Curd, Cream, and Berry Cake

Well this sure was a showstopper of a cake that got great reviews from all of my tasters…they were putting it in the top tier of recipes over the years…yes, they loved it that much!

• This cake 😍
• 9.5/10
• It is so fluffy and delicious…I can’t stop eating it.
• Excellent/Outstanding

Personally, I think the cake signifies summer is here with all the berry goodness and that alone makes the cake very appealing to everyone! ☀️

There are quite a few steps with this cake but nothing is all that difficult, and with how much my family loved this, I do see myself making it again. Full disclosure, after chatting with Steph and seeing how beautiful her cake turned out…I followed her lead and omitted the extra meringue in the whipped cream/mascarpone, and did add in some extra curd since I had it.

It all starts with a simple old fashioned hot-milk sponge cake. I am not sure I have made one before but I feel like the only big difference was bringing the milk and butter just to a boil before adding it slowly and steadily into the batter. The cake is baked for about 23 min until golden and pulling away from the sides. Once cooked, the cake is cooked and then split in half awaiting assembly.

While the cake was baking, I was busy cleaning bowls etc and mixing up the other components: the syrup, cream, berries, and curd…which I bought this go around.

The cake assembly is straightforward. The first cake layer gets a brushing of syrup, followed by the whip cream/mascarpone mixture, and then dotted with berries and curd. The top layer of cake is then placed, and you do the same thing, except piling the berries on top to look grand. I used a mixture of strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, and blueberries.

The assembled cake needs to chill in the fridge for 1-3 hours to help with cutting the cake when serving. I made the cake in the morning and then left it is the fridge for the afternoon. It set well, and I had no problem cutting it.

Like I started the blog, this was so loved. It kind of surprised me how much everyone loved it. A lot of them said it reminded them of strawberry shortcake, but just better. They were still talking about it days later. If that doesn’t make the recipe a keeper, I don’t know what does hahaha.

I have to add…for Mother’s Day, I got some toddler cooking utensils/cookbook from my little sous chef in training…can’t believe he is almost 1…😍

Warm Squid Salad

Not sure this was the best name for this recipe, but it did exceed our expectations haha.

This is a good recipe to have when you need to throw together a quick meal…even for entertaining. It really does seem like something you would have in a restaurant, but easy enough to get on the table quickly without much work.

Basically, roast some cut up baby potatoes, and then chop up the salad ingredients: celery, red bell pepper, red onion that is given a quick dunk in vinegar, capers, tomatoes, avocado, and lemon zest. Mix up some lemon-lime dressing and when you are ready poach the squid. I went an easy route and used the Trader Joe’s seafood mix which has squid, scallops, and shrimp…and I would do it again. Worked perfectly.

All of it is mixed together and then we are given the option of eating that as is, or on a bed of salad. We had ours on baby spinach which I would also do again. (I think it would be good on brown rice as well)

My husband and I thought this was really good. He liked adding the optional red pepper flakes on his, and commented that the salad was much better than he expected from how I described it and the name haha. We thought it was fresh, tasty, and a healthy dinner that seemed like we ate out…except all the cleanup haha.

This one is a keeper!

Smoked Salmon Roll-Up

Our recipe today is the baking version of bagels with lox…made with a sponge cake that has no sugar. Personally, I don’t think you can improve on a good bagel, lox, and all the trimmings, but my husband thought this was a better way to contain all the goodness. 🤷‍♀️

Our recipe has us start by baking the sponge…which is a blend of whisked yolks and salt and whipped egg whites all mixed gently with some flour, cornstarch, onion and garlic powder. This is baked until puffed and then rolled tightly in a dish towel until cooled.

Meanwhile, we are to make the filling. This recipe calls for slightly less ingredients so I opted to change it a bit to our usual go to’s for bagels and lox. We are to mix up cream cheese with smoked salmon and capers…I used red onion in place of chives and added small diced tomato bits.

The sponge is unrolled, and then the cream cheese mixture is gently spread on top…almost to the edges and then tightly rolled back up again. It can be eaten now, or chilled. We are told either way is great.

I am such a bagel girl, this was hard to love. I missed the chewiness and taste of the bagel. However, I can appreciate that this would be a more acceptable version for a brunch or a starter for dinner. My husband on the other hand loved it and said it was so much easier to eat without all the trimmings falling out all over the place. (I don’t seem to have the same trouble he does hahaha). He did add some sriracha… at first because he thought it was a little dry, but then said it took the whole thing to a new level and will try that on lox and bagels next time! 🤷‍♀️😂

All in all a great experiment that we enjoyed. It won’t replace the bagel, but I can see this could be useful for entertaining!