Feast Like You're On Vacation: Dessert

In May of 2011, I took an amazing vacation to West Palm Beach, Fl. that included a cruise to Grand Bahama and Nassau.  The beaches were beautiful, the food and drinks were spectacular, and it was great to be able to relax with my family.  Even though that trip was a year ago,  my husband and I are constantly trying to relive it through food and drinks.  We have cloned the Goombay Smash from the Iguana Cafe in Nassau and the guacamole from Rocco's Tacos in West Palm Beach.  We've learned how to cook plantains two ways, and made a delicious main course of jerk chicken and Bahamian peas rice.  What could possibly be missing, you ask?  Only what I deem to be the best part of any meal...the dessert!

One of my memories from our cruise was when we stopped in at the Tortuga Rum store in Nassau.  The store was packed with so many different flavors of rum and rum cake, I didn't even bother to count them all.  We purchased multi-packs of varying flavors and then rushed back to our ship, kicked off our shoes and dug in to the little cakes (expertly carved into five equal pieces by my brother with a plastic knife).  They were so good!  When we returned to the states, we wished we had purchased more.  After every crumb of Tortuga rum cake had been eaten, we set out on a quest to find a recipe that would give us the perfect rum cake (or, as perfect as we could get without going back to Nassau).

First, for the perfect rum cake, you need the perfect rum.  After searching the internet and doing a little (or a lot) of taste testing, we arrived at a clear winner.  This cake cannot be made with anything but Cruzan Coconut Rum.

So now, after months of waiting...without further ado...

Coconut Rum Cake (printable recipe)
 

Ingredients:
For cake:
  1 box Betty Crocker Butter Recipe cake mix
  1 box vanilla pudding mix, cook and serve type (not instant!)
  4 eggs
  1/2 c. Cruzan Coconut Rum
  1/2 c. vegetable oil
  1/2 c. water
  1/2 c. shredded coconut
For glaze:
  1/2 c. butter (1 stick)
  1 c. sugar
  1/4 c. water
  1 c. Cruzan Coconut Rum

Method:
Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Combine cake mix and pudding mix in a large bowl.  Add the eggs, rum, oil and water.  Using an electric mixer, mix the ingredients until well blended (about 3 minutes).  Prepare a bundt pan by spraying it with cooking spray and sprinkling coconut on the bottom and sides of pan.  Pour batter into pan and bake for 50 to 60 minutes.  Cake is done when a toothpick comes out clean.

Remove cake from oven and immediately begin the glaze.  Melt the butter in a saucepan, then stir in the water and sugar.  Boil for 5 minutes, stirring constantly.  Remove from heat and let the mixture sit for a few minutes to cool.  Slowly stir in the rum.  If it starts to bubble, let the mixture cool a little more before adding the rest of the rum.

Remove the now slightly cooled cake from the pan and use a skewer to poke holes all over the cake.  Pour half of the glaze into the bundt pan and then carefully place the cake back in the pan.  Pour the remaining glaze over the cake and let it soak in.  Once all of the glaze has been absorbed by the cake, turn the cake out of the pan and let it cool completely.

Grab a fork and go to town!

Easter: I'm in it for the Sweets

Easter celebrations in my home were always fun.  Dressing up, spending a day with family, great meals, and the feeling that Spring was here (even if it was snowing - we do live in Wisconsin after all).  Easter signifies rebirth, or is it chocolate bunnies and jelly beans?  I don't know about you, but I'm in it for the sweets!  My favorite part of any holiday is the food, and Easter is no exception.  Whether it is the delicious glazed ham and cheesy potatoes that graced our dinner table, or Easter baskets filled with candy that spoiled our dinner before we even got to it.

Our baskets were always hidden somewhere in the house.  Much like an Easter egg hunt, we had to search for our baskets to get the goods.  I'm not sure if that was typical for all families, or just ours.  I think my favorite hiding spot was the year I found my basket in the oven.  Thankfully it wasn't on, so all of the chocolate was fully intact.  Our baskets were always overfilled with hard boiled eggs, a couple of toys or games, candy and other sweet treats.  This year, even though I don't have any baskets to fill, I thought it would be fun to make my own treats.  I made macaroon bird nests using an Ina Garten macaroon recipe and Cadbury mini eggs, homemade marshmallows, and chocolate covered peanut butter eggs. 

Macaroon Bird Nests (printable recipe)
adapted from an Ina Garten recipe















Ingredients:
1 14 oz. package shredded coconut
1 14 oz. can sweetened condensed milk
1 tsp. vanilla
2 lg. egg whites
1/4 tsp. salt
Chocolate egg-shaped candies, jelly beans or similar

Method:
In a large bowl, combine coconut, condensed milk and vanilla.  Combine egg whites and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment.  Beat at high speed until nearly stiff peaks form.  Gently fold egg whites into coconut mixture.  Scoop by tablespoonfuls onto parchment paper lined baking sheets.  Bake at 325 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown.  Remove macaroons from baking sheet and top with candies, pressing to adhere them to the macaroon.

Homemade Marshmallows (printable recipe)















Ingredients:
3 packets unflavored gelatin
1/2 c. cold water
1 1/2 c. sugar
1 c. corn syrup
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 c. water
1 tsp. vanilla

Method:
Grease a 9x13 pan and dust generously with powdered sugar.

Combine gelatin and cold water in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment.  Let the gelatin and water sit while you prepare the syrup mixture.

In a medium sauce pan, heat sugar, corn syrup, salt and water over medium heat until the sugar dissolves, stirring occasionally.  When sugar has dissolved, turn the heat to high and cook until the mixture has reached soft-ball stage on a candy thermometer.

Add the syrup mixture to the to gelatin and turn mixer on at low speed.  Add vanilla, then turn speed to high.  Mix on high speed for 15 minutes, then transfer to the prepared 9x13 pan, spreading marshmallow so it is in an even layer.  Dust top of marshmallow with additional powdered sugar.  Let the pan sit on the counter overnight to allow the marshmallow to set.  Remove marshmallow from pan and cut into cubes.  Roll in additional powdered sugar or colored sanding sugar.

Peanut Butter Eggs (printable recipe)















I wish I had graham crackers in the pantry when I made these.  The addition of graham cracker crumbs would have made the peanut butter mixture easier to work with.  Without the crumbs, the filling of these chocolate covered peanut butter eggs is much lighter and fluffier than what you would find in a store-bought peanut butter cup.  I could have just added powdered sugar until the proper consistency was achieved, but I didn't want the end product to be overly sweet.  Graham crackers would have given me the proper consistency, without adding a lot of extra sweetness.

Ingredients:
1 c. smooth peanut butter
1 c. powdered sugar
1/4 c. butter, softened
1/2 c. graham cracker crumbs, optional (see note above)
2 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips, melted

Method:
Combine peanut butter, powdered sugar, butter and graham cracker crumbs in a large bowl.  Beat with electric mixer until ingredients are well-mixed.  Add a few more graham cracker crumbs or powdered sugar to get the consistency and flavor you desire.

Refrigerate or freeze the mixture until it is firm enough to work with.  Using a cookie scoop to make sure the end products are similarly sized, form the mixture into egg shapes and place on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet that will fit in your freezer.  The number of eggs you get will depend on how big you make them.  I used a slightly over sized scoop and got 2 1/2 dozen.  Freeze the peanut butter eggs for about 10 minutes before dipping in chocolate.  This will make the chocolate set up faster and will keep the filling firm enough to handle once it hits the warm chocolate.