Sweets

My husband has a birthday in the middle of July.

I offer buying a birthday cake from a professional baker, but he says he wants me to make one, which makes me happy.

He is lucky to have his birthday this time of the year because there are a lot of beautiful produce available, especially in my mother-in-law’s backyard.

I enjoy showcasing them on his cake.

I’m so grateful that my mother-in-law always invites me to pick her red currants.

We pick them together, but she is so much faster than I am and lets me take some of what she picked.

They are so pretty.

Look like jewelry!

They are easy to remove from the stem when frozen.

This time I removed the seeds because my husband and I both like our jam smooth, without seeds.

Currants have a lot of seeds.

The ruby color is amazing, and it tastes absolutely delicious, perfectly sweet and tart.

It turned out to be a bit less thick than I expected, but it’s okay.

I also got something else from her garden I wanted to use for his cake.

Freshly harvested rhubarb!

By the way, their leaves are huge!!

Rhubarb ribbons are what I wanted to try making for the first time.

Peel the rhubarb into thin strips.

Cook them at a low temperature.

Sprinkle sugar.

I’ve seen completely dried version, but these stay soft after cooked.

If interested, check out Carleigh’s post ↓ .

https://www.instagram.com/p/CuP4mkLp5_B/

There are a lot of vegan cake recipe out there, but this has been my (and my husband’s) favorite so far.

https://lovingitvegan.com/vegan-lemon-cake/

It does not require any special ingredients, and it’s so easy to make.

It’s a very moist cake, which we love.

Making the cake sponge is an easy part.

But I struggle to come up with an idea of what to serve the cake with.

I’m not a huge traditional frosting fan as it tends to be a bit too sweet for me, so I’ve been experimenting with other options lately.

This time I decided to make something similar to diplomat cream, but a vegan version.

I made my pastry (custard) cream first and then mixed it with coconut cream.

It turned out great!

Smooth, creamy, and delicious!

I made it vanilla flavored and carefully controlled the sweetness.

I used the recipe on this page to make vegan custard/pastry cream.

https://sideb.culinarytribune.com/recipes-ive-tried-and-liked/

I kept the decoration simple as usual.

I like my cake to look rustic.

The frozen red currants looked so pretty on the cake.

Just in case if you were wondering what happened to the sugared rhubarb ribbons.

I made roses with them!

Yes, you can eat them, and they are tasty!

And no, I didn’t forget about the currant jam either.

I drizzled the jam on the serving plate.

It was mainly for the look, but it turned out that the tartness of the jam went so well with the vanilla cream.

He loved the cake!

We are planning to have my mother-in-law over today to celebrate his birthday together.

I hope she likes the cake!

We had some guests over the other day.

I’ve never met them before, and I had no idea what kind of sweets they like.

Actually, I had no clue if they eat sweets.

So I decided to make two kinds so that if they do not like one, there will be at least one other option.

One was the rhubarb brownies (previous post), and this was the other option.

Since the other one was chocolate/cocoa-based, I decided to make something fruity.

I love my bars with a lot of crumbs!

It turned out beatuiful!

Buttery bottom, lovely strawberry filling, and cinnamon crumbs on top.

I loved them when they were cold.!

There is something special about rhubarb.

It’s one of the first things you see growing after a long winter in Minnesota, so it almost represents the beginning of a beautiful spring/summer.

And it’s so season-specific, and this is the only time you see it fresh, which makes this extra special.

Also, I love that my mother-in-law and I can spend time together in her backyard for havesting.

So when I got my this year’s first rhubarb from my mother-in-law’s backyard, I made it into jam.

It’s been fun to use the jam in different things, but this time I decided to add it to brownies.

It may sound strange, but the tartness from the rhubarb was great in these fudgy brownies.

I used this recipe as the base.

https://thebigmansworld.com/vegan-brownies/

I liked to bake mine for about 35 minutes (I tend to like “chewy” better vs. “fudgy” texture).

I thought it was a bit too sweet, but everyone else loved it.

My other favorite vegan brownies recipe is this one.

https://eatwithclarity.com/homemade-vegan-brownies/

You can see how they turned out in this post.

https://sideb.culinarytribune.com/2023/03/19/very-good-brownies-vegan

Rhubarb has begun appearing at the local farmers market as well.

Looking for ideas on how to enjoy rhubarb?

https://sideb.culinarytribune.com/2022/06/06/vegan-grilled-cheese-with-tempeh-and-ginger-rhubarb-jam

https://sideb.culinarytribune.com/2021/05/16/rhubarb-pickles

https://sideb.culinarytribune.com/2022/06/12/rhubarb-thyme-scones

https://sideb.culinarytribune.com/2020/05/30/ginger-rhubarb-banana-cake

https://sideb.culinarytribune.com/2019/05/30/soy-bbq-rhubarb-coleslaw-sandwich

I had a sudden craving for brownies.

I get that once a month or so.

This happens to everyone, right?

I have a good vegan brownie recipe (I’ve tried and liked),

https://sideb.culinarytribune.com/2023/03/19/very-good-brownies-vegan

and one of the great things about this recipe is that you usually have all the ingredients.

I love that you don’t have to go shopping just to make brownies.

But one important thing I didn’t have was chocolate chips.

What I did have was a bar of salted chocolate from Aldi (which I really like).

So I tore it into small pieces with my hands and used them in place of chocolate chips.

I was afraid that they would completely melt.

Well, it did melt, but not disastrously.

I was going to wait to take pictures or eat until it completely cooled down and the chocolate got hardened, but who am I kidding, of course I didn’t have that kind of patience (lol).

It actually tasted great with the melting chocolate.

But I’m sure it will taste even better later, so I’m excited.

One more thing about these brownies.

I added these sweetened Azuki beans to the batter.

It gave interesting texture and flavor, and I really liked it.

Who knew Azuki and chocolate go so well together.

Recommended beverage: black coffee.

The plum wine I prepared about a year ago is finally ready to enjoy!

I purposely made a small amount because there are only two in our household.

It turned out delicious!

It’s great when served with tonic water.

But I also like to pour a small amount over a few ice cubes and sip it slowly.

I used both the wine and green Ume plums for the cake.

Carrot cake is a popular choice for the Easter dessert.

But this year I went with something different. ↓

https://sideb.culinarytribune.com/2023/04/08/lime-lemon-cakes

But when I saw all the pictures of other people’s carrot cake, I developed craving for it.

I like my carrot cake filled with a lot of chunks of nuts and dried fruit.

I used pecan nuts and dry cranberries this time.

This time I made my vegan “cream cheese” with tofu as the main ingredient.

Tofu (extra firm; extra water removed), coconut oil, sugar, salt, lemon juice, apple cider vinegar.

It was delicious, and I loved that it worked well for piping too.