Mexican Dinner Party Desserts

Last weekend we were invited to a dinner party where the main course was a nacho buffet (amazing!). After being asked to bring dessert, I tried to think of Mexican-esque dishes I could prepare.

Most search results include flan (meh) and churros (difficult), but I thought tropical pineapple coconut cake sounded exciting, if not really authentic. Although slightly more complicated than a normal cake, it was still straightforward to make and turned out great!

I often bake cakes with oil, but this time I used butter, which resulted in great flavor. Additionally, I baked the cake in the oven, as well as the rice cooker, as our toaster oven isn't big enough for a 9x13 pan. It took longer than the recipe said, but thankfully did not dry out at all.

Instead of making the whipped cream/Cool Whip topping, I decided to whip coconut cream as I have written about in the past. It turned out well to begin with. However, it melted into a coconut sauce after being left unrefrigerated during dinner. Alas!

In case anyone didn't like coconut or pineapple, I also made some Brazilian truffles called birgadeiros using sweetened condensed milk. They were quick and easy to make, and the end result tasted like fudge sauce from a hot fudge sundae. How could you go wrong?!