut extract. I love how well extracts boost the sensory impact of whatever I’m making…in a really positive way. If you have non-coconut-fans among your group, go for something else tasty. It could simply be vanilla. But how about Pistachio? Peppermint? I’ve been meaning to try orange, for a dreamsicle-like taste. Take your pick! Your options are abundant.

You could also call this drink, a Puerto Rican Coconut Eggnog, as it’s inspired by the Puerto Rican coquito (koh-KEE-toh), which has similar ingredients.

Serving Suggestions

When I’ve made this for holiday parties in the past, I poured everything together in seconds and put it in the fridge to chill. When it’s time for this tasty treat, you just shake the jar, pour it into a glass (over ice, or not, dealer’s choice), and sprinkle it with cinnamon. It does taste fantastic at room temperature too.

This milk punch is not as thick as traditional eggnog, which may be one of the reasons I love it more than eggnog. It tastes just as smooth. Speaking of smooth, for this adult beverage, choose a smooth rum. There’s no need to break the bank for the rum, especially considering coconut is the dominant flavor of this drink. The rum I used most recently was Angostura 1919 8yr rum that I got from Total Wine. It was ridiculously good.

The image above is my Pistachio-Coconut version. Jars of it make perfect gifts for any of your pistachio-loving pals.

Experiencing colder temps like Crystal and I are in Midwest? Maybe this Coconut Milk Punch can keep us warm all winter long.

Cheers-

-Cyndi

Bali Hai Tropical Pie

Bali Hai Tropical Pie is a show-stopping, mic-dropping, tropical-themed award-winning best pie recipe you don’t want to miss.

Shredded coconut, fresh mango, fresh lime, cream cheese, and Malibou coconut rum are just a few of the ingredients comprising this marvelous masterpiece. It features a prominent citrusy creaminess, thanks to the heavy whipping cream you combine with cream cheese. You’ll be tempted to eat this mixture/filling by the spoonful. Macadamia nuts give it a nice texture contrast on top.

Recipe Inspiration

Recipe credit goes to Peggy Linberg. The Californian won first place with it at the San Diego County Fair (2014). Peggy’s Bali Hai Tropical Pie was inspired by her favorite musical, South Pacific. With a strong love of passionfruit, she made her pie a combination of the fruit she grew up with in Hawaii and other favorite Polynesian flavors. From the coconut in the pie crust, to the mango, rum and lime flavors infused into its layers, everything about this pie was a hit with the judges. Peggy wanted to transport herself to Hawaii when making and tasting it. Mission accomplished! We were too!

Extra Effort, Ingredients for the Win

Heads up: This pie isn’t for a first time pie baker. It is one of the more involved recipes we’ve tested, but after tasting it, you’ll be convinced…totally worth the extra effort and ingredients! Plan for several hours, start to finish, mainly because of the chill time once you’re done.

Special Recipe Tips & Tricks

For the tropical fruit juice concentrate, Peggy, used an orange peach, mango combination. We used a variation on that. Choose your favorite.
Peggy’s preferred whipped topping mix is Rich’s Bettercreme. It gives the top decoration more stability, i.e. holds up well while moved or carried.

Mounds of Joy Cake

The Mounds candy bar merges with the Almond Joy in our “Mounds of Joy Cake.” This great cake is based on a 1999 1st place state fair winning recipe. Eugenia Adams made a vanilla version of it and won a Championship Cake Award in Michigan. She called it a “Mock Mounds” Cake.

I re-vamped Eugenia’s recipe a bit for our recipe test run. For the choco-holic in me (and others), I added chocolate to the frosting and filling. This is a deceivingly simple cake to make. At the same time, it’s a show-stopper that’s epic tasting.

Almond Joys Got Nuts, Mounds Don’t

To keep with a Mounds/Almond Joy theme, I used almonds as the featured nut instead of just any nut And since I go crazy for coconut, I also upped the amount of shredded coconut and substituted coconut oil for shortening. I even increased the coconut extract in the cake itself and the filling for extra flavor boosts.

You start with: three coconut almond cakes.

Between them and on top you layer a coconut filling.

And a chocolate layer. It easy to spread around with the sturdy coconut layer underneath.

Eugenia used regular sugar in the frosting, so we did too. Next time I’m going to try it with powdered sugar for a different texture.

Before the final frosting, you add almonds to the top.

Then finish it with the chocolate frosting/filling and more coconut.

Seriously. This award winning cake is so easy to make! The hardest part of it all is waiting for the cakes to cool so you can deck it out and eat it. Enjoy!