January 23, 2009

[A Lovely cake made by someone else for our going away party from North Carolina]

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Sheesh...the past few days have slipped by. A whirlwind of life, as always. Sometimes I am grateful when time moves so slowly, the way it did when I was a kid. It took forever back then to finish a week. Now the years fly by and it's getting more interesting all the time. There must be a time/spatial event that happens...perhaps the result of an energy shift or a hormonal balance-- that changes the way we view the passing of time. The older I get, the more I want things to slow down...and there was a time when it took all my energy to get things moving as quickly as possible. How things change as we traverse these rocky roads of life.

I thought I would give you the recipe for the cake I took to the meeting on Thursday. It's a Pina Colada cake...aptly named because it incorporates orange and pineapple and coconut. I'm going to give you the official recipe, lol, not exactly the one I wound up making. First off, I messed up and put 2 cans of mandarin oranges into it. Then I had to use about another 1/3 of a box of yellow cake mix to make up for the extra liquid. Then there was the frosting...which I had to improvise because I didn't have all the ingredients. Sigh...I'm not the world's most organized cook, I'm afraid. Of course, the bright side of that is that I appear adventurous when I make things up. lol

There was a time when I was such a food snob that I never ever used mixes or such, always baked everything from scratch. Now I'm just so lazy that I am much more open to convenience when it's reasonable. For instance, I would never use hamburger helper. But I do make cakes from mixes from time to time. Especially when I find one as luscious as this.

For the Pina Colada Cake, you'll need:

1 box yellow cake mix

1 small can mandarin oranges + juice

3 eggs

3/4 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup shredded coconut

Put these ingredients into a bowl and beat at medium speed for a full 3 minutes. Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes in a greased and floured pan.

Cool the cake thoroughly.

Frost it with this yummy topping:

1 LG can CRUSHED pineapple in it's own juice

1 tsp. vanilla

1 box instant vanilla pudding

1/2 cup shredded coconut

Whip these ingredients together until the pudding starts to thicken. Mix in (by hand) one tub of Cool Whip. Frost the cooled cake.

Sometimes I toast coconut and sprinkle on top as well, but that is entirely optional. (Can you tell I LOVE coconut???)

This cake is delightful and gets rave reviews every time.

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I started making cakes like these because I bake a lot of cakes for anniversaries at meetings. Most of the cakes I bake from scratch are exceedingly costly and labor intensive. I like this one because I almost always keep these ingredients in the pantry and I can throw it together at the last minute.

The other night when I made it, I realized I had no whipped topping in the freezer (I guess I used it at Thanksgiving when all my "peeps" were here). So I improvised, using cream cheese and butter and powdered sugar and vanilla pudding. Everyone loved it.

Bon Apetit!