Tuesdays With Dorie - Toasted Coconut Custard Tart

This week's challenge is Dorie's Toasted Coconut Custard Tart, which called for dark rum. Now I rarely drink alcohol, but I know dark rum has a specific flavor profile compared to other types of rum or even rum extract. I've been debating on spending money for something I rarely use but decided since I've had really good rum cake in the Bahamas, maybe I could duplicate it. They don't sell tiny bottles of dark rum, so I bought a regular bottle of Myers Dark Rum (which is the only brand of dark rum I could find).



Rum is not something my family enjoys either, so I made two mini tarts,seeing as only my dad and me would be the ones eating them. Boy was I wrong. They lasted maybe 10 minutes because my mom and brother had a bite and decided to eat more. Cutting the recipe into thirds made the perfect amount for two mini tarts. As far as flavor, some TwDers said there wasn't a strong coconut flavor, which makes sense. If you think about it, it's really just a normal custard with toasted coconut folded in. One person suggested using coconut extract, so I substituted that for vanilla. It would be interesting to see if you can make the custard with coconut milk. I know skim milk is frowned upon because of the fat ratio.

The amount of rum used is debatable. The rum is kinda strong, so if you love rum, great. If not, you may want to scale it back to 1 Tbsp instead of 2. I left rum out of the whipped cream because the custard was strong enough. I did use coconut extract in both the custard and topping.



Thanks to Beryl of Cinemon Girl for choosing this delicious tart. You can find the recipe on pages 344-345 of Dorie's Baking: From My Home To Yours or on Beryl's blog.

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How (Not) To Zest A Lime

Whenever I was in San Salvador a few weeks ago, I bought a postcard with a Bahamian rum cake recipe. I don't like drinking rum but I needed to buy an even number for the price. Whenever I was waiting at the airport in Nassau, I had samples of rum cake. The original version was alright; I could definitely taste the rum, but I did like it. Then I tried the key lime version. It was amazing! The rum was an undertone flavor because the lime really took over. This made me a little more excited to try my rum cake recipe.

Back in August, I bought a bottle of Puerto Rico golden rum for a Tuesdays With Dorie challenge. It sat in my room for about six months, so I gave it to my best friend. She ended up never drinking it, so we decided to use that rum. The recipe actually calls for dark rum, and after doing some research, dark rum really does matter in the flavor, but I went with the golden rum anyway.

I stopped at the store to buy a lime, and while I was driving to my friend's house, I thought, I hope she has a grater. Yea, she should. Most kitchens have one. Yea, MOST kitchens. Not all. We dug through her cabinets but no grater. Now how do I zest my lime? Her boyfriend suggested a fork. Didn't work, so I went for the vegetable peeler. Ahem.



Ok so we have big chunks of lime. Now what? Let's use the food processor! Oh wait, it won't turn on. How about the blender?


The motor is running, but the blades aren't turning!


Fine, we'll just use a knife (her pretty nails, not mine)


FAIL!

We really shouldn't be baking together. We can't zest a lime, assemble a cake, read directions, or bake giant snickerdoodles. Better yet, I blame her kitchen. It always goes wrong in her kitchen haha

As for the recipe, it was written for a regular-sized bundt pan. I bought two baby ones at Wal Mart, so I somehow scaled it down (successfully too!). There was way too much lime in ours, but that's because it was chunky and I forgot to scale down the lime when I scaled down the recipe. Whoops. Next time, I want to buy a small bottle of dark rum and see if there is a difference. I may throw in coconut at some point.

I will write both recipes in case you can't read the postcard above. We didn't make the glaze because the cakes were fine without it.

Bahama Rum Cake



Regular Bundt Cake:
1/2 cup chopped walnuts/pecans
1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
4 eggs
Zest and juice from one lime
1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup dark rum
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup raisins
--
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup water
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup dark rum
1/2 tsp vanilla

Mini Bundt Cakes:
2 Tbsp chopped walnuts/pecans
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup sugar
1 egg
Zest and juice of 1/4 lime
1/3 cup flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
2 Tbsp milk
2 Tbsp dark rum
1/4 tsp vanilla
2 Tbsp raisins
--
1 Tbsp butter
1 Tbsp water
2 Tbsp sugar
2 Tbsp dark rum
1/8 tsp vanilla

1. Cake: Preheat oven to 325F. Grease bundt pan(s). Line the base with nuts.

2. Cream butter and sugar together. Beat in eggs and add lime. Mix in flour, baking powder, and milk. Add rum, vanilla, and raisins. Pour mixture into pan(s) and bake 1 hour for large cake and 20-30 minutes for mini cakes. Cake(s) are done with a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool for 10 minutes then remove from pan(s).

3. Glaze: Melt butter in saucepan. Add water and sugar. Boil and stir 4-5 minutes. Remove from heat; add rum and vanilla. Pierce cake and brush glaze over top and sides. Repeat. Steep cake in pan.

Makes: 1 large cake or 2 mini cakes

Source: San Salvador postcard

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Sugar High Friday - My First Time

Challenges are awesome to enter because they give you another excuse to bake (or cook). For this month's Sugar High Friday, I had to bend the rules a tiny bit. You see, the theme is drunken apples. Given that I'm only 20, I can't go out and buy any alcohol. My parents don't keep any alcohol in the house, and they weren't going to buy me a bottle just for this challenge (damn it). I decided to use the next best thing - rum extract. I ended up baking this cake at home during my fall break two weekends ago after I went to a local apple festival. I was going to sub the vanilla extract for rum extract, but my mom is very picky and isn't crazy about rum. No worries; I used it in the glaze. Since my mom didn't want the rum extract, I made a little bit of glaze for about two pieces of cake. Let's just say the extract is really strong for such a little bit of glaze. I think if you made an actual bowl of glaze, the milk and sugar would balance out the strongness of the rum. I suggest only adding 1/8 tsp and then add more for taste.

Also, I learned an interesting fact while baking this. I thought the title was Apple Streudel Cake, not Apple Streusel Cake. The streusel is the crumb topping usually baked on top of baked goods. In this case, it's in the middle. A streudel (or strudel) similar to a pocket pastry.

Apple Streusel Cake




Streusel
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup chopped apples (I used Golden Delicious)
1 cup nuts
1/4 cup flour
1 tsp cinnamon
3 tbsp butter, melted

Cake
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup butter, softened
3 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup milk

Glaze
1/4 cup butter, melted
2 cups powdered sugar
2 Tbsp. milk
1/8 tsp. rum extract (add more if needed)

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Grease bundt pan. In a bowl, combine brown sugar, apples, nuts, 1/4 cup flour, and cinnamon. Stir in melted butter.

2. In another bowl, combine 2 cups flour, baking powder and baking soda. In a third bowl, beat butter and sugar until fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time. Add vanilla. Alternately beat in flour mixture and milk.

3. Spoon half of the batter mixture into pan. Spread all of streusel on top. Top with remaining batter. Bake 45-50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Let cool for a few minutes; remove from pan. Serve warm.

4. For the glaze, stir all ingredients together. Add more sugar if it's too runny; add more milk if it's too thick.



Source: Creative Cook's Kitchen handout, Cakes and Pies group 1 card 3




When I'm home from school, I have a little sous chef. Unfortunately, he was a little occupied when I was baking.

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