Gourmet magazine

This is a new feature that I intend to update regularly, with links to the recipes I tried out from other bloggers and how it went.

I admit to being pretty predictable this week. She was my first food blog (I didn’t know such a thing existed), and the only one I followed for a long time. So this week, I made 2 of her recipes. I’m not at all surprised she was near the top of the Times Top 50 Food Blogs. Really, Deb, you were robbed! 

Smitten Kitchen’s Key Lime Coconut Cake

The minute I saw this post, I knew I had to bake this cake. I love coconut! I love key lime! I had company coming for the weekend. There was coconut in the cabinet. 

There were no key limes in the house. My mother has a tree in her yard, but I have not been home in over a month. They do not keep this long! So I went to the store. Mind you, as I’ve said before, I live in Miami. There should be key limes everywhere, right? Nope! I finally found one of those net bags of key limes – from Mexico!

Otherwise, this went together easily and came out perfect. I used unsweetened, organic flaked coconut, and Florida Crystals organic sugar. The only other thing I did a little differently from the posted recipe was the glaze. I can’t eat confectioner’s sugar, because it’s loaded with cornstarch. I used 1 cup caster sugar (superfine), 2 tbsp key lime juice, and 2 tbsp Haitian Barbancourt rum. But it was a little stiff, so I added another tbsp of warm water. This made a perfect glaze.

This cake was gone in 24 hours. Pictures? Sorry. Next time.

Smitten Kitchen’s Clementine Cake

This was a repeat, by popular demand. I made it shortly after it was posted and brought it to a dinner party. It was amazing. My friend Jane has never stopped talking about it, so when she decided to have another dinner party, she requested this.

I made it with a combo of Meyer lemons and clementines this time. This definitely made it more like a lemon cake than a clementine cake. What I really love about this cake, though, is that it is so moist! I decorated the top with supremed, sliced blood oranges, which looked like little flowers.