Two Yummy Dessert Recipes - Coconut Pound Cake, No Bake Cheese Cake

In the last couple of months I tried out these two new to me dessert recipes.  They were both so good and will both become regulars in our house now.

The first recipe is the Coconut Pound Cake I made Chad for his birthday.  Chad is not a cake lover, but he loved this cake!!  I got the recipe from The Pioneer Woman blog; however I modified it just a little bit.  I put in coconut extract instead of lemon extract.  It was SO delicious.  I love coconut!!  I made another one right now for our "lawn sit" tonight.  Here it is baking in the oven.

  

Coconut Pound Cake

Ingredients

3 sticks Butter

3 cups Sugar

5 whole Eggs

1 teaspoon Butter OR Vanilla Flavoring

2 teaspoons Coconut Flavoring

3 cups All-purpose Flour

1 cup Sprite, 7-UP, Or Sierra Mist

Preparation Instructions

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Cream butter. Add sugar, 1 cup at a time, mixing after each addition. Add eggs, 1 at a time, mixing after each addition. Add butter and lemon extracts and mix well. Add flour, 1 cup at a time, mixing well after each addition. Add soft drink, then mix together until combined. Scrape sides of bowl, then mix briefly.

Pour into a greased Bundt pan and bake for 1 hour to 1 hour 10 minutes, until the cake is no longer jiggly.

Remove cake from oven and invert pan until cake drops out. Slice and chow down!  Makes a great strawberry shortcake if topped with sliced strawberries and whipped cream.

The second recipe is a no-bake cheesecake that I made for my YW when we did indexing a few weeks ago.  I got the crust recipe from allrecipes.com.  It caught my attention because it called for brown sugar and cinnamon instead of just white sugar like most graham cracker crusts.  The brown sugar and cinnamon gave the crust a great flavor.  I got the filling recipe from my sister-in-law Jennie Sanders' cookbook that she gave us for Christmas a few years ago.

No Bake Cheese Cake

Crust:

1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs

1/3 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1/3 butter melted, you may need just a bit more if it seems to dry.

In a small bowl, stir together the graham cracker crumbs, brown sugar and cinnamon.  Add the melted butter and mix well.  Press into the bottom of an 8 or 10 inch pie pan or spring form pan**.  Chill until firm.  While it is chilling, make the filling.

Filling:

8 oz. cream cheese

1/2 cup sugar

1 cup sour cream

2 tsp. vanilla

8 oz. Cool Whip

Mix together cream cheese, sugar, sour cream and vanilla until smooth then add the cool whip.  Pour into chilled crust.  Chill for a few hours or overnight.  Top with cut up fresh strawberries mixed with a little sugar or any flavor pie filling or caramel or chocolate syrup.  

**If you DOUBLE the recipe it fits nicely in a 9X13 pan.