White Chocolate Coconut Bars

After I made those delicious coconut cupcakes for mother's day, I had a lot of left over shredded coconut. I've been looking for a while now for a simple cookie bar. I tried the lunch lady bars that everyone was talking about several months ago. They were good, but just not what I wanted. So I was searching around the other day and found these chocolate chip bar cookies. The recipe was so simple that I decided to try it and sub out ingredients for what I already had--enter white chocolate and coconut--they are pefect. They are really more shortbread-like in their consistency. They are rich, because of all the butter, but you only need one little square to get the perfect taste of sweet. I also added a teaspoon of salt. I personally like a touch of salt in cookies and the original recipe didn't call for any. It was the perfect amount of salt.

My Revised Recipe:

2 sticks unsalted butter, softened

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 egg

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp. salt

1/2 cup white chocolate chips

2 handfuls of shredded coconut

Cream butter and sugar, add vanilla, add egg, add flour. Stir in chips and coconut. Spread into a sprayed 9 x 13 pan and bake at 350 for 25 min.

Coconut Cupcakes with Lime Buttercream Frosting

I like baking, but I don't do it too often. I'm a much better cook than baker. I think it's probably just because I cook all the time, but only bake once and a while. I was looking for something summery to take to the IL's house for Mother's Day and I found these cupcakes--where else--but in my Cooking Light. I love things with lemon and lime in them, so I thought they would be perfect. They were super easy and came out really nice. Really spongy and soft. And the frosting is to.die.for.




I will sprinkle them with lime zest or green sprinkles before serving to people. I'll try to snag a better picture on Sunday.






Cupcakes:
1 cup flour
3 tbsp potato starch (I could not find this at the store, and I had corn start, so I used that. I was worried, but it worked just fine)
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup sugar
2 tbsp butter, softened
1 egg
1 egg white
2/3 cup milk
2 tbsp flaked coconut, sweetened
1/2 tsp vanilla

Frosting:
3 tbsp butter, softened
1 tsp half n half
1/2 tsp lime zest
1 tbsp lime juice (I put in about an extra half tbsp)
1 1/3 cup powdered sugar

Mix dry ingredients with a whisk, then beat butter and sugar, add eggs one at a time, add dry mix and milk alternately. Fold in coconut and vanilla. Bake at 350 for 18 min. (Mine needed about 3 extra min for some reason).

Frosting: Beat butter, half n half, lime zest, & juice. Slowly add powdered sugar until frosting is a good consistency.

I was busy tonight

A really good work-friend of mine is leaving for a new opportunity. Tomorrow is her going away party, so I made some treats.

Strawberry Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting:




They are Angie's Famous Strawberry Cupcakes, I got the original recipe from http://www.goodthingscatered.blogspot.com/. I put the changes I made in red.

Ingredients:
2 1/2 c. cake flour (I used all purpose, b/c I didn't have cake)
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 c. unsalted butter
1 1/2 c. sugar
2 eggs
1/3 c. buttermilk (I used heavy cream)
1/4 c. oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 c. chopped strawberries (I used frozen organic strawberries)

My Cream Cheese Frosting:
8 oz. cream cheese, soft
12 Tblsp. butter, soft
2 c. powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
I added some red food color since it's Valentine's Day.

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Sift flour, salt, and baking soda in medium bowl.
In bowl of mixer, cream butter and sugar until fluffy.
Add eggs one at a time until combined.
Add buttermilk (Heavy cream), oil and vanilla until combined.
Add flour mixture and stir until just combined.
Fold in berries.
Fill cupcake pans 3/4 way.
Bake for 20 minutes.

Frosting:
Mix cream cheese and butter until creamy.
Add powdered sugar and vanilla.
Add food color.

Original Frosting Recipe from Good Things Catered.
1/4 c. strawberries
1 Tbsp. strawberry liquor
1/2 tsp lemon juice
8 oz. cream cheese, room temp
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, room temp
1 3/4 c. powdered sugar
1/2 Tbsp vanilla


I also made Cherry Cheesecake Brownies.

Original recipe is also from http://www.goodthingscatered.blogspot.com/. I love this blog, can you tell? I will again put my changes in red. I didn't make that many changes to this one.

I had to bake them in a pie pan b/c my 8x8 was dirty! This is not the best pic, but it will do for now.
Ingredients for brownies:
8 Tbsp unsalted butter
1 1/4 c. sugar
3/4 c. unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs
1/2 c. all-purpose flour
2 Tbsp cherry juice

Cheesecake portion:
4 oz cream cheese, room temperature
2 Tbsp sugar
1 egg white
1/2 c. maraschino cherries, finely chopped
2 Tbsp juice reserved from marachino cherries

Directions:
Preheat oven to 325 degrees and prepare 8x8 baking pan.
In medium bowl, cream cream cheese and 2 Tbsp sugar until light and creamy.
Add egg white, and cherry juice until incorporated and set aside.
In a medium saucepan, heat butter until just melted.
Add the cocoa and sugar and heat, stirring throughout, until uniformly combined.
Remove from the heat and set aside briefly until the mixture is slightly cooled. Stir in the vanilla.
Add the eggs one at a time, stirring vigorously to incorporate. When the batter looks thick, shiny, and well blended, add the flour and stir until just incorporated, then beat vigorously for 30 more strokes.
I did this all right in the sauce pan.

Spread a little more than 1/2 of mixture evenly in the pan.
Carefully spread cream cheese mixture over the batter.
Spread remaining brownie mixture, very carefully, over cream cheese.
Use a toothpick or knife to swirl the cream cheese/cherry mix slightly.
As you can see from the pic, mine wasn't really three layers, it was more like a brownie layer on the bottome, then a swirled layer on top.

Bake about 20 to 25 minutes or toothpick plunged into the center emerges slightly moist with batter (not completely dry).