Mango & Tomato: cake

1/26/23

Let there be CAKE: Flourless Chocolate Cake with Cayenne

You know what kinds of things I love in life? Those that are low effort and high reward! This Flourless Chocolate Cake with Cayenne is exactly that!

Last weekend I went to visit my friend Laura and her family and was encouraged (ha!) to bring dessert. I asked if Laura wanted tres leches (I've never made one) or something chocolate'y, and she said definitely chocolate.

Anna (my twin for those of you who are new to this blog) suggested flourless chocolate cake.

Genius! I've made several versions of flourless chocolate cake in the past, and they are seriously one of the most ridiculously easy desserts to make (not counting fudge or boxed brownies). Most of the recipes are very similar: chocolate, butter, sugar, eggs. This time I used this one from Epicurious, but added a bit of cayenne and baked it in a springform pan. Home made whipped cream (unsweetened) was the perfect topping!

The cake was such a success, I made it again the next day to share with my friends Emily and Olivia.

1/3/23

New Year, New Recipe: Layered Pistachio Cake With Cream Cheese Frosting & Mango Jam

Happy 2023! Can you believe we are in a new year!? Here's to it being sweeter, more fun, and healthier than 2022, with many new opportunities and possibilities!

Anna, my twin, suggested I start a tradition of making a new recipe for a new year and sent me a recipe for a pistachio cake she had at one of the restaurants in Chicago. That recipe was too complicated for me, so I asked Google to find me a 6" layered pistachio cake recipe, and it did: Broma Bakery!

Layered Pistachio Cake With Cream Cheese Frosting & Mango Jam

I followed the original recipe pretty closely but made a few changes:

1) I used salted butter and so did not add salt to the batter or the cream cheese frosting

2) I strongly dislike almond extract (especially when the flavor I want is pistachio): no thanks

3) I added a layer of homemade (not by me) mango jam!

Hard lesson to learn: regardless of what the recipe says, always layer your cake pans with buttered (on both sides) parchment paper to avoid the headache of removing the cake layers from the pans. I ended up putting the cake pans in the freezer for about an hour, then dunking them in very hot water before banging out the cake from the pans. OOOF

Layered Pistachio Cake With Cream Cheese Frosting & Mango Jam

I love the texture of the cake but think I slightly overbaked it. The frosting was smooth and quite easy to make...I still have some leftovers in the fridge.

I shared the cake with four friends, a few buy nothing fb group friends, and had 3 (!!!) slices myself: I call it a success. There's one slice in my freezer!

Going forward, I will try my best to post more photos and links to recipes I've made or the ones I've created.

Happy 2023!

11/29/22

Winter Dessert: Upside Down Cranberry Cake

3 cake slices on 3 plates with spoons and whipped cream

You know how they say (whoever they are) not to make a new recipe for a dinner party? Well, I did just that when I went over to my friend Jazmin's house for Thanksgiving.

I wanted to try a new recipe and happened to see a recipe for Upside Down Cranberry Cake on Simply Recipes website.

The recipe could not have been easier to follow even though it was my first time making caramel (I know!). Luckily, the combination of butter and brown sugar did not burn (neither did it burn my hands when I poured it into the cake pan).

The cranberries went in next, followed by a pretty simple batter which included sour cream. Any time a cake or muffins recipe has sour cream or yogurt, you are almost always guaranteed a success.

The only deviation I made from the recipe was to not use cinnamon, ginger, and cloves. I know, I know, I know! I just do not like those spices. Instead, I added a splash of vanilla extract Jazmin made and gifted me.

The cake smelled and looked incredible! To make the cake even more festive, I topped it with homemade whipped cream and sugared fresh cranberries.

The cake was quite a success at Thanksgiving and tasted equally as great the next day, and the next, and the next! The last few slices are safely wrapped in plastic and stored in my freezer.

3/25/21

Olive Oil Citrus Cake With Candied Tangerine Peel

Olive oil citrus cake topped with crystallized tangerine zest, blueberries, and powdered sugar

Back in the summer I tested a recipe for Olive Oil (Citrus) Cake for Polina Chesnakova's upcoming cookbook Piece of Cake and loved it so much, I made it again this past weekend but with a few changes.

Instead of making the cake in a round pan as the recipe called for, I divided the batter into two loaf pans and baked the rectangular cakes for about 10 minutes shorter. I also topped each cake with candied tangerine peel. This was my first time making candied citrus peel, and I followed Domenica Marchetti's recipe but cut the time for each step by half because I used an oxo zester to make ribbons of tangerine skin which were quite a bit thinner than the orange peel Domenica used in her recipe.

Scattered with fresh blueberries and heavily dusted with powdered sugar, this was such an easy to make but satisfying dessert to share with a few friends. The ingredients included buttermilk, olive oil (of course), citrus zest, and eggs, just to name a few. You'll not need any special equipment nor hours to put this cake together.

I guess you'll just have to wait for the book to come out!

1/2/19

Richard Sax's Chocolate Cloud Cake

The second I saw a recipe for Richard Sax's Chocolate Cloud Cake on Food52, I knew I wanted to make it for NYE party at a friend's house. And I did! The hardest part was figuring out whether to wait for the actual party to try the cake...because how could I take photos so late at night!?

Instead, I made this gorgeous cake in the morning, and my friend and I dug into it after her two daughters napped...I could not nap because I was so excited!! Even the 3 and 5 year olds liked it, but only had a few bites because it was too chocolaty :) No problem: more for us!

I've made another recipe for flourless chocolate cake many times, but this recipe stood out because of a cloud of whipped heavy cream slightly sweetened with confectioners' sugar and a bit of vanilla extract. I used dark chocolate chips and a bar or dark chocolate for the decorative shavings. You can use semi sweet chocolate I suppose, but please don't use the milk variety.

This was a dream! Relatively easy to make (I just had to read directions 5 times because I basically have ADD), beautiful, not too sweet, not too heavy, AND it tasted great the next morning!

I left the leftovers at my friend's house because that's how generous I am ;)

8/22/18

Plum Almond Cake From Domenica Marchetti

Yesterday as soon as I saw Domenica Marchetti share a link to her Plum Almond Cake recipe on Leite's Culinaria, I decided that I would make it. Yes, another cake.

Miraculously, I had all the ingredients needed for the cake at home! {I did have to make my own almond flour from the slivered almonds, but that was really easy.}

Speaking of miraculous, and this has nothing really to do with the cake or the blog, but DEAR MEN: PLEASE STOP GHOSTING!!!! I suppose this also applies to women who do that. It's cowardly, unkind, and rude, and karma, hopefully will get you. I'm still waiting for that miracle of finding ♥.

Ok, back to the cake. I followed the recipe a hundred percent, and the results were stellar. My condo smelled sweet from the ripe plums, sugar, and almond extract. The cake had a tender inside and crusty outside, and took only minutes to put together.

Above is the before photo: you add the simple batter to the spring form pan, the plop the halved plums, and top with the mixture of almonds, butter and sugar!

The photo below is the after. Please follow the instructions and allow full 20 minutes for the cake to cool. I did not, and mine broke in a few places, but still tasted awesome warm topped with sour cream!!!

I had leftovers for breakfast with iced coffee.

Let there be cake!

INSTAGRAM

Looking for something?

Jewelry

Stats