Chocolate Coconut Cream Cake (C4)

This is a dessert I serve out at Camp that I call C4. For the dinner party, I cut it into diamonds and served it with a coconut caramel, but it is essentially the same cake I make for the camp.

For the chocolate cake, I first prepared 3 half sheet pans. I sprayed them, put parchment on top & them lightly sprayed the parchment.


I took two of the Duncan Hines cake mixes from the store & just made the batter according to their directions. I then portioned the cake batter equally between the 3 sheet pans.


I then spread the batter out, as equally as I could.


I baked them in a 350 degree oven until they were done, about 20-25 minutes.


I them put the cakes in the freezer, as frozen cake sheets are so much easier to work with.

For the topping, I took a couple of cups of sweetened coconut flakes and spread them out on a sheet pan. I toasted them in a 350 oven until they were golden, about 8 minutes.


For the coconut pastry cream, I scaled out the following:
2 Cans Coconut Milk (13.5oz each)
1 1/3 Cups Sugar
12oz Heavy Cream

1 Cup Heavy Cream
1 Cup Milk
7T Cornstarch

9ea Egg Yolks
Pinch of Salt

I heated up the Coconut Milk, Sugar & Heavy Cream and kept the other two mixtures in separate mixing bowls.


I brought the Coconut milk mixture up to a simmer and then cut off the heat. I tempered the liquid into the eggs, ladle by ladle while constantly stirring, so that the eggs didn't scramble.



After I had brought to temperature of the eggs up by tempering in the hot coconut milk mixture, I added them back to the pot.


I whisked the cornstarch mixture together, making sure there were no lumps and added it to the pot, constantly whisking. I turned the heat back on (about a medium-low) and stirred it until the pastry cream thickened.


I took the pot off heat and added in:
3T Butter
1oz Vanilla
2/3 Cup Sweetened Coconut Flakes



I stirred it around until it was all incorporated and then put it in the fridge to chill.

To make the cake, I inverted a sheet pan and put a piece of parchment on top, then put the first layer of frozen chocolate cake on top of the pan.


I put half of the coconut pastry cream on top of the first layer of the cake and spread it out evenly.


I then added the second layer of cake on top.



I then added the second half of the coconut pastry cream on the second layer of chocolate cake and spread it out evenly.


And then added the last layer of chocolate cake to the top.


To finish the cake, I cut it into diamond pieces, and piped whip cream onto the top.



I then added the coconut caramel over the top.


And then sprinkled the coconut topping over the cakes.

Coconut Caramel

I make a regular caramel during camp for the coffee table and for sundaes. Deciding to do a Coconut Chocolate Cake, I thought a coconut version of my caramel sauce might go well with it.

Ingredients:
13.5oz Can of Coconut Milk
11oz (about 1 1/3cup) Sugar
Water

I put the sugar in a sauce pan and added just enough water to get the sugar wet.


I also put the coconut milk in a saucepan to heat up. And I got a brush with some water to wipe down the sides of the sugar saucepan.


I brought the sugar to a boil, and brushed the sides of the pot to prevent crystalization. I do not stir the pot at all, otherwise the sugar could caramelize.


The sugar starts to caramelize after a few minutes.


It starts to develop an amber color.


I take it a little longer and try and get the color as dark as I can without burning it.


I take the pot off heat & then whisk in the hot coconut milk until it has all incorporated together.


And that is all there is too it. As it cools, it will thicken.

To make the regular caramel that I make out at the camp, just substitute heavy cream for the coconut milk.

The Tomatoes So Far.

So, overall I am pretty pleased with how things are going this first year with the tomato garden. I have learned a lot about growing them, and have many things I want to do differently.

This is a recent picture of the garden. If you notice, the left bed is not caged and is laying along the ground. I had planned to cage them all, but summer happened and I ran out of time. 70 of the plants are caged, 10 are not.

This summer I realized just how little time I have for anything other than the kitchen. Next year, I have got to make the garden as low maintenance as possible.

Bugs have been a small problem. Nothing too bad, but I have had fireants, small bugs, grasshoppers and cutworms. I plan on looking for organic methods next year for dealing with them all, though I am not all that opposed to using chemicals.

The cages I bought were a little too flimsy. As the tomato plants grew bigger and taller, the cages bent and fell. I plan on making my own cages next year out of heavy duty wire and staking each for support. I also plan to cage them much much earlier.

The biggest thing that I didn't get to was the irrigation system. It takes me a good hour to water all of the plants at night. Which is time I just don't have. So, I need to get the irrigation system in place and with soaker hoses that go off on a timer. That way the ground will stay consistently moist.

I have two very visible problems with my tomatoes. The first has been blossom end rot (BER) which has caused little brown bottoms on my tomatoes. It was very apparent at the beginning and now has pretty much dissipated.

The second problem is cracking. You can see the cracking in the 2nd picture above. For the most part, the cracking is just ugly. But the cracking can cause fungus, disease and rotting. Which is pretty irritating.

Both of those problems are caused by the irregular watering. The ground is either dry or wet. not just a steady moist. So, the soaker hoses will help with all that.

The last thing I want to do differently is to put down mulch. Specifically straw. The straw will help the soil keep it's moisture and will also prevent weeds from seeing the light of day. It will help with fungus & disease.

So, I am pretty happy with the taste and colors that I am getting, but I am extremely eager about next year and all the improvements.

My Tomato Garden

So sometime in early March my DVR broke down. I recommend this happening to anyone who wishes their productivity would increase dramatically.

I love fresh tomatoes. I love heirloom tomatoes. A tomato that is actually the color it is supposed to be when it is picked and has never been in the refrigerator is easily one of my favorite things. So, at some point, I decided to construct a garden in order to grow tomatoes for the camp during the summer.

I decided to build on the other side of the back tennis courts. The land is mostly flat, it gets a ton of sun, there is a water source, and one of the fence sides is already built. Contrast this photo with the one above:
So, I marked off the land I wanted. I decided to build it 72' x 33'. I broke up some of the larger mounds in order to try and even the land somewhat. This is actually a large mound:

I then ordered over 800 standard cinderblocks (16x8x8) from Lowes.

I built the first two beds. Each bed is 33' long and stacked two cinderblocks high.

The depth is 15" deep.

I put newspaper about 5 sheets thick into the bottom and watered it to keep it from blowing away. This will help weeds from coming through and the newspaper will breakdown with time.

I then lined it with around 4-5 inches of peat moss.

I then put in about 3-4 inches of in-camp horse manure that is around a year old.

I then put in about 6 inches of LC1 soil.

Then topped it with another inch of horse manure.

So, again, the layers are:
Newspaper
Peat Moss
Horse Manure
LC1 Soil
Horse Manure

Weeds should be minimal.

Then I built the next two beds & filled them the exact same way.

Then I continued on with the last 4 beds.

While I was putting up the beds, I was also putting up the corner posts, the gate posts and the gate.

I dug 18" down for the corner and gate posts. Which is actually an extremely long way down through tough dirt.

Edward helped me dig and even invented a new game that is sweeping the nation.

We dug holes for the line posts and then measured off the height for the line posts.

My bud, Mere Vasquez, helped with the cementing, since I know really nothing about such things.

We cemented all the line posts in place.

I then placed the crossbeams.

We stretched the chainlink into place.

The fence is a little over 6' tall.

Deer can jump that height, but I don't think they will want to in such an enclosed space.

I think it looks fantastic.

We lined the bottom with chicken wire and then I placed some of our Mystic rock along the bottom. It should help keep small rodents like black squirrels and skunks out.

Plus the rock looks awesome.

Finally, in early May, I was able to plant. Or rather, transplant. I went to the Planthouse, a wonderful nursery in Kerrville, and picked up 40 various plants from them. I planted them at night, and planted them as deep as I could.

I have been growing Heirlooms from seed in my bathroom. I'll get all into that in another post.

So, I planted those heirlooms in the other four beds.

I planted those at night as well. I spent almost 2 weeks "hardening" the plants off, getting them used to the wind, the sun, and the changing temperatures bit by bit.

Still, they had a little bit of transplant shock:

Though, 2 days later, they were looking wonderful.

That is the same plant.

I went ahead and caged the Planthouse plants, since they are much further along than the plants I started from seed. I started mine on April 1st, where the Planthouse may have started these in late Feburary.

Tomatoes naturally want to lie along the ground when they start getting weighed down by their fruit. The cages allow you to rest their stems on the wires, and basically prop them up like Weekend At Bernies.

So, I have 80 plants in the ground and really have no clue what I am doing. Anyone who has actually grown tomatoes finds me insane to have planted this many.

I have 21 different kinds of tomatoes planted. It will be nice seeing which types do the best and which are the most popular.

My Tomatoes:

Bed 1	Bed 3	Bed 5	Bed 7
Big Rainbow?	Cherokee Purple?	Lemon Boy	Italian Red Rose
Big Rainbow?	Cherokee Purple?	Lemon Boy	Italian Red Rose
Big Rainbow?	Cherokee Purple?	Lemon Boy	Italian Red Rose
Big Rainbow?	Cherokee Purple?	Cherokee Purple	Italian Red Rose
Big Rainbow?	Rainbow Heirloom Mix	Cherokee Purple	Italian Red Rose
Green Zebra	Rainbow Heirloom Mix	Cherokee Purple	Surefire
Green Zebra	Rainbow Heirloom Mix	Better Boy	Surefire
Green Zebra	Rainbow Heirloom Mix	Better Boy	Surefire
Green Zebra	Rainbow Heirloom Mix	Better Boy	Surefire
Green Zebra	Rainbow Heirloom Mix	Better Boy	Surefire
Bed 2	Bed 4	Bed 6	Bed 8
Green Zebra	Rainbow Heirloom Mix	Big Boy	Black Krim
Black Krim	Rainbow Heirloom Mix	Big Boy	Black Krim
Black Krim	Rainbow Heirloom Mix	Big Boy	Black Krim
Black Zebra?	Rainbow Heirloom Mix	Beefsteak	Black Krim
Black Zebra?	Rainbow Heirloom Mix	Beefsteak	Black Krim
Black Zebra?	Rainbow Heirloom Mix	Beefsteak	Merced
Black Zebra?	Rainbow Heirloom Mix	Carnival	Merced
Black Zebra?	Rainbow Heirloom Mix	Carnival	Merced
Black Brandwine?	Rainbow Heirloom Mix	Carnival	Brandywine
Black Brandwine?	Rainbow Heirloom Mix	Mortgage Lifter	Brandywine

Beds 1-4 are the plants I grew from seed. Beds 5-8 are the plants I purchased from the Planthouse. Beds 7 & 8 are the ones closest to the tennis courts.

The ones with question marks near them are tomatoes that are most likely what they say. 80% certainty. There was a mishap. I'll get to that when I blog about the tomatoes I grew from seed.

The Rainbow Heirloom Mix is a random mix of five different plants: Omar's Lebanese (Red), Dutchman (Pink), Golden Sunburst (Yellow), Black Russian (Purple), Djena Lee's Golden Girl (Orange). Hopefully I will get at least 2 of each plant.

I still need to put in the irrigation system, but I am pretty happy where I am with this right now.

1st term will probably get a good number of the Planthouse tomatoes about halfway through the term. I think 2nd and 3rd term are going to be getting a large amount of tomatoes from all the plants.