18th Stop: Belize

Welcome to Belize and its Tropical Coconut Cake.

Above is, essentially, a caramel topping being whipped into shape. 

This cake's topping is amazing if you love caramel and coconut. I imagine you could use this lusciousness for other creations, too. Ice cream, perhaps? It would be tropical, caramel goodness on top of some vanilla ice cream. Instead of hot fudge, go for hot caramel coconut. 

 

I'm telling you, I'm on to something here....

Anyway, below is a photo of the cake right before I started to bake it.

And here is a photo of it all done, after the topping had been broiled to give it a bubbly, lightly brown and crunchy top.  You can see, I've already tried a piece. 

 

The actual cake part didn't have much flavor and was a bit of a disappointment to us. It was more "bready" than "cakey." 

It did remain wonderfully moist, but it lacked pizazz which probably a little more sugar would have given it. 

 

But the topping, again, let me repeat, was AMAZING. 

Just make the topping.

Add it to vanilla ice cream. 

Kind of wish I had.

I'm sure the the person behind My Global Kitchens makes a better rendition. She's actually been to Belize and had this there.

I envy that and thank her for her recipe, which you can find at the link above.

1st Stop: Afghanistan

BTWT
1st Stop: Afghanistan

Bakery Item: Sheer Yakh (Afghan Ice Cream)

What You Need:                                                         

Vanilla Ice Cream
Rose Water (chill in the fridge prior to using)
Pistachios (unsalted and finely chopped)

What You Do:

Pour ½ tsp. of rose water over 1-2 scoops of vanilla ice cream. Sprinkle the pistachios on top. Give it a try.

Review:

At first I thought I had proper ingredients to make some kind of edible perfume! After de-shelling the pistachios, I noticed they had a lovely, faint, baked sweetbread scent. Then, I took a whiff of the rose water. Well, I mean, c’mon! It was like smelling a bouquet of roses and I was quite hesitant to even sample this liquid on ice cream. Isn’t vanilla ice cream pretty perfect on its own? Then, there was the vanilla in the ice cream. Vanilla is a common “note” used in many perfumes. If I combine these three ingredients, I’ll have an edible perfume.

So, I gave it a try. ACTUALLY - it wasn’t perfume-y at all. The rose water is absolutely subtle and makes the dessert an elegant, fresh delicacy and I would recommend this to you if you're OK with having roses in your food. Now, so my review doesn't seem completely one-sided, I have included what my fellow Bakery Travelers who were with me during this 1st stop of the Bakery Traveler World Tour (BTWT) had to say:

 

Bakery Traveler Hubby: "Refreshing, but not that great."

 

Mini Bakery Travelers (aka my kids): "You added a WATER to ice cream?! So not trying it!"

(I found this recipe online at www.afghan-web.com)

The Bakery Traveler World Tour continues...next stop is Albania.