Tag: dessert

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Kim’s Easter Carrot Cake

Happy Easter!

Hey guys I’ve got a bonus recipe for you this week! I made this for last Easter and forgot to post it .. oops! I hope you are all doing well and are able to see family for the holidays this year.

I got this recipe from a past patient of mine who used to make cakes for her business. She made wedding cakes and occasion cakes, it was her true passion! Unfortunately I don’t think she is able to do this anymore with her current medical status. Either way her spirit and passion of baking live on through her recipe. This one is for you Kim!

When making the carrot cake I decided to add some additional spices that weren’t part of the original recipe and I felt it brought more dimension to the cake. I also added more cinnamon too 🤷‍♀️

The cake was VERY heavy due to the amount of carrots and nuts, but I felt pretty healthy eating it.

The cake was a success and enjoyed by my family. Let me know in the comments if you tried and you how it went!

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Vietnamese Coffee Flan

Once again I have a bonus recipe for you! I couldn’t help myself when I saw this coffee flan recipe and thought I NEEDED it in my life.. you might want it in your life too 😉

Vietnamese flan as you could have easily guessed is a French-inspired dish that came to be from French colonization. The true origin is from the Roman Empire due to their domestication of the chicken and conquering most of Europe. Using methods that the Greeks used, they adopted egg baking techniques in order to create the first flan.

France and Spain were two main countries that cherished their flan and added their own signature to the dish. The French refer to their flan as crème caramel and prefer to only use milk over cream with their preparation. In Spain, flado (or flat cake) was very popular and they were the first to add the caramel sauce to the base. The first flado dates back to medieval times when large quantities of eggs and dairy was combined together to make a custard. From Spain it traveled to Mexico, where they created the several variations of flan- coffee, coconut, and chocolate (to name a few).

So you will need to be patient for this one.. as tempting as it is to try it early it’s very important to let it set in the fridge to chill for the recommended 8 hours to insure it has set properly and fully cooled. I found this recipe to make my flan

We really enjoyed this one, however I was unable to get it to flip over and have the caramel running down the sides like the pictures you typically see (I had to cut slices 😅). The instant coffee was a nice and simple way to infuse the flavor into the flan making it taste similar to a coffee ice cream (so yummy!). This is another recipe I could see myself making in the future and share with others that have never had the decadent flan.

Off to Grenada for our next recipe, see you there!

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Gâteau Nantais (France)

Don’t worry, I didn’t forget about the bonus recipe for France! I decided to find a recipe that originates from my ancestors are from- Nantes, France. Apparently this cake is very popular in this region and is where rum soaked cake became “a thing.”

To soften dried, hard biscuits the French decided to try soaking them in rum- sounds like a good two for one deal. Over time rum soaked cake was created and this recipe was born. I used this recipe and made my own ground almond into a mostly powdery substance, but chunks of almonds remained- I feel like this gave the cake a nice texture!

The cake doesn’t require a lot of ingredients and was pretty easy to make. I did have to bake my cake a little longer than what the recipe recommended, however I did use caution and tin foil the bottom of my spring form pan knowing it will leak butter once it gets hot enough.

Once you remove it from the oven you will want to brush the remaining rum syrup on the cake BUT NOT TOO MUCH as this makes the cake strong. 😬 When the cake is done cooling you can whip up the icing pretty quickly. Be gentle when icing the cake as it can easily crumble with too much pressure.

We thought the cake had a nice flavor, but the rum was not subtle.. If you like a boozy dessert or rum in general this would be up your alley. I’m contemplating eating more, however don’t want a cake hangover.

That concludes our week in France! We will be trying new flavors next week that don’t use quite as much butter as France does.

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Pouding Chômeur à L’érable (Canada)

Here’s my second bonus recipe! I decide to make pouding chômeur à l’érable or poor man’s pudding. It was incredibly simple to make and used few ingredients. It is referred to as poor man’s pudding because most people had the ingredients on hand and they were common staple items. History has it that Canadian women during the great depression came up with this dessert along with sugar cream pie because it’s low expense to make. Originally stale bread was used and placed on top of the hot brown sugar mixture. Over time it began being made with a basic batter and instead of brown sugar a combination of heavy cream and maple syrup was used.

I went by this recipe and made the classic brown sugar syrup. I appreciated the simplicity of the dessert and decided to top it with sliced up strawberries, yum! It reminded us of a strawberry shortcake. I highly recommend the dessert and can see myself making it in the future!

Next week we are traveling through Europe and Africa sampling soups, meat balls, and pastries to complete our first month! I hope you are enjoying this as much as we are 😄