Toasted Coconut Loaf

I have too much love to bake with buttermilk. It creates the tanginess and gives a great texture to the cake. After making go-to pancake two weeks ago on a Sunday morning (Yes! Sunday is the day to enjoy a big homemade breakfast while I had a guest Nathalia stayed overnight with me too. Great food, great company!), the leftover buttermilk AGAIN sitting in the fridge 1 week.... 2 week... and finally I needed to use it up... and when I got all the ingredients for this buttermilk loaf, I realized the buttermilk was expired...  I replaced it with a mixture of plain Greek yogurt and milk and it worked perfectly fine. For more other buttermilk substitutes, please look here.

This coconut loaf original recipe calls for sweetened coconut, which I hesitated to use and wanted to replace with unsweetened coconut. I had a feeling that with the additional amount of sugar and the icing, it would be overly sweet. Anyhow, I kept it as I did not want to make too much change. Instead, I cut down on the amount of sugar. Plus, since the loaf was at perfect sweetness before adding the icing on, so I had omitted the icing part.

Note: Make this a day ahead. It tastes better in the 2nd and 3rd day.

Recipes adapted from Martha Stewart

Yield: 8 1/2 x 4 1/2-inch loaf pan

1 1/4 cups sweetened shredded coconut, divided

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon table salt

3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature

3/4 cup +1 tbsp granulated sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 large eggs, at room temperature

3/4 cup mixture of plain Greek yogurt, room temperature

¼ cup milk, at room temperature

1) Preheat oven to 350 F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

2) Spread the coconut in an even layer on the baking sheet. Bake for 5-10 minutes, stirring frequently every 3 min, until the coconut is golden brown. Don't walk away, it can burn very quickly. Let the coconut cool while you prepare the rest of the recipe. Maintain oven temperature.

3) Grease an 8 1/2 x 4 1/2-inch loaf pan.

4) In a medium bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, and salt together.

5) In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar on medium speed until very light and fluffy (scrape down the bowl as necessary). Stir in the vanilla. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.

6) With the mixer on low, alternately add the dry ingredients in three additions and mixture of Greek yogurt and milk in two additions, starting and ending with the dry ingredients.

7) Using a rubber spatula, mix in 1 1/4 cups of the toasted coconut until evenly distributed. Be sure to scrape the bottom of the bowl with the spatula to make sure all of the ingredients are well combined.

8) Transfer the batter to the pan and spread in an even layer. Bake for 1 hour, or until a thin knife inserted in the center comes out with just a few moist crumbs attached. Remove the pan to a wire rack and let the cake cool completely.

9) Serve warm or room temperature. Personally like it at room temperature and it tastes better after a day or two. Enjoy!