My name is Paula and I survived TWO WHOLE MONTHS of summer school recess with a 2-year-old at home. *applause*
Don’t get me wrong, I loved every second of it and probably gonna cry a river when the school gates close next Monday, but it requires a lot of imagination to entertain these little devils.
We painted real masterpieces with our fingers, crafted precious noodle jewelry, bought a fish now baptized as Hippopotamus, planted a black bean seed that now is getting gigantic and has to be transplanted to a vase, put our bathing suits to play in the shower on a rainy day, watched Snow White, The Lion King and The Little Mermaid a thousand times, baked cookies, draw on the living room wall with a red crayon (well, my participation on this one was only in the cleaning part) and made blackberry ice pops.
Blackberry* Ice Pops (makes 6 small pops)
These are pretty easy to put together, great to make with kids. I don’t have ice pop molds – the shot glasses worked very well and I believe small dixie cups would work too. For you guys on a diet, the sugar can be substituted by artificial sweeteners, to the taste.
Ingredients:
- 2 1/2 cups frozen blackberries (or any other berry)
- 1/3 cup sugar (or to the taste)
- 1/3 cup hot water
- 6 shot glasses
- 6 pop sticks
Place the fruit and sugar in a food processor or a blender. Add hot water and beat for several minutes, until the mixture turns into a purée. Pass through a sieve, pressing well, and discard seeds.
Transfer the mixture to the glasses and place the pop sticks. Freeze for at least 4 hours.
To release the ice pops, dip the glasses in warm water for a few seconds.
* There was a discussion on twitter if these are blackberries or mulberries, and I couldn’t find a reliable source of information to identify them. Here in Brazil they are all called amoras. Feel free to correct me anytime!
On New Year’s Eve, we Brazilians have tons of “mandingas”, or little good luck rituals you have to do at midnight SHARP.
If you are at the beach, you should jump over seven ocean waves. If you are indoors, you should eat 12 grapes, and make a wish for each of them, or eat seven pomegranate berries, and keep the seeds in your wallet for the year. Then, you must eat a fullspoon of lentil, for money, and you can NEVER eat animals like chicken, or turkey, cause they scratch the soil backwards (bad luck) – fish is much better, because, you know, they swim straight ahead always.
And you MUST wear brand new underwear, and choose the color accordingly – white for peace, red for love, yellow for money, and the other colors have meanings too, but I can’t recall of them all – my bad.
In that spirit, I decided to make a very rich and delicious dessert for our New Year’s Eve dinner, because I really wanna have a rich and delicious 2010. Besides that, this recipe was a precious gift, left on the comments of this very blog, by Laura, a reader from Portugal. According to her, it’s a “family jewel”, a very typical dessert from her region, made for very special occasions.
Couldn’t have decided better – the dessert is scrumptuous, creamy, almondy and so beautiful.
Tecolameco – makes one 20cm round cake (please check the link for measurement conversions at the right side bar)
“The recipe I send you is a family jewel, very Portuguese, with all accurate measurements (aunt Laura is very meticulous about that). Tecolameco is a very traditional sweet my family makes for weddings, christenings and special occasions.
From Portugal, my friendly regards,
Laura.”
Ingredients:
- 500g sugar
- 250g almonds (peeled and finely ground on a food processor, or you can use almond flour)
- 25g butter
- 10g lard or margarine (I used butter)
- 10 egg yolks
- 2 whole eggs
- 300ml water
- 1 cinnamon stick
- ground cinnamon to taste
Preheat oven to 30°F/ 170°C. Butter a 20cm/ 9-inch round pan, cover the bottom with parchment paper and butter the paper.
In a saucepan, bring the sugar, water and cinnamon stick to a boil. Let cook until a candy thermometer marks 107°C/ 224°F. Remove the cinnamon and add the almonds, and cook until the mixture has thickened (about 5 to 8 minutes). Remove from heat and let it cool a little, about 10 minutes.
Add yolks and whole eggs, and a pinch of cinnamon, and mix well until smooth. Pour batter into prepared pan, and bake for 40 minutes, or until golden and a toothpick inserted in the cake comes out clean.
Invert on a serving plate and cover with icing sugar . Decorate with a flower. Serve at room temperature.
Note: For these photos, I cut rounds of the cake with a cookie cutter for individual portions.
Happy New Year!- small batch chocolate cupcakes with white chocolate buttercream
To the readers, friends, bloggers, tweeps, to those who left comments, to the ones just browsing, to you who made a recipe that worked, to you who made a recipe that didn’t work, to you coming back and to the first timers – I wish you the best year of your lives, full of love, peace, fun, joy, sweetness and health.
See you in 2010.
XO
Paula
Last Minute Small Batch Chocolate Cupcakes with White Chocolate Buttercream (adapted from here) – makes 4 cupcakes
- 1/4 cup plus 2 tbsp all-purpose flour
- 3 tbsp buttermilk (I use yogurt)
- yolk of 1 large egg
- 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 3 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted and cooled (I use vegetable oil)
- 2 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1/8 t baking soda
- 1/8 t salt
- 1/3 cup sugar
Preheat oven to 180°C/ 350°F. Line 4 cups of a muffin tin with cupcake liners.
In a bowl, sift together flour, cocoa, baking soda and sugar. In another bowl, mix well the yolk, the oil and the yogurt.
Add the liquid mixture to the dry ingredients and fold until incorporated. Distribute the batter between the cups and bake for 20 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.
White Chocolate Buttercream for small batch cupcakes (please check the conversion calculator for measurements on the right side bar)
- 1 large egg white
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 75g butter, cut in cubes/ room temperature
- 50g melted white chocolate
In a heatproof bowl of an electric mixer set over simmering water, combine egg whites and sugar. Cook, whisking constantly, until sugar has dissolved and mixture is warm to the touch (160°F/ 71°C).
Beat the egg white mixture in the electric mixer on high-speed until it holds stiff peaks and the mixture is fluffy and cooled.
Switch to the paddle attachment. On medium-low speed, add butter several tablespoons at a time, beating well after each addition. If the buttercream looks curdles or separates, beat on high-speed for several minutes and it should come together. Stir in white chocolate with a rubber spatula until frosting is smooth. It can be used immediately or you can keep it for until 2 days in the refrigerator, or frozen for 2 months – just bring to room temperature and stir before using.
What’s your favorite thing about Christmas? – Tiny Cherry Almond Cakes
What’s you favorite thing about Christmas? Family together? The presents? Cookies? Turducken? For me the answer would have to be … the cherries!
Yes, here in South America, December is cherry season and since I was a little girl I’ve waited anxiously for the December cherries. They are not cheap, so my mother used to buy only a bag or to, just for Christmas dinner.
I know it sounds silly, but the first time I travelled to Europe it was Summer, and I think I’ve eaten cherries every single day, for a whole month.
For me, this is the perfect Christmas dessert – a little almond cake with a whole cherry inside. For you people in Cherryland, wait for cherry season and please make these, they are delicious and so chic.
Tiny Cherry and Almond Cakes (slightly adapted from Martha Stewart’s website) – Makes 30
- 1 1/4 sticks (10 tablespoons) unsalted butter, plus more for muffin tin
- 1 cup all-purpose flour, plus more for tin
- 1 1/4 cups finely ground unblanched almonds
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon coarse salt
- 5 large egg whites
- 4 teaspoons kirsch (I use cranberry vodka)
- 30 sweet (Bing) cherries
Preheat oven to 400 degrees/ 180°C. Brush 30 cups of 2 mini-muffin tins with butter, and dust lightly with flour.
Melt butter in a medium skillet over medium-high heat. When it begins to sputter, reduce heat to medium. Cook, swirling skillet occasionally, until butter has lightly browned. Skim foam from top, and remove skillet from heat.
Whisk together flour, ground almonds, sugar, and salt in a bowl. Add egg whites, and whisk until smooth. Stir in kirsch or vodka. Pour in butter, leaving any dark-brown sediment in skillet, and whisk to combine. Let stand for 20 minutes.
Pour 1 tablespoon batter into each buttered muffin cup, filling about halfway. Push a cherry into each, keeping stem end up. Bake until a toothpick comes out clean and cakes are golden brown, 12 to 15 minutes. Let cool 10 minutes. Run a knife around edges to loosen, and unmold. Cakes can be stored in airtight containers at room temperature overnight.
The day I was featured on a magazine – Guava Roll Cake (Bolo de Rolo)
Yes, people, I was featured on a very important food/wine Brazilian magazine! It all happened because the columnist Marcelo Katsuki couldn’t find any Oreos around to buy, and they happen to be his favorite cookies… Of course I felt sorry for him (of all people, I can’t imagine living without my favorite cookies), so I sent him a tin of homemade Oreos. He must have liked them, because next I know here I am in the november issue of magazine Prazeres da Mesa:
The thing is, after the magazine was shown to everybody I know, including the news stand guy and the doorman in my building, I read the magazine cover to cover, and it is a GREAT issue. The photos are fantastic, several great recipes and even an interview with Heston Blumenthal (see, Heston? We are magazine mates!).
But the story that really caught my attention was a beautifully written article about traditional northeastern (Pernambuco) Brazilian cakes. These cakes and sweets are so special they were even matter of important sociological studies. There’s this one recipe, though, that is my all time favorite: the guava roll cake.
If you’ve never heard of it, let me try to explain: 13 layers of very thin buttery batter, baked very quickly, rolled with a Port wine and guava jam filling, served in very thin slices. For me, it’s one of the most delicate and gorgeous Brazilian sweets, and SO delicious you would become addicted to it.
It’s not an easy cake to put together, the one pictured here was my third attempt, and it’s not perfect. But I’m very happy with the results because it had a taste of victory for me.
Guava Roll Cake/ Bolo de Rolo (adapted from Prazeres da Mesa magazine, November/2009)
Observations from someone who spent twi entire afternoons throwing fails away:
- The trickiest part of this is releasing the delicate layers from the baking sheets.
- Although the original recipe asks for a large baking sheet to bake the cake layers, I found it easier to deal with smaller pans, so I ended up with two smaller cakes (one of them filled with dulce de leche).
- As my friend Renato says, it’s crafty but not impossible to make this recipe. Just choose a day you are up for a challenge.
- If everything goes wrong, and you decide to throw the (kitchen) towel, just make little mounds (a teaspoon or two) of the batter on a baking sheet, well spaced, and bake for 8 to 10 minutes – you gonna have delicious cookies (you can fill them with guava jam…)
- It’s in Portuguese, but the blog Rainhas do Lar, has a great tutorial with pictures that might be useful.
- If you can’t find guava jam, you can substitute with any other jam, strained or processed.
Ingredients (for one 1,5 kg cake) – for measurement conversion, please check the calculator at the right side bar
For the guava filling
- 2 cups guava jam, or 1 tin of goiabada
- 3 tbsps Port wine
For the batter
- 250 g sugar
- 250 g butter
- 4 eggs
- 250 g all-purpose flour
Make the filling
In a bowl, mix the jam and the wine until smooth. If using goiabada, cut in little cubes and cook in a small pan with 1/4 cup water until it melts and gets liquid. Add the wine, stir and let cool before using.
Batter
Grease a large rimmed baking sheet with butter or cooking spray and line with parchment paper. Grease or spray the paper again.
Preheat oven to 180°C/350°F.
Place a clean kitchen cloth in a work surface and sprinkle generously with sugar. Reserve.
In the electric mixer, beat butter and sugar until fluffy and light. Add one egg at a time, beating well after each addition, about one minute. Add the flour and beat only until smooth.
With an offset spatula, spread a very thin layer of batter on the baking sheet. Make it the thinnest you can, but be careful it’s so thin you can see the bottom of the baking sheet.
This is a tricky part: bake for 3 to 5 minutes only. You want a baked but not golden or dry cake layer, otherwise it will not be flexible enough to roll without breaking.
After many lost layers, I found that its easier to release the layer if you let it rest for a minute or two in the pan. Turn the pan on the prepared cloth and peel the parchment carefully. Spread a very thin layer of guava filling and using the cloth, roll the cake.
Now… you do that all over again! Place a new parchment on the baking sheet, spread the batter, bake and unmold.
After spreading the filling, put the already rolled cake over the new layer and roll again. Repeat this process until you finish the batter.
Wrap finished cake in parchment paper, close the ends like a candy and let it rest in the refrigerator for one day. Trim the ends and serve at room temperature in thin slices.



























