Almond Joy Cake For Two

 There are days or nights I should say, that I wake up in the middle of the night with ideas floating around in my head. I wanted to make a chocolate cake for two for Valentine's Day, and found a recipe that fit the bill, except that is for the frosting. For some reason the night before I made this I woke up thinking about Almond Joy bars.... oh yum! Then that went to thinking about the cake, and then why not make a frosting that is coconut flavored with a touch of almond, to okay, I need to look this up. So I found a recipe for coconut frosting, and tweaked it to my liking.
I must confess that for some reason my cake didn't end up being a cake for two, it was more like 4-6. My cake turned out tall and fluffy, so I probably should have cut the top to flatten it for stacking. You will see why when you read the directions. Give it a try, you will be amazed at the soft luscious chocolate cake and the coconut creamy frosting. Not bragging, it's just that good!




Cake
Cooking spray
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup buttermilk
1 large egg, at room temperature
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/3 cup hot water

Frosting

3 1/2 tbsp Coconut milk

1 1/2 cups Powdered sugar

1/2 tsp each almond extract and vanilla

1/4 cup each butter and coconut oil

Toasted slivered almonds and sweetened coconut to top the cake with. 

Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 9-by-2-inch round cake pan with parchment paper, and spray with cooking spray. Or, if you are lucky like me you have an old fashioned pan with a slider that goes around the pan to loosen the cake from the pan. I greased and floured the pan and it worked great.

Whisk together the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl. Beat together the buttermilk, egg and vanilla in a measuring cup. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry, and beat with a wooden spoon until well combined, scraping the side and bottom of the bowl once or twice with a rubber spatula. Stir in the hot water until it is all absorbed and the batter is smooth (it will be thin).

Pour the batter into the prepared pan, and bake until the top is shiny, the cake is just beginning to pull away from the side of the pan and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with a crumb or 2 attached, about 20 minutes. Let the cake cool in the pan on a cooling rack for 20 minutes. Turn the cake out of the pan, remove the parchment paper and let the cake completely cool on the rack, right-side up, about 1 hour. (The cake will be thin, but don't worry-it will magically be OK once it's stacked with frosting.) This is where the original instructions and mine differ as my cake turned out fluffy and rounded on top so I should have leveled it to make it stackable.

To assemble: Cut the cooled cake into 4 even quarters. Frost the top of each quarter with about 2 tablespoons of the frosting. Stack the frosted quarters directly on top of each other on a serving plate, resulting in a 4-layer wedge of cake with frosting between layers and on top. Frost all 3 sides of the cake with the remaining frosting until completely covered. Press coconut into frosting, at your preference, both on top and the frosted sides. Sprinkle toasted almond slices on top. Chill for at least 30 minutes. Halve and serve.

Wearable Hugs and Kisses

 

If kisses were water, I would give you the sea,
If hugs were leaves, I would give you a tree,
If love was time, I would give you eternity.

Stop by the PFATT Marketplace

Butterfly Bliss Upcycled Vintage Brooch Choker

May the wings of the butterfly kiss the sun

And find your shoulder to light on,

To bring you luck, happiness and riches

Today, tomorrow and beyond. 

~Irish Blessing

Find this lovely choker at SIMPLY SHERYL'S

Hearts a Flutter Necklace for Valentines Day

Gorgeous heart beads, ruby red crystals, and sparkly silver embellishments shine in this one of a kind pendant necklace. Available at Simply Sheryls

Tasty Tuesday - Latin Lover's Pizza

We had half the pizza gone by the time I realized I wanted to share this recipe. Yes, often times I don't plan to share, unless it's so good I would be stingy not to.

We've been trying to eat what we have on hand rather than run to the store ten times a week for this or that. Saves us money and we don't let things go to waste. Nature Guy wanted pizza so pizza he was going to get. I didn't have the usual ingredients on hand that we always put on, well at least not all. I did have canned mushrooms, onions and olives so that was a start. I also had frozen grape tomatoes so I used those diced for the fresh tomatoes.

What makes this pizza Latin is the dry salami instead of pepperoni, pepper jack cheese instead of mozzarella provolone, and green olives. So we figured we covered Italy, Mexico and Spain and thus the Latin. Anyhew, let's get to the recipe. I hope you give it a try, it was so good we are doing this again soon.

Latin Lover's Pizza     Preheat oven to 450 degrees

Crust
1/12 cups warm water
2 scant T. yeast or 2 packets
1 t. sugar
1 1/2 t. salt
3 T. olive oil
4 c. flour
1/4 c. each flaxseed meal, oats and cornmeal

In a large bowl or mixing bowl combine the yeast, water and sugar. Let sit for 5 minutes until the water gets foamy.  Add the oil, salt and 2 cups of flour, along with the other dry ingredients. stir or mix until well combined. Continue to add the flour 1/2 cup at a time. Once you have a nice ball of dough you can knead on a well floured board until smooth and elastic. Or let your mixer do it for you while you work on other ingredients. Once the dough is ready cut in half for thin crust, ***(see below),or use the whole thing for thick crust, and roll out on floured surface to the size of your pan. Sprinkle the baking pan with cornmeal to help keep the crust from sticking. Place rolled out crust on pan.

Sauce
1 6 oz can tomato paste
1 1/2 cups diced fresh tomatoes
2-3 cloves garlic, crushed
1 t. each Italian herb blend, and basil

Combine all ingredients in medium bowl and spread on crust.

Toppings
1 can whole or sliced black olives
1 small jar stuffed green olives
1 4 oz can mushrooms
2 cups pepper jack cheese
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
1 cup chopped onion
20 slices of dry salami, chopped

I like to sprinkle the sauce with the Parmesan cheese before adding any other toppings. Then I add the onion, meat and cheese, then the mushrooms, and olives. Bake at 450 degrees for 10 minutes. Turn the oven down to 425 and continue to bake for another 15 minutes or until the cheese is bubbly and golden. Slice and enjoy!

***I make a small loaf of bread with the other half of the dough by forming a loaf and putting it in a well oiled bread pan or small cookie sheet and letting it rise until doubled. This can be baked at 375 for 35 minutes.

A Red Letter Day For Our Little Farmette!

 I opened the back hatch to the coop prepared to clean out several days of yuck, and perhaps find one brown egg, as I had already found two this morning. Much to my surprise and joy I spy a pretty blue egg as well as a brown one! My Daisy has finally come into her own, and can hang with the rest of the mother hens now, whoohoo!

Slow she and Bella have been, with us waiting still on Bella. I kept telling Nature Guy they would not be heading to the soup pot any time soon as I knew that they were a little behind on the uptake. Their combs hadn't popped until just this last week, which I've read was an indicator of their being mature enough to start laying. They won't have the regular combs the other girls do, just a pea comb, but they are such pretty birds. We officially hit a milestone, and got four eggs today.

I guess I'm officially a chicken nerd now. Our five hens have been so much fun to have around, and yes, there is some mess involved, but it's all good as they give back to us in eggs.

Pretties for Your Precious.... Boho in Color

 After the holiday decor comes down, and winter sets in with vigor, the color of life seems a bit drab and in need of a spot of new color. The pretty blue pendant choker above, is an easy fix for those days, when just a touch of color will do, nothing too fancy, but pretty is as pretty does.

For a little more sparkle and pizazz, this multi-layered necklace is just the ticket. Both this necklace and the choker above are hand crafted by me. Add a bit of color to your wardrobe today by visiting my etsy shop: SIMPLY SHERYL'S