Grapevine, TX | How to Make Watermelon Cream Cake | Kotsanis Institute

Megan:
Welcome to cooking with Kotsanis, the one of a kind cooking show that brings the wisdom of Hippocrates to the 21st century. I'm Megan. Join me as I share organic and gluten-free recipes that use food as medicine for your body. Now grab your fork and take control of your health.

Megan:
Hello, and welcome back to cooking with Kotsanis. My name is Megan, and if you've been following the show, you know that we're in the second month of a three month long focus on cancer topics. But I wanted to change it up and use a melon this time, rather than a vegetable. And as you can see, I have the great summer staple, watermelon. It's one of the few upsides to this very hot climate we have in Texas because they grow very prolifically here.

Megan:
Melons are very high in lycopene and we talked about that with the tomatoes, about how that helps your body to fight cancer. Today, we're making, I really don't even know what to call it. It's essentially a layer cake of slices of watermelon and whipped coconut cream.

Megan:
Now, before we get started on the recipe, I wanted to share some information with, you that I came upon fairly recently, and that is how to choose a sweet, ripe watermelon because unless you're at a farmer's market, where the farmer is going to help you pick out one, you're kind of on your own.

Megan:
So in the grocery stores, when you've got all of these beautiful green melons, if you're picking out a melon that's green all over, it's actually probably not very sweet. When you turn them over to the bottom, you can see this round yellow circle. That tells you that the watermelon has actually sat on the ground and been ripened on the vine and in the heat of the sun. That helps the natural sugars of the watermelon to really develop and it makes for a much juicy or watermelon, so you're going to have something that's fairly heavy for its size.

Megan:
I am going to slice this up and I'm not going to let you watch me do it because me with a knife and a watermelon rind is a horrifying combination. So I'm going to let you figure that out on your own and we are going to start the demonstration with the whipped cream.

Megan:
Okay. Here are a few tips, Mark you're cutting lines with a Sharpie and then score the rind with a paring knife before slicing through the entire thickness, otherwise, the rind may crack apart and ruin your slices. After removing the rind level off the slices to prevent a lopsided cake.

Megan:
Okay. What was I saying? Now, I do need to mention that the whipped cream does require a little bit of forethought because it does have to chill in the refrigerator. I've had mine in overnight and this allows the cream to separate from the milk. So I'm going to take it over. I've also been chilling my bowl and my beaters. This is going to make a difference. You want everything to be as cool and cold as possible so that the cream whips up nice and fluffy.

Megan:
The coconut milk has been chilling so that the cream will harden and separate from the milk. One trick for extracting the cream, is to turn the can upside down when you go to open it. That way you can pour the milk right off the talk and scoop out the cream. By the way, I'm speaking from experience, when I say that this recipe will not work with boxed coconut milk, because too much of the fat has been removed. Buy full fat from the can just this once.

Megan:
Whip the cream until it starts to thicken and then add the honey. Gradually, if you can though. I ran out of hands. Next, add the vanilla, a flavor that helps this cream do with less additional sweetening. Whip together until peaks form.

Megan:
Okay, so now we're ready to just stir in our coconut. It's going to be a little bit more like icing because you need this whipped cream to be able to stand up under the weight of the watermelon. So this is actually going to be fairly thick and you're just going to have to spread it on. It's sort of like icing.

Megan:
While you're watching the assembly of the cake, I wanted to mention something about shredded coconut. I'm using Let's Do Organic's unsweetened preservative and sulfite free coconut. Other more common brands use sulfites to preserve the whiteness of the coconut, however, these are precisely the ingredients that we at Kotsonis Institute, suggest that you avoid.

Megan:
This cake is best when served immediately, but you can go ahead and make the whipped cream ahead of time, as much as a day early. Now, I'm going to encourage you to make this recipe yours. Use whichever garnishes you like, though I'm using raspberries and blueberries. And you can even get crazy with flavorings for your whipped cream.

Megan:
Isn't it pretty? So this is going to be a nice, fresh, sweet dessert for you, a little bit out of the ordinary. And I just hope you enjoy it again. We would love to invite you to our upcoming Lunch and Learn, coming up on June 19th, next week a week early. So call the number below if you'd like to hear about financing cancer treatments and what your options are that you might not know about. Again, thank you for joining us on cooking with Kotsanis. Take care and be healthy.