A Cookie & A Coffee Cake

The baking continues...

While doing my daily blog browsing, commenting etc. I came across two blogs with recipes that I thought I'd like to try. The first one was a cookie. The reason I wanted to try it was because it was so simple and the ingredients were in my pantry. The second one, I was attracted to it just by the look of it, I liked the crumbly topping and the purple colour of the fresh cherries embedded in it.

The Peanut butter and jelly cookies, I found at Cooking with Amy. I followed her recipe which can be found here. The only difference was that I used guava jam instead of strawberry jam.



The cookies were peanut-ty rich and great for dipping into milk. If you are a cookie-lover or if peanut butter is your thing, or if you like PB & J (peanut butter & jelly) sandwiches, then this is the cookie for you.

Just as easy to make was Helen's Cherry & Coconut Cake. Here is the recipe. A couple of things to note. Helen used fresh cherries, I used frozen strawberries. As a result, the strawberries lost all of its colour in the baking process, there were little pockets of lilac-colour where the fruit lay. The recipe calls for half teaspoon ground ginger but I used one teaspoon of freshly-grated-ginger. When I make this cake again, I will definitely use fresh fruit instead of frozen I think it will stand up more to the long cooking process and still maintain elements of its originality.



What I loved about this cake was the crusty topping, that shattered into bits as you cut into it. I have to unashamedly admit that I ate more of the topping than the cake itself. The fresh ginger in it came alive just as you swallowed and the cake was lovingly tender, the lemon zest gave it a fresh light taste with the bits of coconut gently announcing itself.