coconut

Tasty Tuesday–Stitch Day!

Yesterday was a most anticipated day…it was Stitch Day!

In case you’re unfamiliar with this holiday, it’s a day in celebration of Experiment 626 (which is why it is celebrated on June 26), otherwise known as Stitch, of Lilo and Stitch fame. Last year, we just happened to be at the Magic Kingdom on Stitch Day, and it’s hard to top that, but Disney did just release Lilo & Stitch: The Official Cookbook last month, so I planned a special day of meals to celebrate our favorite alien-dog.

We started with ‘Ohana Fruit Salad, which had pineapple, lychees, pear, green apples, strawberries, and tangerines, and was tossed with coconut yogurt and served in a hollowed-out pineapple. It was really delicious!

Next was Kaua’i Sugarloaf Pineapple Salsa, served with plantain chips…I can’t wait to serve this with our next Mexican dinner, because it too was delicious!

Funny story about the drink I made…it’s called the Blue Hawaiian. Does it look blue to you? No matter how much of the blue vanilla syrup I added, I couldn’t get the pineapple and lemon juice based drink to change colors, not even to green! Even though the color wasn’t right, the drink itself was tropical and refreshing!

For dinner, I made Dawn Patrol Loco Moco. I’ve been wanting to try this Hawaiian dish of a hamburger patty served on rice and topped with gravy and a fried egg for a while, and we weren’t disappointed!

For dessert, we had the Pā’ina Haupia Cake, which had a lovely coconut filling. Bunny drew an outline of Stitch, and Ladybug copied it in royal icing to make the decoration for the top of the cake…they did a fantastic job!

We had a really fun time celebrating Stitch Day, and I can’t wait to try more recipes from the cookbook!

Tasty Tuesday–Coconut Cream Layer Cake

This cake smells and tastes like summer–it is seriously coconuty! I’m guessing you could also add some drained, crushed pineapple to the cake batter before baking to make a piña colada cake. Alternately, you could also fill the cake with a pineapple mixture (for example, folding some drained, crushed pineapple into about a 1/2 cup of the coconut whipped cream, or even simply using pineapple jelly), between the layers for a similar effect. In addition, to turn it into a booze soaked cake, you could replace some of the water in the recipe with rum. You could also just add some run extract for the full piña colada flavor without all the alcohol of rum itself.
  • 1 (18.25 ounce) package white cake mix
  • 3 eggs
  • 1/3 cup vegetable oil
  • 1 cup water
  • 1 teaspoon coconut extract
  • 1 (14 ounce) can coconut cream
  • 1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
  • 2 cups heavy whipping cream
  • 1/4 cup powdered sugar
  • 2 tsp. coconut extract
  • 1 cup flaked coconut
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour two round cake pans.
In a large bowl, mix together cake mix, eggs, oil, water and 1 tsp. coconut extract. Beat for 2 minutes and pour into prepared pans. Bake according to directions on box, until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean. Cool in pans on wire rack for 10 minutes, then turn out onto rack.
In a medium bowl, combine coconut cream with sweetened condensed milk and stir until smooth. Return cakes to pans and poke holes into them in even rows using a large fork or chopsticks. Pour milk mixture over, allowing it to soak into the cake. Refrigerate for several hours or overnight.
In a large bowl, whip cream until soft peaks form. Add sugar and coconut extract and continue whipping until stiff.
Carefully remove one cake layer from pan and frost with coconut whipped cream. Top with remaining cake layer, and frost top and sides of cake.
Sprinkle top with flaked coconut.