Never too old to live and learn. And in the kitchen, try out various culinary experiments that may or may not turn out to your liking. And to repeat old favourites. My husband's favourite type of dessert is a cream pie. Coconut cream, banana cream, he loves them. I don't. Nor do I enjoy producing them. But, occasionally I relent. And last Friday was one of those occasions. He'd like a coconut cream pie, so I'd produce one.

Of course the ingredients and the how-to are in my head, but I thought I'd see what the Internet had that was perhaps different. I found one recipe with a full range of approval stars and focused on it. Five egg yolks in the filling, whipped cream topping, and butter used in the making of the pie crust. And the recipe's author spoke of the rave results.

When I did the pie, I thought I'd try her recommendation of 50% butter, so I used Crisco shortening as usual, supplementing it with 50% of the amount I usually use, with butter. Baked it and it looked fairly good. Then filled it with the filling which I'd prepared with 2% milk and three eggs, reserving the egg white for a whipped frothy top of egg white, in lieu of the whipped cream.

The crust, unfortunately was tough and unappealing to the fork and the palate. But my husband loved the filling and the meringue, which was the main thing, obviously. And then the following week he came across a recipe for a 'coffee cake' published in the local newspaper that he thought looked intriguing. So did I, and I offered to bake it for yesterday's dessert.

Apple Sweet Bread

1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1-1/2 tsp. baking powder
2/1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. each ground cinnamon and nutmeg
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp. vanilla
2 apples, peeled, cored and coarsely grated (about one cup)
1/2 cup unsweetened desiccated coconut
1/2 cup raisins
Combine the dry ingredients; whisk egg, sugar, oil and vanilla; add flour mixture, then stir in apple, coconut and raisins. Spread in prepared 8"-by4" loaf pan, for an hour at 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

I don't like using oil in baking, so substituted the oil for margarine and increased the volume to a half-cup, and used two eggs instead of one, slightly increasing the amount of flour to compensate. The result was a slightly moist, light and delightfully fruity loaf cake. I had also prepared a crumb topping comprised of 1/4-cup flour, 1/4-cup dark brown sugar, 1/4-tsp cinnamon, tbsp.Becel margarine, and 1/4-cup chopped walnuts.

The resulting product was excellent.