Buttermilk Grape Cake

by Catalina @ Cake with Love

One week ago we went to Costco and loaded out cart with what looked like a tone of fruit! We picked up some champagne mangos, blackberries, raspberries, watermelon and grapes! If you ever shopped at Costco, you probably know that the grapes come into a NOT so small container, and as much as we tried to eat our away through it we still had leftover grapes in the fridge!! In an attempt to save them from going bad, I decided to bake a cake, as always, when in doubt get some flour and butter and you are on the right path to success!

I like using buttermilk in my baked goods, it makes them raise more, and the achieved texture is very nice, soft, airy and a little dense at the same time! The grapes in this cake are amazing, they add the right amount of juiciness and being fragrant they pair very well with the subtile vanilla flavor!

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
  • 2 cup granulated sugar
  • 4 large eggs, at room temperature
  • 3 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 tbsp baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup buttermilk
  • 1 tbsp of pure vanilla extract
  • 3 cups of grapes

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter a 9-inch-round baking pan and set aside. Using a wooden spoon, or the paddle attachment of an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar together in a large bowl until fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition, add the vanilla extract and the buttermilk, mixing well and scraping down the sides of the bowl. In a separate bowl mix together the baking soda, salt and flour and add it to the wet ingredients, mix everything by hand using a spatula just until the flour is well incorporated into the wet mixture, do not over mix.

Wash the grapes, drain the excess liquid, add 1 tbsp of flour and mix them, when all the grapes are covered in flour fold 2 cups into the batter. Pour the mixture into the baking dish. And decorate the top with the remaining grapes.

Bake for 1 hour and 30 minutes, or until a skewer inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.  Allow cake to cool to room temperature before slicing to serve.

The cake will last, at room tempreture, for up to 3 days.

Enjoy,

Catalina

Crepe Cake with Pastry Cream

by Catalina @ Cake with Love

Hello everybody, how was your memorial day weekend? We had a lot of fun by hitting the beach for the first time this year in Long Branch, NJ, have you ever been there? If no, you should definitely visit this place, the beach is clean, the boardwalk is very nice and on Ocean Boulevard they have a lot of nice restaurants which serve delicious food, and desserts, like frozen chocolate, gelato, pastries and smoothies! We packed our bikes, and drove one hour South to enjoy the warm weather, relax a little and listen to the waves. Once there, we biked for one hour by the amazing mansions situated on the shore!

We had a very nice lunch, a fish burrito with brown rice for him:

A fish taco with mango salsa and avocado for me:

We were back home by 6PM and spotted these guys by our building, aren’t they cute?

The dessert was waiting for us in the fridge! I made a layered crepe cake with lots of pastry cream and topped with blackberries!! If you love crepes, and you can eat pastry creme by spoon, then this is a cake that you will definitely enjoy! It is soft, and sweet and it just melts in your mouth!

To make the crepes I used my fool proof crepe recipe & for the cream I used this recipe that I have posted last week. Once the crepes and the cream is ready, let the crepes cool at room temperature, same applies to the pastry cream. Once the cream has cooled, refrigerate it for at least one hour. On a round plate layer two crepes and cover in an even layer of pastry cream, repeat until there are no more crepes left. refrigerate the cake for one hour before serving! If you still have leftover cream, grab a spoon and finish it!

Enjoy,

Catalina

Vanilla Pastry Cream with Condensed Milk

by Catalina @ Cake with Love

Now, there is something about pastry cream, so smooth, sweet and versatile, it can be used in eclairs, cakes, tarts, to dip fruits or just eaten by spoon as I did! I got this recipe from my grandmother, she is an amazing baker, and one of my favorite cakes that she makes all the time consists of many layers of puff pastry, all topped with this delicious cream!! I must say, that while it is pretty easy to make the cream, you definitely have to be patient, keep an eye on it, and stir constantly, thats why I recommend having all the ingredients on hand, so you don’t get distracted by searching for them when you need to stir instead. I added my own twist to the recipe by stirring in 1/2 can of condensed milk, since we love it so much, and it adds to the cream that caramel like flavor! The addition of the milk will make the cream more watery, so if you want to use it to fill different pastries, I would recommend skipping this step. If you have never tried making your own cream pastry, don’t postpone this anymore, since the end result is so worth it, but be aware once you taste it (and have an entire container by your side) it is addictive and you may just finish every single drop!! Not that it happen to me, or maybe it did…

Ingredients:

  • 3 tbsp flour
  • 2 tbsp cornstarch
  • 100g granulated sugar
  • 1 cup milk, boiled and cooled
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 3 egg yolks
  • 250g butter at room temperature
  • 1/2 can condensed milk

Directions:

Using the whisk attachment of a stand mixer, whip the butter on medium-high speed for 8 minutes, stopping once to scrape the sides of the bowl. Set aside and start working on the sauce.

In a sauce pan, on low heat, combine the sugar, cornstarch and the flour and cook for 5 minutes stirring constantly. Add the milk slowly, stirring all the time until well combined, when the mixture starts to boil turn off the heat. Add the egg yolks one at a time, stirring well with a wooden spoon after each one. Stir in the butter and vanilla extract until it is completely blended in. Let the cream cool at room temperature and stir in the condensed milk.

Enjoy,

Catalina

Lemon Curd Strawberry Tart

by Catalina @ Cake with Love

With summer just around the corner I see that a lot of bloggers already baked something with strawberries! As much as I love local strawberries, they just taste so much sweeter, I couldn’t wait anymore to find some at out Framers Market, and just bought a box from Whole Foods to make a strawberry tart! Now, this tart is perfect for the Memorial day, the juicy strawberries are paired with a lemon curd and a thin buttery shortbread crust! This dessert is very fresh, beautiful, and all the flavors are amazing together!

Ingredients:

For the crust:

I used this recipe from Martha Stewart

  • 2 ounces (4 tablespoons) unsalted butter, softened
  • 3 tablespoons sugar
  • 1 large egg yolk
  • 1 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon coarse salt

For the lemon curd:

I used this recipe from Ina Garten:

  • 3 lemons
  • 1 1/2 cups sugar
  • 1/4 pound unsalted butter, room temperature
  • 4 extra-large eggs
  • 1/2 cup lemon juice (3 to 4 lemons)
  • 1/8 teaspoon kosher salt

Garnish:

  • 1 pound of fresh strawberries
  • mint leaves

Directions:

  1. Stir together butter and sugar in a medium bowl. Stir in yolk. Add flour and salt, and stir until mixture is dry and crumbly. Press dough into bottom and up sides of a 9-inch pie dish. Freeze until firm, about 20 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 375 degrees.
  2. Bake, rotating halfway through, just until crust turns golden brown, 20 to 22 minutes. Let cool in dish on a wire rack.

  3. Using a peeler, remove the zest of 3 lemons, being careful to avoid the white pith. Put the zest in a food processor fitted with the steel blade. Add the sugar and pulse until the zest is very finely minced into the sugar.Cream the butter and beat in the sugar and lemon mixture. Add the eggs, 1 at a time, and then add the lemon juice and salt. Mix until combined. Pour the mixture into a 2 quart saucepan and cook over low heat until thickened (about 10 minutes), stirring constantly. The lemon curd will thicken at about 170 degrees F, or just below simmer. Remove from the heat and cool at room temperature for 30 minutes. Pour the curd on top of the tart crust.

  4. Wash and cut the strawberries lengthwise, and use them to garnish the tart, add a few mint leaves in the middle of the tart.

    Enjoy,

             Catalina 

 

Triple Chocolate Brownies with Caramel and Whipped Cream

by Catalina @ Cake with Love

We all know that the power of chocolate is very, very hard to resist, and when a craving hits, in my opinion, it has to be fixed asap!! Brownies are one of my favorite desserts, and when they are loaded with chocolate chunks, melted chocolate, topped with some silky whipped cream and caramel sauce, they make my heart sing and my world spin! There is no way I can resist the urge of having an extra piece, and it is totally worth it, since it makes me very happy!

Now, this batch of brownies exceeded my expectations, they turned our very chewy, dense and you can definitely feel the abundance of chocolate in your mouth! They pair so nice with the whipped cream and the drizzle of caramel sauce just takes them over the top!

Ingredients:

  • 8 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped
  • 1/2 cup chocolate chunks
  • 1 stick unsalted butter
  • 4 tbsp cocoa powder
  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • 3 large eggs
  • 1 cup flour
  • pinch of salt
  • 2 tbsp vanilla extract
  • whipped cream
  • caramel sauce

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven  350 degrees. Spray an 8-inch square baking pan with nonstick cooking spray. Place two pieces of parchment paper lengthwise and 1 sheet on the bottom of the greased pan, this will help to remove the baked brownies from the pan. Spray the sheets with nonstick cooking spray.

2. In a medium heatproof bowl, set over a pan of almost simmering hot water, melt the semisweet chocolate, stirring occasionally until smooth, add the butter and stir until well combined. Whisk in the cocoa powder until combined. Set aside to cool.

3. In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, sugar, vanilla, and salt. Add the warm chocolate mixture into the egg mixture; followed by the flour, mix with a wooden spoon or spatula until just combined, add the chocolate chunks. Pour the mixture into the prepared pan, and level the top with a rubber spatula. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with a small amount of sticky crumbs attached to it, 30 to 35 minutes. Cool on a wire rack at room temperature. Remove the brownies from the and transfer to a cutting board. Cut into squares. Decorate with whipped cream and caramel sauce before serving!

Now, to save some time, I just used store bought whipped cream and caramel sauce! But I must say that it worked out pretty well, and I am in love with this brownies! Chocolate + Caramel + Whipped Cream is a combo that will always work, you just can’t go wrong with it!

Enjoy,

Catalina

Protein Carrot Souffle

by Catalina @ Cake with Love

Sometimes, after a killer workout all I crave is dessert, tell me please that this doesn’t happen only to me? Sometimes, all I want is carbs, but we all know that a high calorie dessert as good as it taste is not the best post workout recovery meal, how sad…. So, this weekend I was on a mission to create a “hybrid”; as of now one of the desserts that I constantly crave is the carrot souffle. And by all means carrot souffle still sounds healthy to me, it has carrots, no? But to actually be able to enjoy it after a nice workout, guilt free and to get some benefits out of it, sounds even better for me! Thats why I have created this Protein Carrot Souffle, with a total of 16 grams of protein per serving, now how is that for a workout recovery dessert?

Ingredients:

  • 5 medium carrots, peeled
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • pinch of cinnamon
  • 1 1/2 tbsp flour
  • 1/2 stick of margarine
  • 2 eggs
  • 3 tbsp vanilla protein powder (I used Sun Warrior)
  • 1 tsp baking powder

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Boil the carrots until very tender, drain and transfer to a mixing bowl. While the carrots are still warm, using an electric mixer beat them with sugar, followed by the vanilla extract, baking powder and cinnamon. Add the eggs one at a time, the flour, protein powder and margarine. Transfer the mixture into four creme brulee ramekins. Bake for 30 – 35 minutes. Remove the ramekins from the oven and let the souffle cool completely before serving. Serve with whipped cream.

Now, I am not saying that this is the most healthy dessert, it still has some sugar but if you look at the amount per serving its not that much, and there is less than one tablespoon of flour per serving! You can’t detect the protein in the souffle, it tastes amazing, very smooth and silky, and there are so many flavors that compliment each other so nice, the vanilla and the cinnamon, the natural sweetness of the carrots with the whipped cream, and all these packed with 16 grams of protein! Definitely a winner dessert that can be enjoyed as a snack, or served after a dinner party, your guest won’t even suspect that they are eating a healthier version that is very waist friendly! Try it for yourself, but be aware it is addictive, once you taste it you will find yourself buying carrots in bulk!!! :)

Enjoy,

Catalina

Fish Tacos with Grilled Peppers and Mango Salsa

by Catalina @ Cake with Love

On Saturday I went fishing for the first time with my husband! Its probably worth mentioning that I can not swim at all, and I am terrified being in the open ocean. Don’t get me wrong I love the beach, sun bathing and getting in the water very close to the beach, before this adventure I only went on a boat in the ocean while whale watching in Boston, and I loved it! But, this time was so different, unfortunately I got very, very sea sick, and spend the whole time laying on my back instead of fishing, I didn’t catch even one fish!! At least my husband and our friends had more luck and caught some sea bass, that we grilled afterwords to enjoy some tacos!

Along with the fish we grilled some green and red bell peppers and a jalapeno!

Warm flour tortillas:

I made a delicious sweet salsa to go with our juicy and very fresh fish. I chopped some sweet onions, 2 cherry tomatoes and one mango. Also, a little lettuce for garnish!


I must say that these were the best tacos that touched my lips! Nothing can’t beat the amazing taste of just caught fresh fish, that goes so well with the sweet bell peppers and summery mango!

Question: Have you ever been fishing?