Thursday, April 15, 2010

Hawaiian Sweetness


And a fantastic cake to kick off the BBQ season.

I picture eating this on a warm summer night with mosquito's attacking my legs while licking my face clean of watermelon residue, corn on the cob, and lemon-infused chicken skewers. It just all goes so well together. We, for instance, gobbled it almost gone after meatloaf and twice baked potatoes on a rainy spring evening. One of our friends we had over is from Korea and loves the islands of Hawaii, so I thought it was an appropriate wrap-up to the meal. My imagination just got the best of me and I couldn't help but cogitate how well this would be on a BBQ evening during warm summer months. The rain got to me.

It is pretty addicting; what is it about simple boxed pudding and scary cool whip that is so strangely hooking? Let's not even mention the moist yellow cake underneath with that subtle zing of exotic island coconut flavoring. Ah geez.

If you make this recipe, you will need to use all that coconut extract up on something and this is a recipe worth adding to your anthology of refreshing summer desserts.

Takes me the shores of Maui. Ahhh... yes please!

Aloha Cake
{recipe found on the back of McCormick brand coconut extract}

1 yellow cake mix
4 tsp coconut extract, separated
1 large box, vanilla pudding
1 20-oz can crushed pineapple, drained
1 large tub cool whip

Preheat oven to 350.

In a bowl, prepare yellow cake mix according to package directions, adding 3 tsp of coconut extract. Pour batter in a 9 x 13 pan and bake until just done. Remove from oven, and let cool in pan.

Prepare vanilla pudding according to package directions, adding 1 tsp of coconut extract. Refrigerate.

Drain pineapple. Spread all over the cooled cake, pudding on top of that, and then finally, frost the entire cake with cool whip.

Aloha!!





No comments: