No Bake Coconut & Key Lime Cheesecake

So we've been living at my parents for 7 weeks now which is partly why I haven't blogged much! I've still been baking lots, but have mostly been making requests for my family who don't get to sample my baking as much as they'd like, and so it's mostly been stuff that I've blogged about before!!

It did give me a good chance to whip these treats up though because my mom is a huge key lime pie fan, and my dad loves anything coconut - can you tell where I get it from?! So it seemed rather fitting that I should make this bake...or no bake I should say!

I also had a packet of key lime pie crunch cream biscuits I'd been hoarding because I knew they'd be awesome in a dessert one day!

So they made their way into the crust to make for one tasty slice!

Cheesecake is not something I bake very often but everytime I make it I wonder why that is...because for starters it is so quick and easy to whip up (especially when it's no bake) and also it's SO creamy and yummy! Apart from the patience required to wait while it chills at the end is not my favourite part ;)

I made my cheesecakes in an individually portioned square tray thinking it would give them nice straight edges for beautiful photographs! but somehow they still turned out a bit messy! You can make it in one large dish and probably slice nicer edges than mine!

So while we mourn the end of summer, yes I made my parents turn on the heating last week as it was getting SO cold already! and the leaves are starting to turn, booo! you can retreat with a slice of this and close your eyes and pretend you're still somewhere totally tropical whilst the lime and coconut tingle on your tastebuds!

No Bake Coconut & Key Lime Cheesecakes:

Makes 16

Adapted from Beyond Frosting 

For the crust:

300g key lime pie crunch creams (or biscuit of your choice)

80g unsalted butter

For the filling:

2 cups double cream

1/4 cup icing sugar

450g cream cheese

1/4 cup brown sugar

2 tsp coconut extract

zest of 2 limes

1 1/2 tbsp key lime juice

1/4 cup desiccated coconut

1/2 cup shredded coconut

5 tbsp shredded coconut for decoration

 Prepare the crust by blitzing the biscuits into fine crumbs in a blender.  Melt the butter in a heatproof bowl in the microwave.  Add it to the biscuit crumbs a little at a time to see when it is moist enough to roll a ball of the mix in the palm of your hands and have it hold it's shape (if you are using biscuits without a filling, you will probably need more butter to hold it together).

Press the crust into a 9x13" pan, or individually portioned square pan.  Set aside.

Whip the double cream in a stand mixer until peaks start to form, add the icing sugar and continue whipping until still peaks form.  Transfer into a bowl and refrigerate.

Beat the cream cheese and brown sugar, with the beater attachment in a stand mixer, on high speed for 2-3 minutes.

Add coconut extract and lime zest, along with the key lime juice (or juice of the limes you have just zested if you have access to real key limes).  Beat into cream cheese until well mixed. 

Add both coconuts and beat to combine. 

Remove the cream from the fridge and gently fold into the cream cheese mixture until combined.  Take care, as you don't want to deflate the cream.

Spread over crust with a knife until distributed evenly.

Sprinkle with the extra shredded coconut.

Refrigerate for 2-4 hours.  Keep refrigerated.

Eat and enjoy!

My First Ever Baby Shower!

So no-one really close to me has ever had a baby...or if they have they lived too far away for me to do anything about it! So I've never been to a baby shower which for a 26 year old mormon is pretty unheard of! 

As fate would cruelly have it, a few months after we moved to Vancouver my sister called to tell me she was pregnant and I also found out one of my best friends from high school was pregnant (the first out of our whole group of friends!) so I was more than heartbroken at the thought I was going to be missing both of these super important events, including their baby showers! With my love of all things sweet, and planning dessert tables I have been waiting to throw someone a baby shower for years! So when I met my friend Nicole at church here in Vancouver and found out she was expecting I knew I wanted to do something special for her! 

 I've decided if I could just be a party planner for the rest of my life I'd be so happy! I spent every day leading up to the baby shower dreaming up colour combinations and styles of table decorations! I was sad that I didn't have my cake stand collection here in Vancouver and so I had to make do with the limited resources I had but considering it was on a budget, it came together pretty well! 

I knew the chocolate ganache raspberry cupcakes were going to be the main focus of the table and so I decided the colour scheme should be pink to tie in with the pink raspberry frosting.  I spent a while thinking about what colour would work well with pink and so in the end I went with lime green.  I found that gorgeous polka dot sparkly tissue paper in the exact shades I needed and even found matching serviettes and paper plates in those colours too.

Luckily, my friend Kristen was able to lend me this pretty cake stand to make the cupcakes stand out...

I bought some pink and green plates to display the rest of the goodies, and I whipped up some of my oreo truffles because a party isn't a party without an oreo truffle! The green ones were mint flavour, 

and the pink ones I just made with regular oreo's and milk chocolate coating.  I drizzled each truffle in green or pink candy melt, and then put them in these cute colour co-ordinating mini cupcake liners.

I also tried out these creamy lime squares and I added some shredded coconut into the shortbread base because coconut and lime is a winner! 

These raspberry lemonade bars turned out great, and I loved how vibrant the colour turned out!

Kristen also brought a huge bowl of delicious fruit salad which I forgot to take a picture of! That was a great thing to bring because it was nice to even out all the sweetness with just a bit of healthiness on the side!!

I ordered the stripey straws off a baking website - they were my fave part of the table! and I also bought the mason jars from a canning factory, because drinks in jars makes everything more fun! 

To fill the jars, Cassie made up a few jugs of some rather delicious fresh raspberry lemonade! with real fresh raspberries in it too - it was sooo good!

Here's Nicole, who the baby shower was honouring! with the cute big sister Cambree.

Cambree's favourite part of the dessert table were the chocolate covered pretzels! She sure loved digging into them! as her face and hands will tell you!

After everyone devoured the food, it was time for a little present opening...

isn't this 'little sister' onesie the cutest! and Paisley, the baby of honour, is modelling it!

Cambree was enjoying all the excess wrappings!

Here's some of the lovely ladies that attended: Lindsay, Denise and Jessie

and here's my co-hosts Kristen and Cassie who produced some super fun shower games! 

One of the games was where you have to describe a baby word first round, then next round just use actions and the third round you just use one word.  

With quite a lot of the words involved there were some very funny actions going on! I think the look Lindsay is giving Denise here is even funnier than her action! 

I'm thinking maybe this was our 'hospital' action where we tried to recreate giving birth in an action!

I have no idea what's going on here but again, Kristen's face watching Nicole's actions below is pretty hilarious!

It was such a great night.  I love these girls I have met in Vancouver so much, I can't believe I only have 2 months left to enjoy them and then we're homeward bound back to the UK! 

The BEST Key Lime Pie!

So my love of key lime pie is pretty well known! I will pick a restaurant solely based on the fact that they serve key lime pie for dessert, without evening glancing at the rest of the menu! but who can blame me? It's a pretty rare occurrence to see it on a menu over here...and pretty non existent to see it on a menu back in England! So I usually make do with making my own!

We were heading to dinner at our friends house the other weekend and I knew that key lime pie was also our host's favourite dessert, and since I am now able to buy a whole bag of real key limes over here I knew there was no other option but to whip one up! 

I started with scouring the internet and finding this Martha recipe.  Martha never lets me down! I was excited for the baking to commence!

After baking the graham cracker crust first and then baking it again once you bake the filling, I was worried the crust would be slightly overdone.  I also had lovely visions in my head of little piped swirls of cream just around the edge of the pie, in order to let the real star of the pie shine through...however those plans fell apart when my cream wouldn't whip to a stiff enough consistency (the curse of Canadian 'whipping cream' strikes again!).  By this point I had pretty much convinced myself this was not going to be a good pie so I didn't bother taking any photos.

A few hours later and we were at dinner with our friends and the time came for dessert.  They were ooh-ing and aah-ing over the look of my pie and I told them not to get too excited as I didn't think it was going to be great, and then we all ate a slice and it was the best key lime pie I have ever made.  The crust was perfect, and not overdone like I had assumed.  The filling was soft and wonderfully smooth and oh so tart, something the lime lover in me was loving! and despite me not wanting to cover the whole pie with cream it actually worked really well to balance out the tartness of the key lime layer.  I said I wished I had taken some pictures of it after all! and so our friends promptly lent me their camera and let me snap a few pics! Just the kind of friends every food blogger loves! It was in the corner of a dimly lit lounge so they are not great photos by any means but I just couldn't stand the thought of this recipe not being shared!

A few people back in the UK have been asking me about key limes and sometimes if they find slightly smaller regular limes they think they have struck gold and come across key limes.  I know of no shop in the whole of the UK that sells key limes.  Whole Foods say they can order them in for you, but when I tried this they couldn't come up with the goods! So I took a pic of a persian lime (the kind that we get in the UK) next to the key limes they sell here to let my friends across the pond see the difference.

I know calling it the 'best' key lime pie is slightly presumptuous and everyone's tastebuds are different but our friends quickly followed their first slices of the pie with seconds, and I had to restrain myself on the whole bus ride home from not eating the remainder of the pie in the dish I was holding! so to me that sums up a pretty tasty pie!

Martha's Key Lime Pie:

Serves 4 (greedy key lime loving people) or 8 normal people :)

From Martha Stewart

1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs

6 tbsp unsalted butter, melted and cooled

5 tablespoons caster sugar

1 can (14 ounces) sweetened condensed milk

4 large egg yolks

1/2 cup freshly squeezed key lime juice

1 tbsp grated key lime zest, plus some lime slices for garnish

1 1/2 cups double cream, chilled

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Combine graham cracker crumbs, butter and 3 tablespoons of sugar in a medium bowl.  Mix well.  

Press into a 9 inch pie plate, and bake until lightly browned, about 12 minutes.  Remove from oven and let cool completely.

Lower oven to 325 degrees F.

In a medium bowl, gently whisk together condensed milk, egg yolks, key lime juice and zest.  Pour into the prepared, cooled crust.

Return pie to the oven and bake until the center is set, but still quivers when nudged, for about 15-17 minutes.  Set aside to cool.

Shortly before serving, combine cream and remaining 2 tablespoons sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a whisk attachment.  Whisk on medium speed, for about 2-3 minutes, until soft peaks start to form.

Spoon over cooled pie.  Cut 6 lime slices.  Cut a small slit into the centre of each slice and then twist the slices and push them gently into the top of the pie.

Eat and enjoy!

Coconut & Key Lime Curd Layer Cake for Clandestine Cake Club

So we all know of my love for coconut - it's widely documented on here! I love how it pairs so fantastically with so many flavours but out of all the combos you get lime and coconut has to be my all time fave! I was, of course, trying to think of ways to use up the rest of my Key Lime juice and I had remembered seeing a few recipes for lime curd recently that had piqued my interest so the idea of Key Lime curd was born! 

and to accompany it I whipped up a lime and coconut flavoured cake too! 

I'm not the biggest fan of lemon curd, it's okay but I would never go out of my way to buy it.  So there I was thinking curd wasn't really for me.  Until I made my first batch of Key Lime curd which is out of this world amazing...I haven't looked back since, I'm already planning raspberry curd, passion fruit curd and you guessed it coconut curd! The sky is the limit! Seriously...you need this Key Lime curd in your life! It is SO good! and oh man, it made this cake my all time favourite layer cake.  The curd between each layer of cake helped to keep it super moist and it just paired with the creamy coconut frosting so beautifully! 

I can seriously see lots more of these cakes in my future because it was just so deliciously tasty that I've been craving it ever since I finished off the last slice a few weeks back! I urge all of you, who are after a light and refreshingly tasty cake to give this one a whirl - you won't regret it! 

and yes - for all those of you super observant bloggers out there, I did purposely co-ordinate my green polka dot ribbon with my lime green bake! My obsessiveness is not limited to coconut, but extends to colour co-ordination too! 

Coconut & Key Lime Curd Layer Cake with Coconut & Lime Cream Cheese Frosting:

Adapted from Land O'Lakes

Coconut & Lime Cake:

3 cups plain flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1 cup caster sugar

1 cup unsalted butter, softened

1 cup cream of coconut

2 tsp freshly grated lime zest

4 large eggs

1 cup coconut yoghurt

Key Lime Curd:

From The Craving Chronicles

1 1/2 cups caster sugar

zest of 4 limes

1 cup Key Lime juice

4 large eggs

8 tbsp unsalted butter, cut into tablespoon sized pieces

Coconut & Lime Cream Cheese Frosting:

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened

1/4 cup cream of coconut

85g cream cheese, softened

1 tsp freshly grated lime zest

5 cups icing sugar

4-5 tbsp double cream

Make the Key Lime curd one day before you make the cake.  Add all ingredients, except butter, to a saucepan over low heat.  Whisk to combine.  Add butter.  Continue whisking gently but constantly, heating slowly, until curd thickens and reaches 160°F on a sugar thermometer.  Remove from heat.  For the smoothest curd, pour through a fine mesh strainer (I didn't do this because I wanted larger bits of zest in mine).  Transfer to a bowl, cover and refrigerate over night.  (It will keep for up to 1 week in the fridge).

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C.  Grease 2 round 9 inch cake pans; set aside.

Combine the flour, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda in a medium bowl and set aside.  

Beat butter and sugar in a freestanding electric mixer on medium speed until well mixed.  Add the cream of coconut and lime zest; continue beating, scraping bowl often, until smooth.  Add 1 egg at a time, beating well after each addition.  Reduce speed to low; add flour mixture alternately with coconut yoghurt.  Beat until well mixed.

Divide batter evenly between prepared pans.  Bake for 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean and cake is a deep golden brown.  Cool in pans for 10 minutes.  Remove from pans and cool on wire racks.  

For the frosting: beat butter, cream of coconut, cream cheese and lime zest in the bowl of a freestanding electric mixer.  Beat at medium speed until creamy.  Reduce speed to low; add icing sugar, one cup at a time.  Add enough cream until it is at spreadable consistency.  

To assemble:

Cut off the domes on top of each cake so that they are flat.  

Using a cake slicer, slice each cake in half so that you are left with 4 cake rounds.

Place a layer of Key Lime curd in between each layer of cake.  Apply a thin crumb coat of cream cheese frosting all over the cake and place it in the fridge for about 30 minutes.  

Once it is firm, take it out and cover the cake in the rest of the frosting.  Using a palette knife, and turning it in opposite directions, make swirls in the frosting around the side of the cake.  

Using a cake smoother, smooth out the top and cover the top in shredded coconut.  

Cut a single slice of lime and twist it to adorn the top of the cake.

So off I went to my first (and sadly last since I've left Wales now) Clandestine Cake Club! 

It was hosted by the very lovely Katie who had opted for a Queen's Jubilee Tea theme.  Our cakes themselves didn't have to be representative of the Jubilee, they just had to be pretty, luxurious and something the Queen would enjoy eating! 

Although Katie went all out with the theme and even decorated her Black Forest Cherry Cake with cardboard cutouts of some Guards, The Queen and even Prince Philip! Very royal indeed! 

Christine made a classic victoria sponge covered in lashings of cream and strawberries.

Jane made a ginger cake covered in candied kumquats.  This was a nice pairing, and my first time trying kumquats - they were pretty tasty! 

Tracey's cake had to be my favourite of the night! because surprise suprise it involved coconut! It was a coconut cake, sandwiched with jam and buttercream and it was very delicious! 

Here's a shot of our spread, complete with Jubilee serviettes and everything! A super fun night was had by all and I'm hoping to start up a Clandestine Cake Club when we move to Vancouver!