The Hub's Birthday Week

I have a wonderful man in my life.  This weekend is his birthday.  I ask him what he'd like for his birthday and he says, "Nothing Rob.  I can't think of anything that I need, so don't buy me anything."  What do I get for the man that wants nothing?  I've decided that this year I am going to cook a week's worth of his favorite dishes and desserts. 

Here's what I've got planned:
Banana Pudding Cupcakes!  The husband is a man of few words, especially with food.  One afternoon he came home from work and was going on and on about Bliss Cupakes http://www.blisscupcakecafe.com/ banana pudding cupcakes that someone had brought to his office.  I jumped on that...and for his birthday last year, he received them instead of the traditional birthday cake.  This year, I'm going to attempt to make them myself and here's the recipe I've found that closely sounds like it resembles the one from Bliss.  http://ryansbakingblog.com

http://ryansbakingblog.com/2011/01/banana-pudding-cupcakes/

On to dessert number two!  If the banana pudding cupcakes are a success, I'm going to ATTEMPT to make Granny Ludie's Coconut Cake.  Now...this isn't the normal kind of coconut cake....it's the super special one that he guards when we visit Curtis, cuts big slabs of it to take home with us and then doesn't share any of it with anyone else. Since I don't really bake, this will be a challenge for me in itself.  We are talking about layers and layers of special filling and to die for frosting.  Here's the recipe!  Get excited! 

Granny Ludie's Coconut Cake

For the cake-

1 box of yellow cake mix (Ludie says to use Duncan Hines)

2/3 c water

3 large eggs

1/2 c oleo

For the filling-

Mix together:

2 pkgs of thawed frozen coconut (this is a must, don't go for the kind in the can)

2 c sugar

16 oz sour cream

Put aside one cup of the filling and then add to it....
1 1/2 c whipped cream and put it in the freezer

Bake the cake according to the directions on the cake box.
Layer the filling mixture in between the 3 cake layers. Then put whipped cream mixed with the filling on top and sides and put in the fridge.  Sprinkle with extra coconut.  It's better if it sets for a day or two.



My sister made this for Ryan back in December after writing down Ludie's recipe.  She text'd it to me...the above is my interpretation of what she sent.  I think I got it right....

I'll let you know how it goes.

The final dessert will be Ludie's Lemon Pound Cake.  He loves this so much that it was actually his groom's cake at our wedding.  We made several of them, in different sizes and had them on display, along with a recipe card sharing the "secret" recipe for our wedding guests.  Looking back now, I don't have any pics of it....but it was such a hit that the recipe was printed in my hometown church cookbook the next year. 

Three desserts this week!  I might have to sneak in a special dinner or two. Sugar overload is headed our way.