cake Archives - Very EATalian

Traditional Italian Apple Cake

October 17, 2016 By very EATalian 8 Comments

Have I ever told you my mom is a serial baker? She bakes bread, pizza, focaccia, and cakes of all kinds in such an effortless way it makes me doubt we share the same genes. Not long ago, her oven door broke and she had to send it out for repair. Needless to say, she was desperate. Like what-am-I-going-to-do-with-my-life kind of desperate. Baking for her comes so naturally that even during that time when she was “oven-less”, she put her usual auto-pilot baking mode on and made pizza dough, only realizing a little late she couldn’t bake it. Oh, how much I love her!

When it comes to cakes, she’s sneaky: as soon as one cake has been eaten up by whomever comes through her kitchen (cousins, aunts, uncles, nephews, me), another freshly baked one reappears in the morning at breakfast time. I don’t know how it is in your family, but it’s impossible to say no to my mom’s cakes….

Torta Sbriciolata alle Mele: Apple Crumble Cake

September 29, 2016 By very EATalian 3 Comments

Last year, around this time in September, I was in Italy picking apples from my dad’s orchard with mom, my then 2-year old nephew, and my sister-in-law. I remember it as if it was yesterday: the sun setting behind the mountains, the crisp air, and the joyous feeling of being together and reaping the fruits Mother Nature generously gifted us with. Oh, how much I miss sharing those moments with my family! Those apples ended up in a delicious old-fashioned apple strudel.

This time around, I don’t have such a romantic harvest story to share as I got my apples at Wegmans!
Nonetheless, I’m super excited about this post because those delicious organic apples were used by someone very special to make an amazingly delicious apple cake in my kitchen. Who is it??? I’ll give you a couple of hints:…

Chocolate Chip Ricotta Cake

September 5, 2016 By very EATalian 1 Comment

I made this Chocolate Chip Ricotta Cake at least 5 times this past year. Yes, it’s THAT good.

To be completely honest though, there’s also another reason why I made it so often. I was never happy with the photos I took of it (bad lighting, low-performance camera or operator error??). At some point I just stopped trying, forgot about it, and moved on to other recipes.

A couple of days ago, I opened my infamous “discarded photo folder”. When I saw these shots again, I couldn’t believe I held back so long on sharing this delicious recipe because I was nit picky about ISO or lighting! I believe the quality of my work is of paramount importance, but sometimes I set the bar too high, my perfectionism kicks in and, alas, I end up stalling.

I’m SO happy to FINALLY share the photos and recipe for this yummy Chocolate Chip Ricotta Cake with you guys!…

Gluten-free Red Berry Almond Buckwheat Cake

January 21, 2016 By very EATalian 3 Comments

One of the many things I learned from my American husband is that cakes are eaten differently here in Italy than overseas. No matter how hard I tried, I’ve never been able to make him eat a piece of cake for breakfast.

Cakes are eaten more casually here, I guess. A piece of cake can surely be enjoyed as dessert at the end of a meal, but Italians also like to have it with caffè latte or espresso as part of their sweet breakfast. Lots of people still love to bake their own cakes and it’s totally OK for kids to eat a piece for their afternoon “merenda” as it’s considered a healthier option than other processed snacks.

It’s worth saying that Italian cakes don’t usually feature frosting or icing and, for this reason, they look quite simple and rustic. This red berry almond buckwheat cake is the perfect example of a rustic Italian cake…It’s wholesome, without too many frills, and still very yummy. You’ve got almond bits for a bit of crunchiness and red berry jam for a nice fresh and slightly acidic touch.

Needless to say, I had a piece for breakfast (:

5.0 from 1 reviews

Red Berry Almond Buckwheat Cake [ Torta al Grano Saraceno con Mandorle e Mirtilli Rossi ]

Author: Very EATalian

Serves: 8-10

Ingredients

200 g (7 oz or 14 Tbsp) butter, softened
200 g (7 oz or 1 cup) granulated sugar
5 eggs (divided)
200 g (7 oz or 1⅔ cup) buckwheat flour
200 g (7 oz) almonds, chopped finely
1 Tbsp baking powder
Redberry (or lingonberry) jam
powdered sugar
(optional) chopped almonds for garnish
(optional) candied orange slices

Instructions

Butter and flour a 9-inch springform pan. Turn oven to 360° F.
Mix softened butter with about ½ of the sugar until you obtain a cream without any lumps. Add yolks and mix well, until well combined.
Whip egg whites to firm peaks and set aside.
Add flour, baking powder and almonds to the mixture and mix well. Add remaining sugar and gently fold in the mixture the whipped egg whites.
Pour batter into your springform pan and cook for 50 minutes.
Let cake cool and cut in half. Fill with jam and dust with powdered sugar. If you like, sprinkle chopped almonds and arrange few candied orange slices on top.

Pinza Veneta – Holiday Cornmeal Cake from Veneto

January 6, 2016 By very EATalian 2 Comments

Here in Italy the holiday season is officially closing with today’s Epiphany festivities and tomorrow people will start taking down their Christmas decorations (if it was up to me, I’d keep’em up all year long!). Today, my family and I will enjoy the pinza leftovers from last night’s Panevin and get together to play boardgames.

As I mentioned in my previous post, pinza is a rustic cake made with polenta flour (which is a bit coarser than cornmeal) and wheat flour and it’s filled with dried fruit such as raisins, figs, dates and flavored with grappa, fennel seeds and orange zest. My mom and my aunt always get together to make it and they take turns mixing the ingredients in the pot, as the dough is quite thick and dense (like polenta!). Since both of them have bad shoulders, I normally step in and help them with the mixing. This time I carefully observed how they make it and …

My Birthday Cake!

November 11, 2015 By very EATalian Leave a Comment

Never in my life had I celebrated my birthday outside. November is usually pretty cold around here and it’s much more likely for us to gather around the fireplace than having lunch under the porch. Yet, that’s what we did. It was a gorgeous day.

…So I’m one year older and I like to think I’m a bit wiser than last year. Unfortunately, certain bad habits seem to stick with me – i.e. driving myself insane by choosing to undertake complicated tasks. Making an elaborate layer cake for my birthday is definitely one of them….

Torta Caprese: Gluten-free Chocolate Almond Cake

July 1, 2015 By very EATalian Leave a Comment

A couple of days ago I tried to make my husband’s birthday special with a little family celebration via Skype. I had everybody wear party hats and I drew a colorful poster as a background for our performance of a loud-and-out-of-tune Happy Birthday. Since I was at it, I also made a nice cake for the occasion. He loved the singing and the poster part. I’m pretty sure he hated me for showing him a cake he couldn’t eat.

Who makes a birthday cake for somebody when they can only see it and not taste it?

How painful, I know…But I’m a firm believer there’s no birthday without a cake…so I HAD to make it.

The cake I made was Torta Caprese and it’s hands down one of my favorite chocolate cakes. As the name suggests, this cake comes from the gorgeous Island of Capri, near Naples. Unlike most cakes, Torta Caprese has no flour but lots of ground almonds which give it a nice texture throughout. Also, there’s no baking powder in it – it’s leavened only by whipped egg whites. I read somewhere this recipe was created by mistake: the lack of flour was a complete accident made by a sleepy pastry chef. What a fortunate oversight! It’s at once light, rich, and moist…plus, chocolate and almonds are just made for each other.

This cake is definitely a no-frills cake and it’s so simple and delicious it perfectly stands on its own. All this cake begs for is a nice dusting of powdered sugar on top of its crispy and thin crust – a nice finishing touch to make it beautiful and elegant. If you really want to do something extra, have an espresso with it!

Here are the photos of the cake I made to ~~torture~~ celebrate my hubby!

[TANTI AUGURI, amoreeee!]

Torta Caprese - Gluten-free Chocolate Almond Cake

Prep time

30 mins

Cook time

50 mins

Total time

1 hour 20 mins

Serves: 8-10

Ingredients

200 g (13 Tbsp + 1 tsp) butter, diced and softened
180 g (6.3 oz OR 1 scant cup) sugar (divided)
a pinch of salt
4 eggs
150 g (5.3 oz) dark chocolate
200 g (7 oz) almonds, toasted
powdered sugar

Instructions

Divide yolks from egg whites.
Cream softened butter with 140 g (2/3 cup) of sugar. Add salt and yolks, one at a time. Mix well to blend all the ingredients. Refrigerate the mixture.
Using a food processor, ground toasted almonds.
Preheat oven to 360 F (180 C).
Melt chocolate on a double boiler. Once melted, let it reach room temperature.
In a separate bowl, whip egg whites with the rest of the sugar to stiff peaks.
Add melted chocolate and ground almonds to butter mixture. Mix well. With a spatula, gently fold egg whites into mixture.
Pour batter into a greased 7-inch (18 cm) spring form pan and bake for 50 minutes. Remove from oven and let it cool off. Dust with powdered sugar and serve.

Notes

The cake should be moist inside.

Adapted from Sale&Pepe: http://www.salepepe.it/ricette/dolci-dessert/torte-crostate/torte/torta-caprese/