Coconut Pound Cake with Rum Glaze

Living Alone Lesson 2: Hosting is fun work.

In college I always said "I am going to have parties all the time when I get my own place." I lived in the dorms all four years and was a RA so "partying" in my little abode was difficult to say the least. Although I still don't really have my own place (yet), I think I can still host. And for the next week or two I get to pretend the house is mine! :)

The awful 30-40 degree rain we had ALL last week made me want to stay in bed and drink tea al day, but yesterday and today's glorious weather made up for it! I have had spring fever for probably a month now and am definitely ready for the beach weekends and hot runs to start up again! To prepare others for the greatness, I decided to have a themed din din party. I think it is safe to say it was Hawaiian-themed. Pineapple dominated and, as we all learned, it pairs well with lots of things!

I originally wanted to host a bake-off, but I realized that most people eat normal foods and don't run off baked goods like I do. My main dish was Hawaiian Chicken served over rice (post to follow), but as the host, it is only proper to have a dessert option too just in case someone else doesn't bring one right...? Coconut and rum are both pretty tropical!

Coconut Pound Cake with Rum Glaze

1 cup butter (2 sticks), room temp

2 cups sugar

1/2 tablespoon coconut extract

4 eggs

3 cups flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 cup milk

1/4 cup Captain Morgan

1 cup sugar

Preheat over to 350. Cream the butter and sugar together until nice and smooth. Add in the coconut extract and beat together with the eggs until light and fluffy. Combine the flour and baking powder together. Slowly add in the flour mixture, one cup at a time, with the milk, a little bit at a time. Do not over mix the batter. Once everything is incorporated, pour into a well-greased bundt cake pan. Bake at 350 for about 60 minutes, checking with a toothpick to make sure it is cooked all the way through. Let it cool for about 10 minutes before flipping onto a plate.

the masterpiece!!
(I feel like there should be a flower or plant in the middle)

For the glaze, add the rum and sugar to a small sauce pan on low heat. Bring to a slow boil and stir. Let it boil for about one minute or until the sugar completely dissolves. Slowly pour the glaze onto the top of the cake letting it drip down the sides. When it cools it will crystallize and make a pretty pattern!

the inside was nice and moist!

My (baking) services are up for auction. Tonight I was offered a basement bedroom with a private bath. Even the non-loving coconut fans in the house thoroughly enjoyed the cake, which pretty much made my night!


I am kind of glad I didn't host parties in college. I couldn't deal with mopping up beer from the floor, picking up millions of solo cups all over the place, or finding other fun random messes in the morning. I still had a bit of work to do when everyone left and I didn't even throw a rager! I will say that the best thing about going to someone else's party is that you get to go home to a clean(er) house! :) No matter how well I vacuumed and cleaned the counters before people came, I did it all over again! 


Totally worth it! It was great to have people over and share yummy dishes! Can't wait for the next one!!

I know some people that are always happy, optimistic and smiling. Definitely have some close pals that are not so cheery all the time. I'd like to think I am somewhere in between the two extremes. Most of the time.

It's still a work in progress, but I am slowly learning that you cannot change others' attitudes or behaviors. No matter how much you love spending time with someone, they will start to get on your nerves. Some smart woman once told me, "Relationships are about compromise." Not just between couples, but among friends, family members and complete strangers.

This past week was action packed. Jeanie's defense, birthday, St. Patty's Day, parents visiting, sister's in-laws, and the month I have been waiting for! I had plenty to do and prepare for to keep semi-busy, but also found my mind constantly racing. I tried my best to please everyone and do the in-between thing. But I feel like maybe I would have been better off if I was just myself and didn't try so hard.

I was super excited to make an awesome cake for my sister's defense celebration/St. Patty's Day/birthday partay. Not going to lie, I started thinking about it a few months ago. She is not a fan of baked goods/sweets, but when I saw her two favorite ingredients combined in one cake, I figured it had to work...

Chocolate Avocado Cake

from Joy the Baker

3 cups flour

6 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

2 teaspoons baking powder

2 teaspoons baking soda

2 cups sugar

1/4 cup canola oil

1/2 cup soft avocado (1 medium avocado)

2 cups water

2 Tablespoons white vinegar

2 teaspoons vanilla

preheat oven to 350. sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and soda. 

mash the ripe avocado in a separate bowl. stir in oil, water, vinegar and vanilla. add in the sugar. 

mix wet ingredients with dry until incorporated. add batter to two greased, round cake pans.
bake for 30-40 minutes until cooked all the way through. let the cake completely cool on wire racks.

Avocado Frosting

2 ripe avocados (brown parts removed)

2 teaspoons lemon juice

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

3 cups powdered sugar  

using super ripe avocados, whisk together with lemon juice and vanilla until it becomes smooth. slowly add in powdered sugar.

*the color of the frosting will lighten as you add more sugar. my frosting was Shrek-green because I did not want a super sweet cake*

I had to remind Jeanie how old she is!

The cake was super moist and tasty! Vegans know how to bake too I guess! I think if I make it again, I would try to enhance the avocado flavor, or use a white cake since chocolate isn't my thing. But it was a fun experiment and definitely a unique cake!

Now that things have settled a bit, it is more clear that you can really only impact yourself. I am the only one that can control my mood, how crabby pants I want to be or the way I treat others. The people around me may enhance my mood or make me want to run away, but at the end of the day, it is my life and my choice.

Carrot Cake

Online shopping is so easy and convenient. You can compare lots of prices and products without traveling to millions of stores. No waiting in line or dealing with crazy crowds. Once you make up your mind, you just click and it's shipped right to your doorstep! Or so I thought...

Lately I have been having some issues. I ordered my mom and sis the same Vday gift (I know I am cool). Mom gets hers in three days. Perfect! Jeanie's never comes. At all. Long story short, company says something stupid about it being a seasonal item and not having anymore so they can't replace it. So no Vday gift for the sis. Fail!

Ordered some weight lifting gloves a few months ago. A week after I ordered them, I get an email with some stupid response about how the company cannot fill my order. Two months later, I decide to re-order from a different company. They came in late last week. Semi-fail!

Now I am getting smarter after all these fails. SO I order my friend Michelle's birthday gift two weeks before she is leaving for her hot getaway to Vegas. For sure in two weeks it will be here, right? I track it every day online. Feb 16 it is in Raleigh. Feb 17 USPS says it is delivered in Durham. Feb 19 it is in Indianapolis. hmmmmmmm? I politely tell the company that I have been tracking this thing and I need it here. They respond and say yea they guarantee delivery by the 24th so if it is not there by then to let them know. Sure enough, just like I predicted, no package on Feb 24. Enraged, I email them, not so politely this time, and say that not only should they have done something about it last week when I emailed, but now I won't have the gift for my friend's birthday party.

I guess the birthday cake I built her was better than nothing...

Carrot Cake
fresh squeezed orange juice from 2 medium oranges (about 1 cup)
1/2 cup oil
4 eggs
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
3/4 cup sugar
2 cups grated carrots (about 4 medium sized carrots)
1 cup chopped walnuts

preheat oven to 350. beat together juice, oil, and eggs. mix dry ingredients together. add in the wet ingredients. fold in carrots and nuts. pour into cake pan and bake for 30 minutes.

Frosting
8 oz Neufchâtel cheese, room temp
1 tablespoon milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup powdered sugar

while the cake is cooling, whip ingredients with hand or stand mixer. make sure the cheese is warm before starting. i recommend taking it out of the fridge about 30 minutes before starting to make the cake. when the cake is completely cooled, frost the cake! I added some grated carrots on top!

happy birthday Michelle!!

It's usually the little things in life that make a big difference. Packages that don't arrive on time make me incredibly angry. A simple "thank you" makes me feel warm and fuzzy. People that use the wrong door and walk on the wrong side of the sidewalk drive me nuts! Little notes and cards mean the world to me. Seeing someone smile from ear to ear while cutting into her birthday cake is priceless! 

A smart ass man once told me, "seems like things never go quite as you plan." It ended up being a fantastic birthday party, even without the gift I ordered and I knew we would celebrate after the trip! Tonight we had din din plans tonight to catch up, celebrate birthmonths/days and hear about the hot Vegas trip. That did not go quite as planned either. But the girly, heart to heart chat was way better! Gift was exchanged. Dessert was still consumed. And necessary chatting was completed! :)

Happy 2011!!

Happy 2011!! I am still in denial that another year passed, but 2010 brought lots of new things.

I enjoyed a fun graduation celebration for lil bro and a great Christmas in Iowa last week. It was awesome baking dozens upon dozens of cookies and other treats with Mom, trying to beat Dad in Backgammon, catching up with the besties, and, yes I’ll admit it, shoveling and sledding! I guess a little bit of the white stuff isn’t too bad every now and again…

I also think it is safe to assume, we may have altered an old family tradition. I have fond memories sneaking out of my room to partake in Monopoly matches. It started as a fun and friendly way to pass time so we could stay up late enough to witness the Times Square magic. Family friends started joining the party, the snacks got a bit more sophisticated, and I eventually toasted bubbly at midnight. I treasure the Monopoly bragging rights and it didn’t seem right if we did not play at least one game.

This year, Dad got Monopoly Deal as a gift. (I do need to sincerely thank my din din date pals for introducing me to the most addicting card game!) Needless to say, my week in Iowa was filled with many, many cut-throat matches of Monopoly Deal. I think the transition from board game to card dealing was well received by all despite my awesome wins! J We stayed up nearly every night together battling it out!

While I accepted the small change in the family game, I could not move on without the guest star New Year’s treat. It’s no New Year without the shinny silver coin buried in the cake and bread. 2011 marked the first year I ventured to create my first New Year’s cake.

New Year’s Cake (Vasilopeta)

a Greek family secret!

½ lb butter

2 cups sugar

3 cups flour

6 eggs

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 cup warm milk

½ teaspoon baking soda

juice of ½ lemon

chopped walnuts and sugar

Pre-heat oven to 350. Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the flour and stir until it is mealy. Add the eggs one at a time beating after adding each one. Stir the baking powder into the warm milk and add into the batter. Mix the baking soda and lemon juice together and stir in. Mix well and pour into a greased 10 inch cake pan.

Bake at 350 for 20 minutes. Sprinkle the chopped walnuts and sugar mixture on top after 20 minutes. Bake for another 20-30 minutes until the cake is done all the way through.

my lovely new blue platter!!

Mom would wrap a quarter in tin foil and plop it in the cake batter, and also with the New Year’s bread, before baking. Dad would carve our initial on top of one piece and we would search for the shinny piece. The person that got the coin would have good luck for the entire year!

no silver...

I have a 50/50 chance this year as my sister and I are searching for the lucky piece! I am looking forward to a fun filled 2011 and know that more changes are coming, but this Greek family tradition is here to stay! 

My First Attempt

So I've decided to start documenting the things I make, maybe to motivate me to change it up a bit or maybe to work on my presentation skills. My friend told me I have to include "normal" foods as well as baked goods, so we will see how this goes. My mom is the one that inspired me to bake. I can remember her in the kitchen baking tasty treats for our family as a kid and I look forward to my favorite home-cooked meals when I go home. I guess moving out and being on my own, I realized I have to work on my domestication skills. I kinda got hooked on baking...Now, I call Mom and ask her to share her secret recipes and figure out what ingredients she uses. Little did I know that most of what she does is on the fly and she RARELY follows a recipe. At times, it is hard for me to duplicate what she makes, but it made me realize that baking is an art and you gotta figure it out for yourself. Hence, I have started reading, experimenting, and learning on my own.

I'm not a big cake eater (literally or figuratively), but I do bake cakes for friends' birthday celebrations. My sister is helping me come up with 5 flavors for them to chose from. This week, I did a yellow layered cake with strawberries and a buttercream frosting. Although I did not use as much sugar as the recipe called for, I got some feedback that it was a bit too sweet. I think it was the combo of strawberry preserves in between the layers, fresh strawberries, and rich frosting. Now I know...

In addition to the cake, I made my big bro some cranberry pistachio granola. Made with oats, flax seed, honey, maple syrup, dried cranberries and roasted pistachios. He's not a big nut fan, so it was hard for me to come up with something that doesn't have nuts (or that I could resist adding nuts to). He does like pistachios however. I like this recipe because the granola is salty, crunchy and a little sweet. Once again, I did not add the extra sugar. The honey and maple syrup combo is plenty.

I also experimented with a peanut butter banana bread and apple cake. I HEART PEANUT BUTTER. and APPLES! Bananas...welp let's just say the texture and smell sound be hidden at ALL TIMES. Got these ideas from a Cooking Light mag and altered them just a bit to make it a little more figure friendly: less butter and sugar, whole wheat flower, oats and flax seed. Cakes are difficult to mess with and still get a decent texture, but I managed to sneak in a few changes. Caramelizing the apples was a task and def need to get better at doing that...it was a first time making a sugar syrup and hopefully next time it will look a bit better/more caramel colored. Still tasted good (I think)

Off to plan next week's treats! :)