Baking With Dorie: Apple Coconut Family Cake

There's something so rustic & comforting about the term 'family cake'. And I expected to like this one very much because of the unlikely combination of apples and coconut. As usual, I wasn't disappointed. 

I halved the recipe & used just one large apple for the filling. It may have been too little because my cakes were airy & moist whereas other BWD bakers described theirs as slightly 'mushy'. 

I used unsweetened, finely shredded coconut which lent a nice chewiness to these cakes & coconut was the dominant flavor here because I had subbed water for the rum. Once baked, I brushed my cakes with very little thinned orange marmalade because that is what I had on hand.

Verdict: very simple & delicious cake which, if given the chance to sit overnight, will taste even better the next day. Although this might be more of a 'cake for adults' as Tina said because even though my daughter 'helped' me make it (she layered the apples on top and then sprinkled them with sugar) she didn't quite seem to like it very much. Here's a look at one of her creations: 

If you'd like to get the recipe for this cake, please head over to Mia's wonderful blog Bright Morning Star, or to page 214 of Baking from my home to yours by Dorie Greenspan. 

Next up, we're baking Coffee Break Muffins. If you'd like to join our baking challenge, please drop me an email at needfulthings at ymail dot com. We'd love to have you bake along with us!

Baking With Dorie: Brown Sugar Bundt Cake

Chaya saved me the effort of making myself a birthday cake tomorrow by choosing this recipe for the BWD challenge this week. It's just what I wanted: simple, non-fussy and, judging by the deliciously caramel-sweet aroma of brown sugar and apples infusing my house, deeply comforting and flavorful. 

I'm afraid I can't say much about the flavors because I haven't sliced into it as yet - I'm doing what Dorie suggests and keeping it on the kitchen counter, tightly-wrapped. Till tomorrow. So that I can have myself a birthday cake. And I'm so sure it's a winner, like every recipe of Dories' that I've baked so far. 

You can find the recipe on Chaya's blog or on Page 179 of Baking: From My Home To Yours, by Dorie Greenspan. Be sure to check out the other BWD bakers here and here. This week we were joined by two new bakers - welcome Laurie & Rebecca! 

Our next challenge, coming up on August 30th, is Milk Chocolate Mini-Bundt Cakes on pages 188-9 of Baking: From My Home To Yours and has been chosen by Jennifer. If you'd like to join us, please drop me an email at needfulthings at ymail dot com. We'd love to have  you bake along with us!

Drinks are on me: Mock Champagne

Fancy a drink? Need something summery to remind of you the warmer days up ahead?

Something bubbly? With a hint of apples, lemon and mint?  

Here you go: 

Mock Champagne


Juice from 5-6 lemons
6-8 tbsp sugar
2 Granny Smith Apples
2 liters unsweetened apple juice, chilled
1 liter sparkling water, chilled
handful of mint leaves, chopped


Stir the sugar and lemon juice in a small saucepan over low heat until the sugar dissolves. Remove from heat and let cool.


Cut the apples into small chunks. 

Mix the juice, sparkling water and lemon syrup together in a large pitcher. Add the chopped apples and mint leaves. Serve. 

Dark Chocolate Dipped Apples (Magazine Mondays #1)

This is a really good twist on your regular candy apple. 

I made these for my kids several weeks ago, right before we moved. And since it was meant to be a submission for 'Magazine Mondays', I needed to locate the Heart Healthy magazine I got the inspiration for these apples from in the first place.  

No such luck. I packed the magazine away or threw it out? some time before we moved and, as of yet, I've been unable to find it. I finally located the recipe online on the Heart Healthy Living website.



I didn't add the nuts or cranberries because I didn't have any almonds and these were meant for the kids so I was pretty sure they would not at all like the addition of cranberries. I was glad I stuck to plain chocolate because the kids loved these apples and I can see many, many chocolate-and-chopped-almond-covered Gala apples in their future (and mine). 

The original recipe can be found here. 

If you want to go with plain chocolate: 

Wash and dry the apples and insert a wooden Popsicle stick into each after removing the stem. 

Melt dark chocolate in a double boiler. Dip the bottom of the apples in the chocolate, set on wax paper to cool for at least 20 mins in the refrigerator. 

Meanwhile, melt white chocolate in a small pan. Place in a small zipper bag (corner snipped off). Hold the apple upside down with the stick, drizzle  white chocolate over the dark chocolate. Place back on wax paper and let cool in the refrigerator for half an hour, or until the white chocolate sets.