This sort of food may seem like the result of modern, high-tech convenience, but “power bars” (or rather, power cakes) have been around since the Middle Ages. Back then soldiers carried a dense fruitcake called pan forte as their travel food of choice. Made with honey, grains, nuts and dried fruit, pan forte means “strong bread” and for good reason - not only was it flavored with intense spices but it was one of the highest calorie foods of the day, giving travelers the energy they needed to venture forth on… well, adventures. Another old time power food hails from the North American Cree Indians, who ground together buffalo meat, fat, bone marrow and dried fruits to create a portable food called pemmican. Stored in rawhide pouches, the nutritional wallop of this concoction gave American frontiersman Alexander MacKenzie the strength to become the first European to cross the North American continent in 1793. It may not sound appetizing but you have to admit, that’s a mighty impressive resume for ground buffalo.

Compared to commercially made energy bars the homespun variety excels in taste and wholesome value, forgoing all that yucky high fructose corn syrup, sodium and palm kernel oil that plagues many of the “convenience foods” you’ll find at the supermarket. If you ask me, there’s nothing convenient about consuming saturated fats, especially when you’re in a rush and your body needs the best fuel you can find. Next time you feel like experimenting in the kitchen give these a go. For hardly any effort you’ll be rewarded with a flavor-packed, power-punch of an energy bar!

Alton Brown’s Granola Bars
From Foodnetwork.com

• 8 ounces old-fashioned rolled oats, approximately 2 cups
• 1 1/2 ounces raw sunflower seeds, approximately 1/2 cup
• 3 ounces sliced almonds, approximately 1 cup
• 1 1/2 ounces wheat germ, approximately 1/2 cup
• 6 ounces honey, approximately 1/2 cup
• 1 3/4 ounces dark brown sugar, approximately 1/4 cup packed
• 1-ounce unsalted butter, plus extra for pan
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 6 1/2 ounces chopped dried fruit, any combination of apricots, cherries or blueberries (or organic dried apples, which is what I used instead of cherries. You could also use dried strawberries, mango, whatever dried fruits you like really!)

Butter a 9 by 9-inch glass baking dish and set aside. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Spread the oats, sunflower seeds, almonds, and wheat germ onto a half-sheet pan. Place in the oven and toast for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.

In the meantime, combine the honey, brown sugar, butter, extract and salt in a medium saucepan and place over medium heat. Cook until the brown sugar has completely dissolved.

Once the oat mixture is done, remove it from the oven and reduce the heat to 300 degrees F. Immediately add the oat mixture to the liquid mixture, add the dried fruit, and stir to combine. Turn mixture out into the prepared baking dish and press down, evenly distributing the mixture in the dish and place in the oven to bake for 25 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely. Cut into squares and store in an airtight container for up to a week.

So today is my 27th birthday and I am absolutely thrilled. Why? Well, aside from the obvious reason that I get to celebrate, I’m loving the fact that I can bake exactly what I want. Fellow foodies will understand how, once everyone knows you can cook or bake, it somehow becomes an unspoken rule that you will heroically bake the most complicated (yet delectable) dishes, cakes or cookies for whatever celebration you’re invited to. I don’t mind, in fact I love having the opportunity to bake something without having the responsibility of eating the whole thing myself. Yet sometimes I’ll want to make a chocolate cake, only to discover that the birthday girl doesn’t care for chocolate. (I KNOW, can you believe that? It’s happened, hand to God.) Or I’ll want to experiment with an exotic ingredient like black rice, only to find that no one else is quite as adventurous in the food department. Shucks.

Then once a year my birthday rolls around, which means that this year I decided we’d celebrate with a coconut layer cake with homemade frosting. No one argued when I shared my plans, but if they had I definitely would have used the birthday trump card. This cake is incredibly easy to make, but the best part is decorating it with coconut flakes because the only way to get them to stick is by making a complete mess on your kitchen counter. After gently dropping flakes onto the surface of the cake the sides simply beg for a dusting of their own and, well, a certain amount of controlled flinging involved. Can you blame me for enjoying that? It’s my inner child at work. The only thing that would have made this cake even more delightful is miniature figurines of people on sleds, which I would have used to decorate the top of this snow covered birthday mountain.

I want to write more but I’m afraid I must wrench myself away from the computer if I want to be ready for dinner. We’re going out to P.F. Changs then coming back here to polish off the rest of the coconut cake. Have a lovely evening!

Coconut Layer Cake with Homemade Frosting
From Southern Cakes by Nancie McDermott.
Ingredients:

For the cakes:

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup whole milk
• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
• 2 cups sugar
• 4 eggs

For the frosting:

• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup water
• 2 egg whites (I actually used 3)
• About 3 cups sweetened shredded coconut

Heat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour two 9-inch cake pans and set aside. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt, and use a fork to mix them together well. Stir the vanilla into the milk.

In a large bowl, beat the softened butter with a mixer at medium speed until creamy. Add the sugar and continue beating, stopping to scrape down the sides, until the mixture is light and evenly combined. Add the eggs, one by one, beating well each time, until the mixture is thick and smooth.

Add about one third of the flour mixture to the batter and beat well at low speed. Then add about half the milk to the batter, beating well. Continue beating as you add another third of the flour mixture, followed by the rest of the milk, and then the remaining flour mixture, beating well each time until the batter is very thick and smooth.

Quickly scrape the batter into the prepared cake pans, dividing it evenly, and place them in the oven. Bake at 350 degrees F for 25 to 30 min until the cakes are golden brown, spring back when touched lightly in the center, and begin to pull away from the sides of the pans. (Note: I had to bake my cakes for 40 minutes before they achieved these characteristics.)

Remove from the oven, and cool in the pans on wire racks or folded kitchen towels for 10 minutes. Then turn out onto wire racks or plates, turning the layers top side up, and cool completely. You could also split the layers horizontally to make 4 thin layers of cake.

To make the icing, stir the sugar into the water to dissolve it. Bring the mixture to a gentle boil, and cook without stirring for 3 minutes. Then boil for 5 to 10 minutes more, stirring often, until the syrup has thickened and will form itself into a thread about 2 inches long when poured from a spoon back into the pot. Set syrup aside.

Beat the egg whites in a large bowl with a mixer at high speed until they are bright white, shiny, and pillow up into voluminous clouds. (Note: When separating your eggs make sure not even one speck of yolk gets into the whites. If any yolk gets in there it will change the chemical structure of the whites and they won’t take on the billowy appearance you so desire. Also, bring your eggs to room temperature before using them.) While beating at high speed, slowly pour the cooked syrup into the egg whites to blend them together into a fluffy white icing, 4 to 5 minutes.

To ice the cake place one cake layer, top side down, on a cake stand or serving plate. Cover the top with icing and sprinkle with coconut. Place the second layer on top of the iced layer, top side up. First ice the sides to help keep the cake steady, and then spread icing generously over the top, completely covering the cake. Place the cake stand or serving plate on a cookie sheet to catch any lose coconut as you shower the cake. Sprinkle the coconut all over the cake, and then gently pat or fling handfuls of coconut onto the sides and top to cover any bare spots.