Life is like a camera….. Focus on what’s important, Capture the good times, Develop from the negatives, And if things don’t work out, Take another shot. Home is where the heart is; each lives for the other and all live for God.

Food is magical…… Whether it’s a hearty family dinner or sweet baked treats, the sheer look, smell and taste has the ability to transport us back to happy memoirs from our childhood, a special event in our lives or something we appreciated to have

Family

Beyond that, food connects us to our loved ones. What’s a birthday celebration without a cake and the birthday person?

Made with love

Fire up the oven and create winter comfort birthday cake for my younger sister’s 50th birthday. I use my thickened cream that is going to expired in 3 days. The shredded coconut has been in the fridge, begging me please, please use me before I turned bad. It’s a shame that we as the whole family could not gather together to celebrate it with her. Luckily, we have modern technology: Zoom. So we sang Happy Birthday, share a short message memoirs of what she did, about her childhood, growing up and her own family bought a cheesecake where I cannot eat.

As you can see the plate has got plenty of space. Well, I made a small loaf size as there is nobody here to eat, only me and gave some to my parents. I noticed that the chocolate seems to be missing as I know I put some batter at the bottom followed by chocolate chips. Then some more batter and chocolate chips and shredded coconut.

The next day, my youngest sister came to check in on me to make sure I am well and bought me chicken briyani, curry chicken, and roti canai. So, I gladly cut some of the cake for her to taste and take home for her family. A few hours later, assuming her tea time she whatsapp me saying the cake is moist, delicious, and she loves the chocolate and coconut topping. Let’s bake!!!!

Ingredients

200 g cake flour
1/4 Tsp baking powder
1/4 Tsp salt
250 g butter
250 g white sugar
4 large eggs
half lemon zest
1 1/2 Tsp vanilla extract
250 ml thickened cream
185 g chocolate chips, 40-50 g melted for topping and decorate drizzle on plate
120 g shredded coconut, plus more for decoration

Method

Preheat 170 degrees C. Grease and flour loaf pan lightly. Use medium loaf pan.

Sift together flour, baking powder and salt. Beat butter until it becomes very creamy about 2 minutes. Gradually add 1 big ladle sugar and continue beating well for 4 minutes until fluffy and light. Reduce speed to low add egg 1 at a time beating well each addition and remember scrapping down the sides. Next add zest and vanilla.

Followed by flour mixture alternate 3 batches with thickened cream 2 batches; folding until flour and thickened cream incorporated. Scrapping sides at all time. Spoon batter into prepared pan about 1/3 then gently chocolate chips into batter. Next another 1/3 batter, followed by chocolate chips and shredded coconut.

Smooth top and bake for 70 minutes or until skewer out clean. Remove from oven, cool on pan for 1 hour. Transfer to serving plate. Once it has cooled, sliced a piece and lay it beside the whole cake. I decided to add the chocolate that I got some left by melting it and drizzle on like decoration on plate and some on a corner of the slice cake.

https://helenscchin.com/2020/08/24/chocolate-coconut-pound-cake/

#helenscchinrecipes
#awesomedessertsandentrees
#cookingforthefun
#foodiesplus

Note: You may use heavy whipping cream, or sour cream. You can omit shredded coconut and use desiccated coconut. Or you can use fruits of your choice or even just plain pound cake. As this is a birthday cake I added chocolate chips which I have not had it for years; it also going to expired in 5 days.