Join me in celebrating Tony's birthday with this delicious vintage recipe for Chocolate Coconut Marble Bars

Like many of us, my darling husband is a huge fan of chocolate - so much so, that back in 2012, I penned a post in honour of his birthday featuring ten different scrumptious vintage chocolate dessert recipes. Hop ahead four years - how time flies! - and we're once again on the precipice of Tony's birthday. In fact, it's tomorrow!

Yes, indeedy, August 6th is the big day and will, this time around, see Tony turn 36 years old (and to think that we met when he was just a young whippersnapper of 23!). Naturally this means that I've been on the hunt for a seriously tasty sweet treat or two to make for my precious man, and as such, chocolate filled recipes have been high on my list of contenders.

Of those that I've hit upon in recent weeks, this delightful looking recipe for Chocolate Coconut Marble Bars is by far one of my favourites. We're both huge marble cake fans (as discussed here), so a variation on this classic dish that includes another ingredient (coconut) that we both go wild for seems like it could be a surefire hit.

I often find coconut recipes lend themselves very, very nicely to being made in gluten-free form, too (I think the natural starches and sugars in the coconut have a bit of binding agent, which is usually hugely helpful in GF baking as one is not working with the "gluey-ness" of gluten), which means that I could indulge in these lovely bars as well if I made them as such (yippee!).



{Quick, budget friendly, and the perfect choice for any birthday (or tiki!) party, weekday dessert, school or work lunch box treat, or simple midday pick-me-up, these awesome vintage Chocolate Marble Bars are sure to be a big hit with any one who enjoys the tropical treat that is coconut. Vintage recipe image source. Click here to view a larger, easier to read version of this ad.}



Of course, if coconut isn't your bag - to borrow a great expression from our friends in the UK - you can always leave it out.

If doing so, I might sub in some slivered or chopped nuts, dried fruit (cherries, strawberries, raspberries, or bananas could all be especially fabulous here), candied citrus peel, baking chips (peanut butter or butterscotch would be a lovely pairing), or up the chocolate factor with chunks or pieces of your favourite baking variety - you could even introduce marshmallows, which would give this recipe a bit of a s'mores meets rocky road quality.

Given that we're still very, very much in throws of summer, I'd be mighty inclined to dish up thick slabs of this awesome 1950s desert with a generous helping of ice cream, sorbet, or chilled sweetened whipped cream or crème fraîche. Chocolate, strawberry, black cherry, raspberry ripple, pineapple, orange, lemon, caramel, coffee/mocha, peach, vanilla (French or regular), mint chocolate chip, peanut butter, almond, or coconut would all be excellent flavour pairings with the classic combo of chocolate and coconut.

{Cute vintage birthday card image source}

 

Tony is truly one of the nicest, most caring, thoughtful, intelligent, witty, fantastic people to have ever walked the face of the earth and I feel so lucky to be able to celebrate another birthday with him (and all the more so since we were apart for both of our b-days last year when he was working in America for the summer) - complete with a treat that, much like Tony himself, is all kinds of sweet and wonderful!


Happiest birthday wishes, my love!


And a very happy first weekend of August to each and every one of you, dear friends!

Tiki Party Perfect Vintage Coconut Golden Brownies

As the last of the tinsel is vacuumed out of the car[et, the Christmas lights flicked off once more, and we begin hunkering in for the long haul stretch that is winter sans looking forward to December, it can feel like summer is a million miles away.

Thankfully such isn't actually the case, but that knowledge scarcely makes the next few months any easier to bear. Even if only enjoys winter (as I generally do), its bleak weather, icy temps, and serious lack of daylight can be draining on the heartiest of us.

{Image source}

By far one of my favourite ways to help perk up this time of the year is with tropical inspired food, drinks, and even fashion!


Luckily many equator line fruits are at their peak right amount now, and in general, they're super easy to come by for those in most parts of the world.

Whether you're in the mood for a single South Seas themed dish or want to go all out and throw a tiki party to keep Old Man Winter at bay, January is an ideal time to look to the tropics for your recipe choices and today's vintage recipe for Golden Coconut Brownies are sure to have you humming a Don Ho tune in no time.



{Hailing from a 1952 ad that appeared Woman's Day magazine, this tasty, wonderfully easy to make recipe for coconut brownies is sure to help lift your spirits and satisfy your sweet tooth in the process all winter long. Vintage image source.}



As far as I can tell, Welch's chocolate bars haven't been made in ages, but fear not, any similar chocolate + coconut candy bar (such as Mounds or Bounty) can be used here. If such were not forthcoming for you, you could probably just use a nice milk chocolate bar and some sweetened shredded coconut easily enough as well.

These brownies offer up a scrumptious Polynesian inspired flavour that differs from most of the fare we've been consuming in recent weeks. They're refreshing, scrumptious, fairly easy on the pocketbook and dead simple to make. I've had a lot of luck making them in GF form, too, both from scratch and with mixes such as Glutino's Brownie mix.

If you wanted to gild the lily - err, brownie :) - here, you could easily top these scrumptious chocolate + coconut brownies with a sweet frosting of you choice. One that involved coconut, pineapple, orange, or maraschino cherries would both be wonderfully mid-century appropriate and also very tropical island approved. A nice, rich caramel or even strawberry (or raspberry) icing could be sublime here, too, and I can think of at least a few folks I know who would enjoy a coffee frosting on these brownies as well.

I swear, in January and February, I sport my tropic flower print clothes more than any other time of the year and also reach for recipes like this most frequently as well. Between the two of them and plenty of hot chocolate, one can do a pretty decent job of forgetting it's -30C outside - well, at least until you open the front door!

So why not bake up a batch of these great mid-century coconut chocolate brownies (which also work wonderfully for Valentine's Day next month) today and show winter who’s boss! :)