We took a spur of the moment trip to Boston on Wednesday. We woke up and were hanging out, and it was just one of those mornings with cranky, fussy kids, you know the kind, where no matter what you do, nobody is happy? So my hubs says “lets just get out of here, lets hop on the train to Boston for the day”. In my head, I’m going “ya ya, okay” (we’ve said these things to each other in desperate times before!) But within minutes, he had me checking train schedules and booking a hotel. We packed and off we went.
I was hesitant at first, and even called my mom planning to ask if she wanted to watch our 3 month old..it seemed like a lot of work to go down with a newborn. But when I got on the phone with her, I decided against it and thought it would be fun with both our kids no matter what..it ended up being the best time ever! The boys were SO good and so well behaved. It was an easy, peazy, breezy, blast! I would do it again in a heartbeat.
We stayed right downtown and walked everywhere. We ate lots of delicious sweets…(I know I was doing a sugar free march, but c’mon, you’d give it up 5 days early too..right?) let our little guy run all around outside Quincy Market, took them to the aquarium, stayed up late, played games, and had an all around great time. He was in complete awe of everything..he’s 22 months old and at such a great stage, he is just amazed by the world. Everything is always “wowww” or “awwww” I love watching his excitement! Maybe Ill do a mini iPhone photos post later…my dslr photos would take me days to go through..with kids I have to take 25 pictures of the same thing to get one good one, which usually results in hundreds of photos 🙂
Moving onto this incredible Coconut Grapefruit Loaf Cake. Holy smokes people, this baby is the bomb. (I feel like a teenager saying that) but seriously, I’m not sure that I should admit that the entire cake was eaten in one day. The day I made it, with the exception of cutting off a a few slices to leave home for my hubs, I brought the whole thing to my moms..you know, hoping I wouldn’t just sit at home snacking on it all.day.long. Yah, about that. I brought it there, and my mom, grandma, and I, (and my son) snacked on the whole thing. Zero self control I tell you.
{someone couldn’t keep his little fingers out! 😉 }
This cake is heavenly. The toasted coconut combined with the citrus grapefruit is the ultimate perfection. I let the syrup soak in overnight in the pan, you don’t have to do that, but it was late and I was being lazy. But I was glad I did. It was so completely moist, but definitely not soggy, the next morning. Then topped with the grapefruit glaze, and toasted coconut..lord help me. We demolished it. There were many, many oohs and aahs..you should make this for Easter. Your family will thank you. Really, you should make this anytime and all the time.
Toasted Coconut and Citrus Grapefruit create the greatest marriage in this incredibly fabulous and heavenly loaf cake!
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 1/3 cups sugar, divided
- 3 eggs
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
- Zest of 1 grapefruit
- 1 cup whole fat coconut milk (The light coconut milk will be to watery, it needs to be thick)
- 1/2 cup coconut oil, melted
- 1/3 cup freshly squeezed grapefruit juice
- 1 cup Coconut Flakes, toasted
- 1 cup confectioners sugar
- 2 Tablespoons grapefruit juice
Directions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9x5 inch loaf pan.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, and 1 cup of the sugar.
- In a small bowl, whisk the eggs, vanilla, and grapefruit zest together.
- Using a rubber spatula, fold in the coconut milk.
- Fold the wet ingredients into the dry until almost fully mixed.
- Stir in the coconut oil until it is completely mixed.
- Pour the batter into the loaf pan and bake for 50 minutes.
- When it is done remove from the oven and cool for ten minutes.
- While it is cooling, in a small pot over medium heat, stir the remaining 1/3 cup sugar and the 1/3 cup grapefruit juice together until the sugar dissolves.
- Poke a few holes through the loaf cake and pour the syrup in.
- Allow it to set and fully cool before removing it to a plate.
- To make the glaze, mix the powdered sugar and the grapefruit juice and pour it over the top.
- Sprinkle on the toasted coconuts and enjoy!
Loaf Base Adapted From: Ina Garten