I recently had dinner with my cousin, Annie and her family. Often when we eat together I make a tiramisu. Tiramisu is her husband Lukas’s favorite dessert, so he has been my #1 tester for this tiramisu recipe. Tiramisu means ‘pick me up’ in Italian.…
My friend Dixon’s mom has a Meyer lemon tree. Every December she sends him lots of Meyer lemons and, fortunately, he shares them with me. When I have Meyer lemons, I love to make this Meyer lemon ice cream. It is the perfect blend of…
I recently returned from a trip to Northern Italy. It was wonderful to travel with friends again! I’ll post more highlights from my trip soon. However, I thought it would be best to start with one of my favorite things about any trip to Italy: the gelato. As you try to scope out the best gelato in your Italian travels, look for the key words ‘gelato artigianale’. This means it is homemade or artisan gelato – no artificial colors and flavors and not mass-produced. Of course, really the most important thing in your search for the best gelato is just to eat gelato as often as possible – which is what we did in Lake Como, Cinque Terre, and Genoa. Yum!
Bar Iron Gate, Candenabbia near Villa Carlotta. Definitely the best view of all the gelato shops on our trip. The Amarena (cherry) gelato is not to be missed. Or try the affogato with hazelnut gelato if you need a little caffeine pick-my-up.
La Darsena Ristorante, Tremezzo I’ve eaten a lot of tiramisu in my life. This was a refreshing and gelato-based twist on the classic. It had lady fingers followed by a layer of rich custard and topped with coffee gelato and chocolate sprinkles. I will definitely try to recreate this for a future dinner party.
Ristorante Minstral, Bellagio is a Michelin starred restaurant, so expectations were high. Dolce (dessert) was definitely a highlight. They prepared stracciatella gelato tableside with liquid nitrogen. (See the video here.) As if this wasn’t enough, it was used to top amazing chocolate dessert over which they also poured a warm chocolate espresso sauce. It was unforgettable.
Crotto dei Platani, Brienno. If you find yourself in this part of Lake Como, you should definitely stop here for a meal. When you do, save room for dessert. The Passion Fruit Sorbet was fantastic.
Gelataria Vernazza was near our apartment in Vernazza, so it became our go-to gelato place in Cinque Terre. The Lemon sorbet was my favorite to cool off after a long hike between towns. However, the pistachio semifreddo was also delicious.
OK, I know cannoli has nothing to do with gelato. But the Sicilian cannoli with pastry cream and strawberries at il Parata 5 Terre in Vernazza was so good that I had to include it here. The pastry cream was infused with orange. It was so addictive that we went back the next day to get one for breakfast.
Gelati Italiani may not have had the most picturesque gelato we ate on the trip, but the quality of the gelato was excellent. After a long travel day that came included some frustrating hiccups, this gelato was the turning point in what ended up being a lovely (and delicious) day in Genoa.
It is a holiday tradition in my family to bake goodies to give to friend. For me, it just isn’t Christmas until the house is filled with the smell of cookies and cakes being baked for friends. Of all the holiday treats I give at…
An important rule of travel is: when you invite yourself to visit someone, don’t show up empty handed. That is why when I went to visit my aunt and uncle in North Carolina, I brought this blueberry coffee cake. It is versatile – it can…
You would never know it from all of my posts about peaches this summer, but my blueberry bushes have been prolific. So I’ve spent the summer looking for the perfect blueberry cake recipe. What I have learned: there are a lot of good ones out there. My brother-in-law liked this blueberry lemon pound cake so much that I made him one for his brithday.
I adapted it from a recipe from Cooking Light. I confess: this blueberry lemon pound cake isn’t as ‘light’ as the original recipe, but it is so yummy (and still uses less butter than a traditional pound cake). It also freezes well.
Yes, it is a little time consuming to make, but it is absolutely worth the effort.
Skip to equipment notes or detailed instructions with pictures.
Step 1. Preheat oven to 350˚. Grease & flour a 10-inch tube pan OR two loaf pans.
Step 2. Measure flour. Remove 2 Tbsp. flour and toss them with the blueberries. This helps to keep the blueberries from sinking to the bottom of the cake.
Step 3. In a bowl, whisk together the remaining flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
Step 4. Use a mixer to cream together the sugar, butter, mascarpone, and lemon zest at medium speed for 4-5 min. until well-blended.
Step 5. Add eggs one at a time. Beat well after you add each egg.
Step 6. Add flour mixture to sugar mixture alternately with yogurt – add flour and mix, then yogurt and mix, then flour, then yogurt, and end with flour. Do not over mix. Fold in most of blueberries, but reserve about 1/3 cup.
Step 7. Pour batter into pan. Tap once to get air out – don’t tap more than that or most of the blueberries will fall to the bottom of the cake. Sprinkle remaining blueberries on the top of the cake.
Step 8. Bake at 350˚ for 1 hr. and 15 min. When it is ready the cake should pull slightly away from the sides of the pan a toothpick inserted in the middle should come out clean (unless you hit a blueberry – then it will come out blue!)
Step 9. Cool cake for 20 min. on a wire rack. While cake cools, whisk powdered sugar to remove lumps. Then whisk in lemon juice.
Step 10. Remove cake from pan and drizzle with icing. Be sure to ice while the cake is still slightly warm.
I originally planned to post my recipe for strawberry shortcake, but when I went to the Decatur Farmers Market and the first peaches of the season were there. I couldn’t resist making Peach Shortcake instead. My mom went crazy over it, so it is now…
