Coconut Chai Cutie Cakes

I walked into Heika's bedroom and saw a tin. It was a Tea Tin. It was called Coconut Chai. I smelled it and thought, "I wish I could eat this." Then Heika walked in and I shared my idea. "Heika, smell this. What if we baked this?"

What happens next? This recipe. True friends come together and create things. That is exactly what we did.

Well, first we ate indian food and bought pants and shoes.

Anyway, the concept and science of the recipe is based off of a carrot cake recipe.

Coconut Chai Cutie Cakes.

1 lb sweetened coconut shavings

3 large eggs

2 cups sugar

3/4 cups coconut oil (or veggie oil)

3/4 cups applesauce

1/3 cup coconut milk mixed well (you can use buttermilk if you don't have it)

1 1/2 coconut extract (vanilla is fine, I guess)

3 cups flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

2 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp ground ginger

1/8 tsp ground cloves

1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

1/8 tsp allspice

8 oz. Cream Cheese

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

1/2 tsp coconut extract

1/2 cup toasted coconut shavings

1/2 cup toasted coconut shavings for garnishing

** if you're shopping, buy two bags of sweetened coconut shavings.

add one bag to the mix. Preheat your oven to 350 and spread the rest of the coconut shavings on a baking sheet and toast for 10 min. Keep an eye on it and mix it around once or twice so it toasts evenly.

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325

Combine first 7 ingredients and mix well. It's not going to be very runny, it's going to be kind of chunky and pasty. Don't worry.

In a separate bowl, combine dry ingredients.

add dry ingredients to wet and mix just until moistened.

heavily coat a mini cupcake pan with cooking oil. Drop mixture into tins and just about fill each one. Bake for 14 min or until a toothpick comes out clean.

while they're baking, whip together cream cheese, powdered sugar, cinnamon and coconut extract until smooth. Fold in a fistful of toasted coconut shavings.

After the Cutie Cakes have cooled, frost each one and garnish with toasted shavings to be fancy.

Please don't be intimidated by the seemingly complicated and long process. It's so worth it and not as hard as it seems. Just grab a friend and bake some memories!

I brought these Cutie Cake creations to my friend Melissa Walsh's (soon to be Karner!) bachelorette party this past Saturday. Well, I had to make another batch because I left the first batch at the lake house on accident. Either way, I was proud of them and excited to share them with my friends :)

Chai Tea Pancakes

Pancakes. They are so good. Chai. It is so good. Let’s put them together and watch them fall in love.

Fall would be the perfect time to fall in love. Everything sounds and smells and tastes just as it should. So, let’s give this pair a chance.

Got this from Joy!

Your ingredients:

2 eggs

2 cups flour

3 tablespoons sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

healthy pinch of ground cloves

scant 1/8 teaspoon ground ginger

1/8 teaspoon crushed black peppercorns (or a dash of freshly ground black pepper)

1 cups milk (I used almond milk and added some chai mix)

1/2 cup brewed black chai tea

4 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled

½ teaspoons vanilla extract

oil or cooking spray (for cooking)

In a large bowl beat eggs. Add milk, chai tea, butter and vanilla and mix well. Add flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, spices and salt. Mix well until mostly smooth. Let batter set for a few minutes. Cook two tablespoons at a time.

We added some strawberries and banana slices and maple syrup. It was a love connection for sure.

What else was full of love? The Friday morning breakfast Tiff, Lynn and I had.