HCB: Swedish Pear and Almond Cream Cake

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Besides my love affair with chocolate cakes, I have a love affair with the TYPE of texture of the cake.  I like mine to be dense – a la pound cake consistency.

Those airy cakes – Not GOOD

The heavy cakes – GOOD

Those types of cakes remind me of my grandmother’s homemade cakes, heavy on the butter, eggs, with a bit of sour cream to give it a tangy taste.

Yep, those cakes are close to my heart.

So when I flipped to this weeks Heavenly Cake choice and read up, I was pumping fist in the air and yelling around the house – SCORE!

Ok, I may or may not have done that.  (The cats aren’t talking)

Not even the fact that it had a fruit in there could damper my expectations for it, because according to this, the pears would disappear through the cake, end up at the bottom, which will then be the top and well… its all a bit like maaaagic.

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GCC: Menu 6 - Spanish Vegetable Tortilla and Cod in Tomato Sauce

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This weekend we celebrated Tom’s mom birthday.  In fact her birthday is tomorrow, but we decided to throw her a dinner party today. During this whole let’s plan a birthday party dinner, it totally slipped my mind to try to come up with a menu that incorporate the Gutsy Cook choices of the week.  And she had already requested a specific menu: Mainly latin - as in black beans, rice, plantain and shredded beef [Carne Mechada] - recipes coming for those soon.

I knew there was no way I could stick the cod in tomato sauce in there. Maybe the Spanish Vegetable Tortilla?

Why not? It could work as an appetizer, so it became part of the menu. 

But, of course Tom then asked me if I was going to make “arepas” since his mother never tasted them.  The tortilla went out the window and got killed off the menu.

The tribe has spoken, sorry tortilla.

I told myself that I was going to have to make it on Monday and post late.

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Sweet Kitchen Tip 13

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Usually tips come to me out of necessity or because I forgot something and right there on the spot, I just use whatever is at hand.  Usually, it’s a hit or miss kind of thing.

For example did you know how clever flexible mats can be? No? well let me show you how clever and useful they can be:

I use it to cover the bottom of my vegetable bin in the refrigerator, so it makes cleaning it a breeze, as in simply lift out and wipe off.

Or how about moving that big, HEAVY food processor, which is sitting in the corner?  If you put the heavy appliance on top of the mat, when you want to use it, you grasp the edge of the mat to slide it forward from the hiding place in the back of your counter, see. right there all ready for you.

The best crafty way?

As a cake lifter!  Cut your cake, and slide your flexible mat between the layers and use it to gently ease the top layer off the bottom.  You can also use it when working pie dough and want pry the stubborn dough off your counter.