My Love for Baking

I began baking when I was a teenager. My dad was a Chef and when I was 9 and my sister was 8, he decided we needed to know how to cook. Yes, he did that. In fact, at an early age, he taught us how to clean, cook and care for ourselves and our younger siblings; there were five of us and I was the oldest of the five.

He didn't teach me how to bake, it just came naturally to me. My mother would bring home Duncan Hines cake mixes for me to try. She even bought me my first cookbook (Betty Crocker) which I still have, by the way.

My first cookbook

One of my favorite recipes to try was the Pineapple Upside Down cake. That still remains one of the most requested cakes by my family. At some point, I no longer used cake mixes and began playing around with cakes from scratch. I began experimenting with recipes common to the West Indian community I grew up in. Three of these were my favorite-- Coconut Bread, Fruit Cake, and Yucca Pone. Today, I decided to go back to my roots and make Coconut Bread (I'll blog about the last two at a later date).

Coconut Bread is a sweet bread (sort of like a Banana Nut or Zucchini Bread) made with real shredded coconut that you have to hull and grate. I went to Superior Market for the coconut. I knew they usually carry them there. In fact, they carry both the white and brown coconuts. I bought the brown one, which is what I'm used to. I used a hammer to crack the coconut (the shell is pretty hard) and a paring knife to remove the meat from the husk. I discovered that using my Bullet cuts down on the time it takes to shred by hand and speeds up the baking process. For this recipe, I don't use a stand-alone mixer, I do it all by hand.

Cracking open that coconut!

Below is the recipe.

Coconut Bread

1/2 lb butter (2 sticks) melted
4 1/2 cups flour
4 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 1/2 cups brown sugar
1/2 cup raisins (Optional - I'm not a fan of raisins, so I use discretion when baking with them).
1 whole shredded coconut (not the packaged store bought kind)
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 eggs, well-beaten
1 can evaporated milk
2 teaspoons almond extract
In a large mixing bowl add flour, salt, nutmeg, cinnamon, and baking powder. Create a well in the middle of the dry ingredients and gradually add the evaporated milk, the eggs, almond extract, and melted butter. Mix in the raisins until all ingredients are incorporated.

Shredded Coconut

Batter consistency

Transfer to two loaf pans and bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour or until a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean. Below are some photos that my daughter took as I was preparing the batter.

Final product

I hope you try it, It's delicious!