two birds, one stone

Now that we have a back yard (and a front yard!)(we have yards!!), we've unintentionally become amateur bird watchers.

We got a bird feeder, and I'm proud to announce that we wasted no time in successfully fattening up everything from chickadees to thrashers to robins to cardinals. At the pace they were eating in February, we would've had to buy 10 pounds of seed a week to keep up with demand! So greedy, those birds. But so, so pretty.

Here's where I segue into the recipe I'm featuring. (You're on to me if you realize I just wanted to show you some critter pictures...) I killed* two birds with one stone with this dessert by a)making use of coconut oil, which I'm really trying to incorporate into more recipes, and b)satisfying my random, inexplicable, powerful craving for pound cake.

I'm not exaggerating or boasting when I tell you that certain bites of this cake were some of the finest that ever passed between my lips. That's an odd sentence, so let me explain. I don't know if it was my oven (which is notoriously spastic)(through no fault of my own, of course) or the altering of the recipe, but the exterior of this cake was brown-bordering-on-burnt. Not good. The inside, though, and the top (which is my absolute favorite part!) were fine, nay, fabulous. Soft and fluffy and pillowy are three adjectives which might describe the middle of the cake, as well as ideally dense and flavorful. There was only the slightest hint of coconut, which, as a coconut lover, I enjoyed.

I'm delighted with the addition of coconut oil to this classic recipe, though my ancestors may cringe at the thought of using anything except (personally-churned) butter (using milk from the cow in the barn) in a pound cake. Times have changed, and (mostly) for the better! (I wouldn't mind a pet dairy cow, but I guess fat wild birds, squirrels, chipmunks, and bunnies will suffice for now.)

Where do you like to use coconut oil?

Slightly-Better-For-You Pound Cake
Based on Paula Deen's recipe

Makes 2 9x5-inch loaves
Ingredients:

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 cup coconut oil, softened
• 3 cups granulated sugar
• 5 eggs
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour two 9x5-inch loaf pans or one tube pan.
With a mixer, cream butter and coconut oil together for a minute or two, until fluffy.
Gradually add the sugar, and beat for a while, 5 minutes or so. You want an extremely light and creamy blend.
Add the eggs, 1 at a time, beating after each addition.
Stir dry ingredients together in a bowl and add to mixer alternately with milk, starting with the flour and ending with the flour.
Mix in vanilla.
Pour into prepared pan(s) and bake for 50-60 minutes for loaves or 70-90 minutes for a tube pan, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.

*Disclaimer: No birds were harmed in the making of this post...but plenty were overfed.
♥Credit for the critter photos goes to my boo.