Banana Coconut Coffee Cake with Macadamia Nut Streusel for #SundaySupper

Nov 11, 2012 by lovelypantry

I’ve been looking at this recipe for a few days now. I was determined to make it and thanks to #SundaySupper, I’m able to share it with you all today. You see, we are entering a wonderful season of giving – Thanksgiving in the USA, and of course Christmas is almost upon us. It is a beautiful thing to give a thoughtful home-made gift to family and friends at this time of the year. This weeks theme for #SundaySupper is Gifts From The Kitchen. The host this week is our very own Susan from The Wimpy Vegetarian. With our usual spectacular line up, we hope to inspire you with gift ideas for the season. Please take a look out our baked items, condiments, soups, snacks, drinks and yes, without a doubt…sweets. Maybe you’ll find something special and thoughtful for you to give as a gift.

I chose this recipe because of the ingredients and how easy it was to prepare. The aroma was just something to talk about. It was awesome when my husband came home from work and the house smelled wonderful. He was a nicer man and I know this cake had something to do with it!

 

 

I gave one cake away already to a friend and she and her mother loved it. Giving home-made gifts are always nice, but it is very important to consider food sensitivities. I plan to bake another set without the macadamia nuts. I’m sure it will taste just as fabulous. The nuts are there to give added texture. Either way will be fine. The streusel has a nice crunch because of the Turbinado sugar.

 

 

I made a few adjustments to make it a little more interesting. I replaced brown sugar with coconut sugar. I replaced the milk with coconut milk. For the streusel, I went half and half with coconut sugar and turbinado sugar instead of using brown sugar. I believe this gave it a more coconut flavour than just the shredded coconut in the body of the cake itself.

 

 

The cakes came out beautifully. They were fully baked at 35 minutes as per the recipe.

 

 

I didn’t wait too long to taste the cake. It is an absolute MUST that the cook and the official testers sample the cakes before they are given away. Unless of course, its something that you bake all the time and you know exactly what you’re going to end up with.

 

 

I for one, was completely satisfied with this cake. It is a nice item to bring as a gift while making your rounds over the holiday season, and its something that can be easily shared among a small group of people. I was very grateful for the inexpensive foil baking pans. It made the gift convenient to bake in, and portable! I enjoyed dressing these cakes up. I’m sure they will put a smile on anyone’s face 🙂

 

 

Here are the gifts from the #SundaySupper team:

 

Breads / Breakfast

• Pumpkin Biscoff Bread – Dinners, Dishes, and Dessert
• All-in-One Beer Bread Kit – girlichef
• Banana Coconut Coffee Cake with Macadamia Nut Streusel – The Lovely Pantry
• Pancake Mix With Apple Cider Syrup and Candied Walnuts – Tora’s Real Food
• Cranberry Hootycreeks – Baker Street 

Condiments / Ingredients

• Apple Butter – Hezzi D’s Books and Cooks
• Cranberry Strawberry Jam – The Meltaways
• Herb Vinegars – Cindy’s Recipes and Writings
• Harissa – The Wimpy Vegetarian
• Homemade Vanilla Extract – Flour on my Face
• Homemade Cherry Extract – Cravings of a Lunatic
• Nutella Powder – I Run For Wine
• Apricot Pineapple Rum Sauce – Vintage Kitchen Notes
• Spiced Cranberry Apricot Almond Chutney – Sue’s Nutrition Buzz
• Pumpkin Butter – Family Foodie

Soup and Snacks

• A Soup For You – Momma’s Meals
• Maple Nut Granola – Girl in the Little Red Kitchen
• Sweet and Spicy Curried Nuts – Soni’s Food for Thought
• Roasted Spiced Nuts – Mrs Mama Hen 
• Sweet and Spicy Pecans – Supper For a Steal
• Maple Pumpkin Spice Granola Bars – Cupcakes and Kale Chips
• Orange Spiced Chickpeas – Home Cooking Memories
• Turtle Pretzels – The Messy Baker

Sweets

• Rocky Road Candy – Magnolia Days
• Dairyfree Vegan Caramels – Galactosemia in PDX
• Peanut Butter Cookies in a Jar – Mama’s Blissful Bites
• M&M Cookies in a Jar – Damn Delicious
• Monster Cookie Mix in a Jar – What Smells So Good?
• Chocolate Chip Cookie Biscotti – Meal Planning Magic
• Snickerdoodle Snack Mix – Pippi’s in the Kitchen Again
• Butter and Jam Thumbprint Cookies – Crispy Bits & Burnt Ends
• Peppermint Stick Cookie Truffles – The Weekend Gourmet
• Nutella Truffles – Small Wallet Big Appetite
• Peanut Cajetas (Peanut Fudge) – Basic and Delicious
• Cookie Cutter Fudge – Chocolate Moosey
• Pumpkin Roll – Shockingly Delicious
• Homemade Chocolates – My Trials in the Kitchen
• Hot Chocolate on a Stick – Juanita’s Cocina
• Chocolate Toffee “Crack” – Ruffles and Truffles
• Holiday Tree Cake – Noshing with the Nolands
• Salted Caramel Cookies – Mama Mommy Mom
• Fruit and Nut Cookies – In the Kitchen with Audrey

Drinks

• Applepie Moonshine – My Catholic Kitchen
• Holiday Spiced Mocha – Daily Dish Recipes
• Homemade Peppermint Mocha Mix – In the Kitchen with KP
• Homemade Kahlua – That Skinny Chick Can Bake

Please join on us on Twitter throughout the day during #SundaySupper on November 11.  In the evening we will meet at 7pm EST for our weekly #SundaySupper live chat.

All you have to do is follow the #SundaySupper hashtag or you can follow us through TweetChat.

We’d also love to feature your own posts for Gifts From the Kitchen on our #SundaySupper Pinterest board to share them with all of our followers, too.

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Cherry Almond Spiced Muffins with Almond Streusel for #MuffinMonday

Nov 5, 2012 by lovelypantry

Hi folks! It’s the start of the start of a brand new week and I’m happy to be joining #MuffinMonday today. It has been a rough couple of weeks and I’m doing all I can to get back into the kitchen more often for blogging purposes. One of my biggest challenges of course, is this season of limited natural light which is ideal for food photography. It’s a common complaint. But I’ve decided that no matter what, I will be taking photographs. If I’m not happy with the result, then at least I tried. For a long time, I refused to do my shoots after dark, even with the equipment that I had. The result just wasn’t pleasing to me. I’ve since then tried to come up with solutions to give me decent images after dark or with low lighting. So todays photos are my first with a weird and wacky temporary set up. I laugh about  it because its nothing like the bright home studio with windows from floor to ceiling that I often day-dream about.

Today’s recipe is from Taste.com.au and is filled with nutty goodness. I made my substitutions based on what I had on hand. I  had some dried cherries that I wanted to use and wouldn’t you know, I had just enough to make this recipe. I also wanted a streusel topping instead of crumbling crushed nuts on top.

 

 

 

The first thing I noticed was that the streusel was very crumbly but also delightfully crunchy due to the turbinado sugar. I like crunchy, so thats ok.

 

 

Because the streusel has ground almonds, the nutty flavour was heightened.

 

 

My greatest delight about this muffin, is the burst of tart  flavour if you are lucky enough to sink your teeth into a piece of cherry. Its not too sweet, not too tart but certainly perks you up a bit.

 

 

Have an amazing week!

 

 

Muffin Monday is an initiative by Baker Street. A culinary journey of sharing a wickedly delicious muffin recipe every week. Drop in a quick line to join her on her journey to make the world smile and beat glum Monday mornings week after week. 

Link to the Muffin Monday page: http://bakerstreet.tv/muffin-monday/

Link to Muffin 101: http://bakerstreet.tv/muffin-monday/muffin-101/

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