"If you like Piña Coladas and getting caught in the rain..." - A cake that's fresh as Summer rains


Well, these past few days have been quite the scorcher! I've only wanted to gob down on fresh salads and ice creams and fruit that's just light and juicy. Still, the oven did get turned on, if only to roast some veggies that would latter get tossed into a salad, or to cook salmon, that I happen to find refreshing even if it's straight out of the baking tray! Gimme some oven roasted salmon with oven roasted tomatoes and I find that a quite satisfying dish for a warm Summer evening, especially if you're to add a glass of chilled sangria!


But when it comes to desserts, I confess that these last few days have not been making me crave heavy cakes, doughy and filling. I live in an area that is always quite windy, and when this week started, it was rather cool here, I mean, it was hot but never overwhelming because my street is always sporting a slight breeze. I opened up the windows and let the cooling wind enter my home and refresh it. As soon as my son and I ventured into other streets, the heat was overwhelming! So we kind of stayed around here, at least it was cool.


But these past two days have been quite breeze-less! The temps have risen and the sun is scorching, and even though I try to aireate my house every day, it feels like the heat is taking over everything. Fresh water, is all I want. Fruit and salads, too. No turning on the oven at all! There's ice cream in the freezer and a cake that requires to be kept in the fridge to indulge, if I care to. There's fresh veggies and nectarines dripping in juices, cold strawberries and frozen red berries as well.


The imagination begs for tropical cookings, even if they're of the romanticized type, like dreaming of wrapping seabass in palm leaves and steaming it over an open fire, or getting my hands on pinneaples and coconuts and toss them together over a grill, even jerk chicken's been calling to my mind, despite the fact that it's one of the hottest dishes out there! But coconut and pinneaple sit at the top of my list for refreshing foods, right now. I've been adding shredded coconut and dried pinneaple to my bread dough even!


This cake was one of those cravings, where pinneaple meets coconut and they dance together in a rum ballroom of their own - I'm quite poetic today! - to make up for a flavourful drink that gets used in this tart of sorts, which does require keeping in the fridge on a very hot day, so it's score all over for my freshful cravings. It's a Piña Colada cake that's worthy of your best Caribbean dreams, and it will take you to a tropical paradise of your own, should you try a slice!


It's moist and not overly sweet, it has a crunch on the top but a creamy interior that simply melts in your mouth, it sings and plays and makes you think of sunny beaches filled with white sands that strech out for miles, and turquoise waters that are so still and inviting, where you can see the bottom for their clearness, and makes you wish for a whole afternoon lying in a hammock just gazing into that sea and doing nothing at all except relaxing. It will take you there, this cake!


So here's how you go about it:
  • 4 eggs
  • 3/4 cup of sugar - I used brown sugar
  • 125 gr butter
  • 3/4 cup of flour
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 cup lukewarm milk
  • 1 cup luke warm piña colada (recipe here)
Turn on your oven at 160º and grease a rounded pie baking dish. Separate the yolks from the egg whites and beat these latter ones into stiff peaks. Reserve. Beat the sugar with the yolks until fluffy and light, then add the vanilla and the butter, bringing it all together. Add the flour carefully, and the milk with the piña colada. Now, about this: if you want to make an adult version of this cake, only just heat the piña colat until it's lukewarm. If, on the other hand, you want to serve this to kids, you might skip the rum when you mix the drink, or if you add the rum, just bring it to a simmer so the alcohol evaporates and then let it cool. Now, once you have it all mixed well, use a spatula and slowly mix in the egg whites, very carefully. There will be chunks of egg white floating in the liquid batter, don't worry, they will end up incorporating into the cake once it starts cooking. Pour over the greased pie dish and bake for about 50 minutes in the oven. It should feel like it's still rather liquid-y in the middle. Let it cool completely and cover the top with shredded coconut right before serving. Hope you enjoy it and it does take you on a tropical trip of sorts!



Comments

  1. Tem tão bom aspecto ! quem me dera ter jeito para estas coisas !

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  2. Por aqui...ainda vem fui à praia.... nem parece verão :) Já acabei o teu livro, tenho-me esquecido de te dizer! Para quando o número dois da colecção? Precisamos muito!!

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    1. POis, já ouvi dizer que este ano o verão não queria nada com a Suécia ;)
      Olha, nr 2 dessa série está para longe, infelizmente, enquanto n despachar os meus vampiros ahahahah. Tenho vários capitulos de mais dois livros de mistério com os mms personagens já escritos, mas ainda n lhes peguei pq interrompi p escrever este dos vampiros que agora me está a dar água pelas barbas - e eu nem sequer sou peluda!!

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  3. Está mesmo apetecível, dá vontade de comer logo uma fatia :)
    Beijinhos ...
    Guloso qb

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  4. Miranda minha linda,
    Pois se queres ar fresco, o melhor é voltares ao reino Unido, onde as temperaturas de verão, não sobem acima dos... nem digo, pois tu sabes, lol!!
    Pina colada, como já te disse, é a minha combinação preferida e tudo o que leve ananás e coco, pode vir, pois será devorado com prazer, lol!!
    Um beijinho linda,
    Lia

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    1. hmmmm, acho q tão cedo n regresso ao UK eheheheheh. Mas gostava, gostava de finalmente conseguir ir á Escócia, a qual me escapou devido a uma noitada enlouquecida q me fez perder o comboio no dia seguinte ahahahah.

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  5. Estes últimos dias foram mesmo um calor de ananases. Adorei o ligares o forno p fazeres vegetais para misturares na salada ahah opá isso é o meu dia a dia. Legumes, saladas.. É que so apetece mm isso e saladas de quinoa tb!!! E gelados, e piscina!!

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    1. Quinoa e eu n combinamos, eu é saladas com feijões, todo o tipo de feijões, e felizmente o meu puto adoooooooooooooooooooooora saladas, por isso já estás a ver os nossos almoços. Adoro assar legumes para depois os juntar ás saladas, principalmente se tenho tomates mega maduros asso sempre, adoro tomate assado! Pois, eu n sou vegetariana mas enfardo vegetais á la maluca, confesso, tenho de ter sempre sopa á mesa e legumes a acompanhar o prato ou mm como base do prato. Manias!!
      https://bloglairdutemps.blogspot.pt/

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  6. que lindo este bolo e piña colada parece-me ser assim só o ideal para este verão escaldante! sdorei!

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