Coconut Oil Poundcake with Almonds and Lime Zest

I've been curious about coconut oil lately. Maybe my recent trip to a tropical locale heightened my curiousity but whatever it was inspired me to run over to Whole Foods yesterday to pick up a jar of the stuff and give it a try.

I found this article from the NY Times and decided on this poundcake. It sounded easy enough to throw together and the combo of coconut and lime...one of my favorites. And I was really wanting to make something with coconut oil.

I know I followed the directions correctly but the jury's still out on the result.
I thought I'd wait til today to taste it again. These kind of cakes usually improve with age so I figured an extra day would make the flavors come out more.

So what do I think? It is certainly a dense cake and the flavor of the coconut is subtle. But considering it includes the zest of a whole lime, it's really not a strong lime taste, which could be a good thing, depending on how much you love lime.

The one problem I did have was with mixing the dry with the wet. The recipe said to fold the two together but there was no way this mixture would have combined. It was, to say the least, very lumpy! I had to mash the mixture with a whisk to get out some of the lumps. So I was very skeptical about the final outcome, but all worked out, except for the light spots throughout where you can see that the batter didn't fully mix together. It is moist and it has a nice flavor.

Have you ever baked with coconut oil? Would love to hear how your recipes turned out.

Combine the dry and then the wet ingredients.
Then over low heat, melt the coconut oil.

Pour the melted oil in a large bowl and add in the wet ingredients and whisk together.

Now here's where I had trouble. You can see how lumpy the mixture is.

No way it could be folded in.

So I had to mash out the lumps with a whisk!

Pour the batter into your prepared loaf pan and make the topping.

Sprinkle the topping over the batter and bake about an hour.

My topping got swallowed up by the cake!

Coconut Oil Poundcake with Almonds and Lime Zest ( from the NY Times)

1/2 cup sliced almonds

1 cup plus 2 tbsp. sugar

1/2 cup virgin coconut oil

3/4 cup milk

3 large eggs

Zest one lime

1 3/4 cup AP flour ( mine weighed 8.2 oz.)

1 3/4 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. nutmeg (I used freshly grated)

1/4 tsp. salt

Preheat oven to 350. Grease a 9x5" loaf pan.

1. Make topping by stirring together almonds, 2 tbsp. sugar and 1 tbsp. water in a small bowl. Set aside.

2. In a small saucepan, melt coconut oil over low heat til melted. Pour into a large bowl.

3. In a small bowl whisk together remaining sugar, milk, eggs and lime zest. Add to bowl of melted oil.

4. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, nutmeg and salt.

Fold (Ha!) into the wet ingredients to combine.

5.Pour the mixture into your prepared loaf pan and sprinkle on the topping.

6. Bake for about an hour, or til a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

7. Cool in pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes, then turn out and cool completely before slicing.