A Weekend in December

It was a fun, busy Christmastime weekend for me.  On Saturday I went on the Bethany Christian Services Christmas Home Tour.  Shelly, Nelia and I always go and this year Deb joined us.  We ran into Holly touring and she posted here.  We had a great time, it is always so inspiring.  It was fun for me to see Marv and Linda's Ranch since I graduated from high school with them.  It was gorgeous!  I swooned.  Linda is very creative and I could see in their home that God and family are their daily focus.

 Sunday evening our church hosted a Christmas Cantata, a 70 voice choir and 23 piece orchestra.  The music gave me chills it was so beautiful.

After the Cantata, Hubby and I hosted a little party, a light supper for 16 guests.  We had fun preparing, cooking and baking.  I used my  new old  place card holders to label the buffet.  One of the recipes was called, 'Oh-So-Retro Swedish Meatballs'.  I loved the name and the meatballs weren't bad either.

 I haven't started my Christmas baking so I decided to bake two layer cakes for the dessert buffet.  The Coconut Cream Cake recipe came from a Gooseberry Patch cookbook.

 I mixed the sweetened condensed milk and coconut cream and began to have second thoughts.  This is a lot of goop.  Where would it all go?  Well, if only I could follow a recipe I would have baked the cake in a 9x13 pan and the goop would have stayed in the pan.  Right?

 But I wanted layer cakes so I baked the cake in three 8 inch pans.  It got a little overdone, but I figured it would be a goopy mess anyway so it could be a tad dry.  I put down saran wrap, waxed paper and the cakes and then I poked holes and poured on the goop.  I have no photos of what happened next...  I spread and I poked and I pressed that goop into the cakes.  It was a MESS.  I wrapped and put them in the fridge on Friday afternoon.  On Sunday I poked some more and spread the leftover goop into the cakes.  I made the whipped cream and glued it all together, I added a bit of cream cheese to the whipping cream to make it more like glue.  I needed glue at this point, or cement would have been helpful.  After I had the whipped cream sticking everything together I wrapped saran around the outside of the cake, left the top open and put it in the fridge.  Oh, and I said a little prayer.

 The tough part of serving  a layer cake is that you have no clue about it's taste or texture until you serve it.

It was good, creamy, not soggy and lots of coconut flavor.  Make it in a 9x13 inch pan and it will be an easy holiday dessert.  Make it a layer cake and you will have trouble.

After the guests left I went in the kitchen and the coconut cake was gone!  They must have liked it!

Oh wait a second, there is a wedge of cake laying on the counter.  It slid right off the pedestal and was hiding  behind.  Sneaky, slippery cake.

I also baked Pioneer Woman's Coffee Cream Cake.  It wasn't pretty either.  It was tasty though.  My plan to have a gorgeous dessert buffet didn't really happen but it was a tasty dessert buffet.

If you'd like the recipe for Pioneer Woman's Coffee Cream Cake the book is available at the Lynden Pioneer Museum Gift Shop. Yes, that is a shameless plug for the store.  Hah!