Fresh Fruit/Mint Juice

In our journey across the continent, we stopped and had dinner with some family at Cafe Rio and even though I don't usually go for big box chain fast food establishments, this one is different. But I'm not going to tell you about the amazing food. I'm going to tell you about these drinks they had. They were special limeades, there was mint limeade (everyone's favorite), strawberry limeade, and hibiscus limeade (my other favorite, so amazing!) And tonight we decided to make our own. We made strawberry peach mint limeade. It was delicious. I might just do mint and peach together next time, with just enough lime juice to keep the peaches from turning brown.

As far as I can tell you can use pretty much any fruit you like. You blend up the fruit with lime juice, water, a little ice, and add sugar to taste. And then you make more because everyone will need refills!

Pumpkin Coconut Spiced Cake

Pumpkin coconut cake, see how runny the frosting is!

Lovemuffin and I are packing up and moving across the country next week, and in order to take a break from the stress of packing stuff and selling furniture, we made a road trip for the weekend to visit some family. While we were there, we made this cake that got rave reviews from the cousins.

I decided to combine pumpkin and coconut because I had some in my cupboard and I want to get rid of as much stuff as possible. It was a pretty good experiment, but you can't taste the coconut as much as I would like, but I think there is a nice depth of flavor there, if you're paying attention when you eat it and not just snarfing it down. If I was going to make this again I would use some coconut flavoring just to emphasize the flavor there.

After I made the frosting, I realized I should have done it a little differently, I should have just used a couple tablespoons of the leftover coconut milk, powdered sugar, cinnamon, and coconut extract flavoring. Instead I had massive amounts of slightly too runny (but very tasty) frosting. But you'll be pleased, I know, to hear that cinnamon and coconut are a delightful combination.

pumpkin coconut cake baked in a bundt pan

Here is my recipe, based on a pumpkin cake recipe on allrecipes.com.

Pumpkin Coconut Spice Cake

1 cup coconut milk (I used a can of "light" coconut milk)
3 eggs
1 15 oz. can pumpkin puree (I had a 29 oz. can and we eyeballed half of it)
1 3/4 cups brown sugar
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup chopped walnuts
1 cup shredded coconut, cut even finer (if you have a food processor to do it quickly)

Preheat oven to 350, grease and flour one 10 inch bundt or tube pan.

Mix together the coconut milk, eggs, pumpkin and sugar. In a separate bowl, stir together the flour, soda, cinnamon, cloves, ginger and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and stir just until they are mixed, add in the nuts and shredded coconut. Pour batter into the prepared pan.

Bake cake in preheated oven for about 1 hour, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Let cool for about 5 minutes, the edges should start pulling away from the pan a little, flip it gently onto a wire rack to cool some more.

Frosting (this is what I did, that didn't yield the results I was hoping for, but was still very delicious)

remainder of the can of coconut milk (about 1/2 cup)
some cream cheese, softened slightly (about 4 oz. I forgot to measure)
at least 4 cups powdered sugar (I might have put in more, I lost track)
cinnamon to taste (I used about 2 1/2 tablespoons)

Mix all ingredients together well. You can use more or less sugar to make a thicker frosting, mine turned into more of a glaze. Chilling it helps it stiffen up, too. Pour frosting over the prepared cake. Enjoy.

what's left of pumpkin coconut cake after 30 minutes