Fifty years of pure joy

Hello sweet reader,

What a wonderful blessing for those who have had the joy of sharing their life for fifty years! My in-laws celebrated their fiftieth wedding anniversary last fall and I had the honour of making the cake for their celebration.

I can’t say that I did everything because my sister-in-law made the delicate flowers and pearls that gave the final touch to the cake. She used fondant and a lot of patience! She did a beautiful job and the cake was a show stopper.

My job was to come up with the concept for the cake, bake and assemble. I wanted to especially please my in-laws, so I made a lemon and poppy seed cake with a dulce-de-leche filling and vanilla-bean buttercream. My father-in-law loves lemon meringue pie and my mother-in-law is a big fan of poppy seed, so you could say that they’re a match made in heaven! From there, I just added the Latin touch with dulce-de-leche (home-made) and vanilla-bean buttercream.

Making the cake was easy. I baked it two days before and frosted the cakes the day before the event. Then the hard part began, transporting the cake! My husband was not keen on transporting the cake already assembled, so I had to pack up everything into the car. I filled two laundry baskets with all kind of supplies, even ingredients for an extra batch of buttercream in case I needed more, or the cakes got damaged during the trip (about an hour from home). We arrived about 2 hours early so I could work on putting together the cake. As more guests arrived, an audience began to form. Pressure was building up and expectations were getting high!

At the end, everything went better than planned. The cake looked nice, the guests were impressed and my in-laws were happy. Even my husband told me that it was the best cake I have ever made and he still raves about it!

I wish the happy couple many more years of joy together. If I can fill their bellies with sweet creations, then I will be happy too!

Sweet wishes,

Regina

Let's get drunk!

Hello sweet reader,

I apologize for how long this third posting has taken; I could give you five good excuses for the delay but they will be no more than that: excuses.

Therefore, let’s get right into it; let’s get drunk!

This cake is called “Pastel Borracho” which the English translation is “Drunken Cake”. It is made out of a sponge cake soaked in syrup and covered with pastry cream. Very simple and delicious…

I chose to write about this cake as it brings me a lot of memories, and especially because is one of my dad’s favourite cakes. It is a very simple cake and my mom used to make it often. I am not sure of its origin, but I’m sure that the version that I grew up eating is not the original, as my mother made some changes to make it more cost effective and easier.

I remember that in the late 90's she was delivering about 8 to 10 cakes daily to the cafeteria of a factory. Half of them were strawberries and cream cakes and the other half were “Borrachos” (very popular among the factory’s employees).

She used to bake the sponge cake following the traditional recipe. Once it was cooled, she basted it with syrup. The syrup was made as an infusion of cinnamon, star anise, cloves, all spice, sugar and vodka (the syrup had to be cold before she mixed in the alcohol – you don’t want the good stuff to evaporate!)

She placed the cakes in 1-inch deep trays so the “juice” didn’t spill over. She then prepared the pastry cream: fresh milk, fresh eggs, sugar, cornstarch, vanilla and another stick of cinnamon. While it was still hot and runny, she poured over the cake and evened it out with a spatula. Then, she sprinkled it with ground cinnamon and let it cool completely before slicing it.

What I did with the cake in the picture was something very similar. I used my mom’s sponge cake, syrup and pastry cream recipes. However, instead of vodka, I used rum and I reduced the amount because it was a cake for my husband’s colleagues. Although I poured the pastry cream as taught, I also reserved a little for the decoration. I let it cool and beat for a couple of minutes until it was nice and fluffy and then I piped it around the top and bottom edges using a star tip.

To be honest, I am not a big fan of the cake but I would make it any time as it is easy, tasty and a great conversation piece… especially if booze gets you talking!

Sweet wishes,

Regina

Introduction and going back four years

Hello sweet reader,

Even though this is not the first post, it will be the first ‘official’ post and therefore, I would like to start by introducing myself.

I was born and raised outside of Guatemala City, in a family of five: dad (an architect), mom (an interior designer and a baker), sister (a nutritionist), brother (a chef de cuisine), and me: a lawyer who is expecting to become an early childhood educator in the next year or so but who really loves cooking and baking.

I always enjoyed being in the kitchen. My mom can confirm that I sat on a corner and watched her prepare the meals for the family. I just watched. I would say that it could’ve been pretty intimidating, but my mom stayed chill and pretended to be leading a cooking show or class… a very good teacher, I must say!

It wasn’t until I moved out of my parents’ house when I realized that cooking was going to be a huge part of my life. I moved in with my husband (fiancé at that time) and I was in charge of the meals. Since then, I claimed the kitchen as my territory and cooking became my passion.

Recently I was encouraged by my biggest fan and critic to share the fruits of my passion, and well, here we are. As my first official post, I would like to start with the first cake that I made. Most of the cakes and treats that I’ve prepared have been for my husband’s office events: birthdays, meetings, parties and so on. It hasn’t been until now, that I have started to make cakes for my family and friend’s events.

The cake in the picture, as I said, was the first one that I made. I remember that it was during a hot summer (like every summer in Ottawa) so I planned on something light and fresh: lemon poppy seed pound cake with lemon curd filling. The icing, well, there is a story behind it: my mom loves a good cake with Swiss or Italian meringue icing, so I followed her steps… first big problem! Like I said, it was a hot day, so trying to work with meringue was nearly impossible. I don’t know how, but I made a good meringue, so I spread it all over the cake… but wait, let’s go back a few steps and pay attention to the fact that I used a pound cake with a custard filling… yes, I know now… as soon as I put the top layer, the lemon custard oozed all over and the filling was no more a filling but a “dipping” custard!

Anyway, without the experience or the proper tools, I manage to pull the cake together and I finished it with a flower from my own garden (organic and pesticide free, I must say). It obviously didn’t look as I envisioned in my mind, but from the reviews, the flavours where there!

So that is it, four years ago I started to play with cakes, not knowing exactly what was I doing and, somehow, my experiments turn OK-ish…

Don’t forget to subscribe, share and comment if you like it and I hope to be back soon.

Sweet wishes,

Regina

First post and more to come...

Hello sweet reader,

I'm sharing with you my album with most of the cakes, desserts, sweets and treats that I've made over the last four years. I must say, all of them have the approval from my husband (my primary critic), family (the toughest clients) and friends (they're always nice and polite!).

I promise to take some time and provide a description of each picture (AND clean up the album). I will be sharing with you my experiences, troubles, secrets and resources that I encountered while preparing all of these treats.

Sweet wishes,

Regina

La fruta de mi pasion desserts