I had no idea what they were talking about when I first read the list of 100 Brazilian Dishes. Blender cake?
I learned later that most homemakers here make cake by throwing all the ingredients in the blender then pouring it into a cake pan. One more use for that trusty kitchen tool–juices, seasonings, and now CAKE. Seriously, I can’t imagine a Brazilian surviving without one.
Clearly, this was a merit badge that this Honorary Brazilian-in-training needed to learn. I made a mental note to find a recipe sometime.
When we had an overabundance of cream from our milk, someone told me that you could use spoiled cream to make delicious, moist cakes.
I googled it, and voila–a blender cake recipe! If you’re curious, here it is:
1 xícara de nata (1 cup of cream)
- 4 ovos (4 eggs)
- 1 xícara de maizena (1 cup cornstarch–I’ve learned that this should be sifted into the batter to avoid white clumps in your cake)
- 2 xícaras de farinha de trigo (2 cups flour)
- 1 xícara de leite (1 cup milk)
- 2 xícaras de açúcar (2 cups sugar)
- 1 colher (sopa) de fermento em pó royal (1TBSP baking powder)
- Bata todos os ingredientes na batedeira, menos o fermento, até a massa ficar bem clarinha (mix the ingredients in the mixer without the baking powder until very smooth)
- Misture o fermento, sem bate (mix in the baking powder, without beating)
- Coloque para assar em uma forma retangular por uns 40 minutos aproximadamente. (put in a square baking pan for approximately 40 minutes. Typical of most Brazilian recipes, it didn’t specify oven heat, pan size or exact cooking time. ON or OFF until done, I guess.)
The results were fantastic, and it’s become a regular offering in our house. High, moist, dense and vanilla-flavored (despite not having any vanilla added); almost like a pound cake.
My next challenge is to master baking it in our outdoor wood fire summer oven. I mean, if you want an Honorary Brazilian merit badge, you might as well work for it. First attempt was singed (wood fire ovens also seem to only do ON or OFF) but tasty.
Stay tuned, fellow foodies!
(oh!–and my 100 Brazilian Dishes tally? 51 down, 49 to go!)
Bucket Brigade
This recipe looks good. I’m a bit surprised by the OK amount of sugar: the few Brazilian cake recipes I’ve tried where way too sweet. I bought myself the “Dona Benta” recipe book (to become a “real” Brazilian cook, like you! 😉 ) but I’ve had to half the amount of sugar in all the cakes so far, and I still found them too sweet !
(Hey, on a side note, are you far from the mudslide? I hope you are OK).
Yes, Brazilians certainly have a sweet tooth! There’s quite a few of their desserts that I give up on after a few bites–tasty but too sugary! We are a ways from the mudslides. We had relatives in that area (they’re Ok) and we are much further north in MG. it’s a mess, though, and the river in question does run just south of us on its way to the sea, so we’ll see if the aftermath effects our region too.