Little lemon syrup soaked coconut cakes

I’ve probably written about this already here but there it goes: I usually fear (a little) watching again now the movies I loved as my much younger self – there’s always the risk of deception, the “what the heck was I thinking?” feeling. Luckily this hasn’t happened often and the movies I’ve seen lately have permanently cemented their place in my heart. One example is “The Crying Game”: I

Lemon ginger cake - a baking session inspired by The Cure

There are songs I’ve loved since I was a kid but even after learning English I still don’t understand certain parts of their lyrics – thank heavens for the Internet. :)

Last week I spent much of my lunchtime listening to some of those songs and following the lyrics online. “The Caterpillar”, one of my all time favorites – which video is great, too – was an almost complete mystery to me;

Spiced plum clafoutis

Let me introduce to you the most delicious dessert I have made in a long time – and that, my friends, is a HUGE thing for a blog as sugary as this one. :)

As much as I would love each and every one of you to try this recipe – yes, it is that good – I must be honest and tell you that if you’re not in clafoutis mood the plums, with that out-of-this-world syrup, would turn any vanilla ice cream

Vanilla rice pudding with Port syrup

One of the things I love about watching now movies I saw for the first time on my teen days is seeing known, acclaimed actors at the beginning of their careers. I watched “Witness” last week again, after so many years, and saw Viggo Mortensen as one of the Amish guys (those of you who have been reading me for a while know I’m a huge fan – he is part of my acting Olympus, along with Mr. Fiennes

Pineapple coconut cakes with pineapple syrup

I heard a song on the radio yesterday that reminded me of my childhood days, when I spent wonderful vacations at my aunt Maisa’s - I used to sing that song while pretending my aunt’s floor polishing machine was a microphone... :) I was 8 back then.

Later on, once I’d started cooking and baking, she’d let me prepare whatever I wanted in her kitchen, savory or sweet – that was so much fun. One

Watermelon salad with rose and mint syrup

I should be ashamed for calling this a recipe, but the result is so good I had to share it with you; not to mention that after almost five days of Carnival (and food, and booze) I was in desperate need of something fresh.



Watermelon salad with rose and mint syrup
from Australian Gourmet Traveller

500g watermelon flesh
2/3 cup (133g) caster sugar
¼ cup (loosely packed) mint leaves
2

Babas with lime syrup

I did now know what babas were until I saw this post on Helen’s blog, a good while ago – her beautiful citrus version immediately caught my eye, but for some reason I did not try my hand at making babas until very recently.

Discovering new desserts is always a good thing, especially when they are very tender and drenched in a lovely syrup – yum! :)

The recipe comes from here – the only change

Roasted strawberry meringues

Strawberries are in season here now and I have a loooong list of recipes to make with them – it’s been my favorite fruit even since I was a kid. My mom used to make a wonderful strawberry tart and I loved it so much she would make it all winter long.

I can’t wait to try making my mom’s tart, but these meringues looked so pretty on the magazine I had to start my strawberry frenzy with them.

Mini citrus syrup sponges

These little darlings gave me such a hard time while unmolding them that I kept thinking of a song I love, Erasure’s “Here I go impossible again”. :D

The workout made me wonder why Ms. Lawson’s photo for these mini cakes shows them still in the pan they were baked, but it was worth it: the mini sponges were delicious and had an amazing texture – the syrup really gets into them, enhancing the

Sake panna cotta

My dear and sweet friend Clarice is hosting a special event to celebrate 100 years of Japanese Immigration in Brazil. She is a Brazilian of Japanese ascendancy and has been living in Japan for almost 2 decades now.



The event is about cooking or baking with Japanese ingredients. I thought about so many different recipes, but ended up choosing this one – all I did was use sake instead of

Passion fruit, almond and poppy seed cake

Besides the music I listen to, there’s something else on repeat mode around here - yes, another recipe with almonds. :)It would take 1 ½ hours for the coffee cake to double in volume and there was nothing good on TV - that happens quite often. I like things most people consider weird and they are not aired very frequently.“I’ll bake cookies. No, I’ll need the oven soon - I’ll bake a cake”The