Easy Pineapple-Coconut Cake

Yesterday, we were invited to dinner with some friends. I offered to bring dessert. Unfortunately, I got wrapped up in a little blog clean-up and waited until the last minute to find a recipe. Fortunately, I found this recipe over at allrecipes.com.

All ingredients on hand? Check!

Easy to put together? Check!

Relatively short baking time? Check!

PERFECT!

Easy Pineapple-Coconut Cake

Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 30-35 min
Yield: 1 9-inch round cake

Ingredients

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cups sugar
• 1 egg
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 (20oz)can crushed pineapple
• 1/4 cup flaked coconut
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
• cream cheese frosting

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9-inch round cake pan.
2. In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, sugar and baking powder. Add egg and mix until well blended. Fold in the pineapple, coconut and walnuts. Pour into the prepared pan.
3. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes in the preheated oven, until center springs back when lightly touched or an inserted toothpick comes out clean.
4. Spread cake with frosting, once cool.

The holy grail of carrot cakes....at least that is how I remember.....

Here I am, the "silent" partner to this blog. The "road is paved in good intentions" sister. Good thing Clarinda is a faithful blogger. I have been neglectful, not only to her, but to the blog and my craft blog. Life seems to get so crazy that all of a sudden a year has passed! I will try to be more diligent and post more!

So I was cleaning out my linen closet. I think it is funny that I even have a linen closet! Only grown ups like Martha Stewart have linen closets right? So my closet has exactly ONE shelf for linens....well maybe a shelf and a half. It is crammed with other things that I just didn't know where to put at the moment I had them in my hands, so why not put them in that most convenient out of sight place that I could find. Martha would have a stroke if she ever saw it! I decided this week that I want to have a nicely organized closet where I can fit all my actual linens such as towels and extra blankets. It would be a so nice wouldn't it? Now you are asking what does this have to do with cooking or baking? WAIT FOR IT!!!! Patience is a virtue my friends! Ok on the floor of my "linen" closet sat 2 banana boxes from when I moved to the house 2 years ago. They have sat in the exact same spot as that first day, sitting waiting for me to go through them and sift through what I wanted and what I didn't. They were boxes of..................…

cookbooks.

My grandma's cookbooks. There was a plethora of various types. Most were very outdated and the pictures were.....umm....lets say that we have come a LONG way in printing and the publishing of photos of food. This would be the spot where it would be nice to take a picture of them so you all could see what I sifted through. It would wouldn't it?

My camera is broken. So we will just have to imagine ok!

I found some neat vintage books that I just couldn't get rid of, they just looked so........soooo COOL! Anyways, on the side of one of the boxes sat an old velveeta cheese box stuffed with odd and end recipe cards and magazine clippings. In this box I found many neat handwritten cards that are very well used! I love the look of old recipe cards that are spattered with oil and flour and all the corners are worn. It gives me such a comforting feeling, like your old teddy or blanket. It just gave me such a warm fuzzy feeling seeing grandmas handwriting, like she was still alive. On the last recipe card I picked up it read Carrot Cake and I read the name.

Helen Graber

Helen Graber was a neat old woman who went to our church while I was just a little girl. I always think of marigolds and zinnias when I hear her name. She gave Ziploc bags of the seeds for mom to plant. She also gave us huge zucchini squashes and mom would cook up this yummy soup that I have NO IDEA how to make! (laments quietly)...but she also made THE BEST CARROT CAKE EVER!

Bold statement I know....but THE TOTAL TRUTH...hence the capital letters. EUREKA I said....ok I really didn't say that....but we all should use that word more often....it sure beats new made up words like ginormous. I hate that word. HATE IT.

So where was I ....ahhh yes, EUREKA I found the holy grail of carrot cake recipes! It is a worn handwritten card that has such a vintage appeal to it, I am in LOVE with the look of it!! So from there I ran to the computer to type to Clarinda the awesome discovery. (running might be a SLIGHT exaggeration.....more like walked purposefully....) Then I thinks to meself....why should I type it over and over to everyone when we have a blog. A FOOD blog nonetheless. So long story short....here is THE BEST CARROT CAKE EVER. I haven't made it yet, as I have been busy blogging this most momentous and important of discoveries to the world, but rest assured I WILL!

Here it is everyone! Hope you enjoy it as much I remember enjoying it.
sorry about no pictures again!

Helen Graber's Carrot Cake

Makes 2 cakes.

Sift the following together:

• 4 cups flour
• 3 cups sugar
• 2 tsp. salt
• 2 Tbsp. Baking Soda
• 2 Tbsps. Baking Powder
• 2 Tbsp. cinnamon

Stir the following together:

• 2 Tbsp. vanilla
• 2 cups oil
• 6 medium eggs (or 5 large eggs)

Add:

• 4 cups grated carrots
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 cup ground nuts (I think she used pecans)

Stir all together and pour evenly in 2 9x13 greased and floured cake pans.

Bake for 30 minutes or until "done" on 350.

• Frost with cream cheese frosting.

Alright now that I am really hungry for carrot cake I had better get back to my linen closet....although it is getting to be a little late in the afternoon....perhaps I will finish another day. It kind of took the wind out of my organizational sails finding this recipe. Now I am all nostalgic and in the baking mood! It will keep for another day, it has for the last 2 years. Good thing closets have doors!

Jennifer

Pineapple-Cherry Dump Cake

It's usually my responsibility to provide desserts for our family dinners on Sunday evenings. Some weeks, I am really busy and don't have time to create anything elaborate. At times like this, I usually throw together something very simple, like a dump cake. I got this particular recipe from the 101 Things To Do With A Cake Mix cookbook. Even though it's super simple, I'll still give you the recipe with step-by-step photos.

Click here for Printable Recipe

Ingredients:

• 1 box yellow cake mix
• 1 can crushed pineapple
• 1 can cherry pie filling
• 1/2 to 1 stick butter (My husband LOVES butter, so I used an entire stick)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350. Grease a 9x13 pan.

Dump 1/2 of the cake mix into pan, spreading to evenly distribute.

Dump crushed pineapple in pan, spreading to evenly distribute.

Dump cherry pie filling over pineapple, spreading to evenly distribute.

Dump the remainder of the cake mix over the top of the cherry pie filling, spreading to evenly distribute. Top with thinly sliced butter.

(I forgot to take a picture before putting in the oven, so here's a pictue with the butter slightly melted from being in the oven for a few minutes.)

Serve warm with ice or cooled with whipped topping.

Chocolate cake...Yummy!!

If you know me, you know I love to cook/bake for gatherings. Jeff and I had dinner with some friends the other night, and I offered to make dessert.
I wanted something cool and summery and found this recipe on All Recipes. It turned out delicious.
The recipe is below. It yields a 9x13 cake, but I didn't need one that large. I divided the cake batter into a round cake, and 12 cupcakes. Also, I used strawberry gelatin. I needed to modify the frosting a bit because my grocery store didn't have the whipped topping mix. Instead, I used frozen whipped topping i.e. Cool Whip (R). I mixed it with the chocolate pudding and added some milk to help with the consistency.

Chocolate Cake IV
Submitted by: REB Rated: 4 out of 5 by 2 members
Prep Time: 20 Minutes Cook Time: 35 Minutes
Ready In: 55 Minutes Yields: 12 servings
"Use any flavor of gelatin to compliment this refreshing chocolate version of the poke cake. Serve it straight from the freezer."

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 (18.25 ounce) package
• chocolate cake mix
• 1 (3 ounce) package fruit
• flavored gelatin mix
• 1 cup boiling water
• 1/2 cup cold water
• 2 (3.9 ounce) packages instant
• chocolate pudding mix
• 2 (1.3 ounce) envelopes
• whipped topping mix
• 3 cups cold milk

DIRECTIONS:
1. Prepare and bake cake mix according to package directions for a 9x13 inch pan. Poke holes in cake while still hot with a fork. Make gelatin with 1 cup of boiling water, then stir in cold water. Slowly pour liquid gelatin over hot cake. Cool cake completely in the freezer before frosting.
2. To make the frosting: Using an electric mixer, beat together the instant pudding, whipped topping and milk until thickened. Pour over completely cooled cake. Keep cake in freezer until ready to serve.

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Printed from Allrecipes.com 7/10/2006