Pastel de Tres Leches

Pastel de Tres Leches

This is my favorite cake ever and not just because I seem incapable of screwing it up. It's pure indulgence, extravagant, and impressive, perfect for a dinner party, and so, so easy to make.

As with all of my favorite recipes, it's a great canvas for versatile flavors from fresh berries and fruit to caramel or chocolate sauces. This would be amazing later in the summer along with ripe peaches. Or add a bit of lemon zest to the whipped cream for a refreshing zing. I could keep riffing on ideas all day, but instead I'll just say: Make this!

Pastel de Tres Leches. Enjoy!

Note: If you do plan to make this cake but don't have a small kitchen scale, go ahead and buy one. You can get them for so little now, and measuring ingredients for baking by weight is really so much more effective. Hint: I use a coffee filter as a container, which is basically weightless, so I don't have to tare out its weight. Easy peasy.

Further: I just spray the cake pan (I use glass without any trouble) with cooking spray, because I'm too impatient to flour pans, and that always works just fine.

And more: There will seem to be too little batter for your 9X13 pan, but it's really alright. Don't panic.

Lemon Cake

Lemon Cake, a great cake, despite this truly awful photo. :)

It's a good thing that I like to laugh at myself, since I get so many opportunities, and one such time was a few weeks ago when I made my annual lemon cake. I'm not much of a baker. I admit that freely. And even when my baking tastes good, which it usually does, it mostly looks like this: A great big mess. Yes, those are crumbs in my frosting. Let's just say that in the kitchen I'm less Rembrandt and more Jackson Pollock. I guess I'm okay with that. Not that I have much say in the matter.

I'm also laughing, because as hard as I tried--And I really tried hard, over and over again--I could not get a decent shot of the cake. This was the best I could manage. So, if I didn't laugh, I guess I'd have to cry.

Lemon, the flavor of spring

Anyway, I don't know why, but as soon as springtime hits, I develop a maniacal compulsion to put lemon in everything. I suspect I'm not alone here. I make lemon pasta, lemon cake, lemon chicken, lemonade, lemon, lemon, lemon, until my hands are puckered and sore, and there are about twelve baggies of lemon zest tucked away in my freezer waiting to become additions to future cookies and salad dressings.

I also go nuts with lavender. (Have you ever made Lavender Lemon Chicken? You should, at least once, if only to say you've done it.)

Or make Lavender Lemon Cookies, like my fellow food blogger, Steph, did recently. They look so good.

And lavender lemonade is awesome, too. Just take your favorite lemonade recipe, This is mine, and follow these directions with 1/4 cup dried, culinary lavender.

Put the lavender in a bowl, and pour 2 cups (adjust as needed) boiling water over it. Allow to steep for about 10 minutes, then strain out and discard the lavender. Mix your sugar into the hot lavender water to create the simple syrup, then continue to follow your recipe.

Of course, to avoid pesticides and other chemicals, you'll want to be sure to use culinary grade lavender from a reputable source. I love the lavender that I get from Karen at the Savory Spice Shop on W. 6th St.

Culinary Lavender from the Savory Spice Shop

But the one thing that I make every single spring, no matter what, is Ina Garten's lemon cake. I adore this recipe, persnickety, though it can be.

And this year, I tried something different. Instead of pouring the batter into loaf pans, I poured it into two 9" round cake pans. (WARNING: You REALLY want to follow the directions with this cake and line your pans with parchment, as it loves to stick.) Then, when it was baked, I omitted the lemon syrup and glaze and instead made a Cream Cheese Frosting modified with lemon juice and zest, which was very yummy.

I would recommend making these lemon cakes as is, though, at least the first time, because the cake can be a little dry without the syrup, but with it they are powerfully lemony and refreshing.

Notes on the Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting:

I used about 2 - 3 teaspoons of lemon juice in place of the vanilla extract, which worked great, and I added a healthy toss of lemon zest into the frosting as well. Just add a little at a time and incorporate until you're happy with it, tasting as you go (as if you weren't going to be snacking on it already).

And, yes, I do recognize that it's directions like these that illustrate why I'm not a successful baker. :)

Ina Garten's Lemon Cake

Enjoy, and happy springtime cooking!

Red Rabbit Cooperative Bakery

They've been around for a while, but the Red Rabbit Cooperative Bakery only pinged on my radar recently. Initially, of course, I was charmed by the adorable red rabbit logo, but after investigating their description on Facebook, I knew this was a business I needed to get behind.

I've bolded the lines that particularly sold me on Red Rabbit:

Red Rabbit Cooperative Bakery is equally owned and controlled by its workers. Our goal is to uphold the principles of a cooperative while creating superior vegan products that appeal to vegans and non-vegans alike. Through our food choices, we want to positively impact the earth and its inhabitants. We select our ingredients with care and consideration because we believe that the quality of all food should exceed the conventional standard. So, follow us down the rabbit hole!

Another point, which also sold me, is something that co-owner Cathy Ruiz says in the video below.

She says:

It's important that everyone cares about where their food comes food.

Hello, kindred spirits. What's not to love?

So, Shane and I woke up on Sunday morning with a single mission: to go to Wheatsville Co-op and buy some donuts.

Now, this actually felt a little odd to me, because typically if I want donuts, I just make them myself. I'm not a "go to the store and buy something pre-made" kind of person; my first instinct is always to try and make it myself. But, as strong as my kitchen Kung Fu may be, there is one thing I am certain that I cannot do. I cannot make a vegan donut. But, far more to the point: I cannot make a vegan donut that tastes every bit as good as a real donut.

So, it's lucky for me (and for Austin) that the Red Rabbit Cooperative Bakery is on the case (and in the case) with glaze flavors such as sugar, lemon sugar, coffee, chocolate, mexican chocolate, and maple with candied walnut. According to the video below, the maple walnut is everyone's favorite. Unfortunately, we didn't get to try them, because they'd all been scooped up by the time we arrived. We did try three flavors, though: sugar, chocolate, and coffee. Of the three, the coffee was my favorite, with the sugar coming in a close second. Now you know it's a good donut when it still shines with nothing more than a simple sugar glaze. These donuts have absolutely nothing to hide.

They were so good, I can't imagine how much I'm going to love the maple walnut when I finally get my hands on one of them.

So, treat the vegans and the non-vegans in your life by getting them some of these little beauties from Red Rabbit Cooperative Bakery. Don't like donuts? They also make whole wheat & white buns, sourdough, and baguettes.

Some places where you can find Red Rabbit donuts:

Wheatsville Co-op (chocolate, mexican chocolate, coffee, and sugar glaze only, Thurs thru Mon)

Monkeywrench Books (Sun)

Monkey Nest Coffee (Thurs thru Sun)

Genuine Joe Coffeehouse (Fri thru Sun)

Houndstooth Coffee (Sat & Sun)

Summermoon Coffee (Sun)

Who is using Red Rabbit bread:

Black Star Co-op (white & wheat buns, baguettes, and sourdough bread)

Sun Farms Kitchen (white and wheat buns)

Look for this logo. Rabbits Unite!

WATCH THIS VIDEO!

Vegan Donuts from The Daily Texan on Vimeo.

WHY SUPPORT CO-OPS?

Because these are the people in your neighborhood. They aren't faceless (or heartless) corporations; they're real people doing real work in order to make a living without exploiting other people or the environment. It's worth your time to seek them out and support their efforts.

23rd Annual Wendish Fest

While attending the 23rd Annual Wendish Fest this weekend, we had the pleasure of learning about and eating a lot of great food. There were demonstrations on sausage stuffing and sauerkraut making, and we even got to watch as a woman made noodles from scratch. At one table, we watched a man make cornmeal out of a bag of dried corn. As a foodie and supporter of such simple, traditional culinary arts, I was in heaven and had an amazing time.

I was particularly impressed, during the coffee cake bake-off, when the woman announcing the children's cake prizes made a special point of saying that they involve the children in the bake-off, encouraging them to make their own coffee cakes, as a way of passing down traditional recipes, getting kids in the kitchen, and fostering a love of cooking in them in hopes of keeping the old foods alive in the community.

Isn't that wonderful?

Wendish (Sorbian) might be a dying language, but it's good to know that the Texas Wends are keeping other traditions alive. Such as dyed eggs. (All photos by Shane Guiter)