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Strawberry Hibiscus Swirl Bundt Cake
You’ll love this classic vanilla pound cake with a swirl of strawberry hibiscus sugar and a brilliant pink glaze.
Boring bundt no more: this modern take on a classic recipe is as bold in flavor as it is beautiful. With a ribbon of strawberry-hibiscus sugar throughout, and a gorgeous fuchsia glaze, this cake is sure to turn heads (and delight tastebuds) wherever it goes!
I was recently gifted a beautiful bundt pan, dare I say the most beautiful bundt pan I’ve ever seen (my jaw dropped when I saw someone post a cake made with this pan in our facebook group, and I expressed as much in the comments. My lovely friend and neighbor was clearly paying attention as he got me one for my birthday a few days later).
I knew I had to do this gorgeous pan justice. Being the indecisive soul I am, I put it to the group to help me decide what kind of bundt cake I should make first. Strawberry won, hands down (with marzipan coming in a close second, so that will probably be my next endeavor!)
The group had spoken. Strawberry bundt cake it is!
I tried and I tried (really, I tried so hard) to get a strawberry pound cake to work. But whatever tweaks I made to the recipe, the texture just wasn’t quite right. From very very not right (think dense, gummy mochi cake) to close but still slightly off-putting. Something about adding strawberries in any form (fresh and/or freeze dried) to a cake does weird things to the texture. Flavor-wise it was spot on, but I just couldn’t get the texture right. I guess there is good reason most of the strawberry cake recipes you see these days use strawberry Jello.
Despite my failures, I still couldn’t shake the idea of a strawberry bundt cake in my beautiful new bundt pan, so rather than drive myself crazy trying to fit a square peg in a round hole, I changed my perspective. Instead of making the cake itself strawberry flavored, I stuck with a tried and true classic pound cake and then added swirl of strawberry-hibiscus sugar. It’s still got an intense strawberry flavor (especially once you add the glaze), but it preserves the perfect crumb of the vanilla pound cake.
And speaking of that glaze… it’s as bold in flavor as it is in color. Made from the same strawberry hibiscus sugar as the swirl inside the cake, the stunning fuchsia color is thanks to a concentrated hibiscus tea (when I did the same thing with plain milk the results were a slightly pinkish mauve).
from Love and Olive Oil http://bit.ly/2wlmi5W
Strawberry Margarita Jam
This Strawberry Margarita jam recipe is summer in a jar: all bright fruit and tart lime and a hint of booze that can only mean good times ahead.
It’s your favorite summertime cocktail-turned-jam, made with fresh ripe strawberries, tangy lime, organic agave, and a splash of silver tequila and Grand Marnier to finish it off.
This recipe was created in partnership with Agave In The Raw®, our go-to brand for all-natural and organic sweeteners.
When Agave In The Raw® first reached out to me about working together, it should come as no surprise that my mind immediately went to jam.
I’ve made a number of jams in the past with honey and maple syrup, but I had never used agave nectar, so I was excited at the prospect of something a little bit different.
Agave nectar is made from the blue agave plant, the same magical succulent from which tequila is made.
Strawberry. Agave. Tequila.
You see where I’m going with this?
I’ve known for a while that jam makes great cocktails (I’ve got a recipe for a Jam Rickey in the bonus edition of my jam ebook series that’s to die for).
But this recipe is further proof that cocktails also make great jam. In this case, a strawberry margarita, heavy on the strawberry with a hint of lime and liquor.
The resulting jam is not overly boozy; most of the alcohol evaporates in the cooking process, leaving behind just a hint of flavor. This is first and foremost a strawberry jam, with a pop of lime and a hint of tequila that teases at the essence of a margarita rather than forcing itself upon your palate.
(And if you like my jars, be sure to click through/scroll to the bottom to download these free printable labels for yourself!)
from Love and Olive Oil http://bit.ly/2W0Q1R1
Strawberry Cake Roll
Roll into strawberry season with this gorgeous strawberry cake roll: a delicate almond sponge cake decorated with a cute strawberry design and filled with strawberry whipped cream.
The Japanese are really on to something with these patterned cake rolls. They are as impressive to behold as they are delicious to eat, and are arguably much easier and less time-intensive than fancy frosted layer cakes.
Talk about dressed to impress!
If you’re the type that wants to create beautifully decorated cakes that’ll wow your guests, but don’t want to deal with a laborious layer cake, you should definitely give a Japanese-style patterned cake roll a try.
This stunning style of cake allows you to create intricate designs that are baked right into the cake itself, no fancy frosting necessary.
The technique does require some basic piping skills (the more you practice the better you’ll get), but honestly, even if you just piped a bunch of polka dots all over the thing, the result would be absolutely lovely.
Unlike my pumpkin roll cake which divides the main sponge batter into three separate colors, this method uses a separate paste-like batter that can create a more detailed design.
The paste is piped onto a sheet of parchment, freezing briefly to set, then an airy sponge cake batter is poured over the top. After baking, peel back the parchment paper and prepare to be wowed!
I originally went for a more abstract strawberry design, with a pink background, green squiggles and yellow seeds. It came out quite cute, but looked more like an Easter egg than a strawberry. And unfortunately, I failed big time when it came to the filling on that first roll, attempting a strawberry marshmallow filling that, while it tasted amazing, oozed out of the ends of the roll like sweet, sticky magma.
Take 2.
Since I had to remake the cake anyway to fix the filling, I also reworked the design, opting for dots instead of squiggles (easer to pipe), and simplified red berries so there would be no mistaking the flavor of this cake roll.
The cake batter paste gives the pattern an almost embossed feeling, the paste cooking up slightly firmer than the surrounding sponge. It’s a cool effect, although it is a bit tricky to cut since the paste bakes up firmer than the sponge cake itself (tip: use a serrated knife to very gently saw through the bigger shapes). Or, plan a design that allows you to cut in between the piped shapes.
The little bubbles that appeared in the berries were a complete accident, but don’t they look like little seeds?
from Love and Olive Oil http://bit.ly/2WUzDOi
Ahi Mango Poke
This vibrant poke bowl features soy-marinated tuna atop a bed of fluffy rice, with sweet chunks of mango, shredded carrot, cucumber and a tangy cabbage and snow pea slaw.
Look ma, no heat! Poke is a traditional Hawaiian dish featuring raw fish or seafood with a wide variety of flavorful accoutrements. Basically, if sushi took a Hawaiian vacation (and found a nude beach where it could shed its seaweed wrap, lol) this would be the result.
This is a fairly traditional shoyu (soy sauce) poke, we just mixed up the toppings a bit, adding some ripe mango which adds a lovely note of sweetness (dare I say that’s my favorite part)?
Serve it as is or make your pricey tuna stretch a little farther and serve it atop a bowl of jasmine rice, quinoa, or even cauliflower rice if you’re so inclined.
We also added a tangy cabbage slaw (because, let’s face it, raw cabbage is kinda gross) by tossing it with some lime juice, olive oil, salt and pepper. I also added some snow peas, sliced on a diagonal so they look oddly like giant green onions (we added those on top too).
Top it with a bit of sliced/shaved/cubed vegetables and you have yourself an ultra satisfying warm weather meal (although I wouldn’t say not to a bowl of this in frigid depths of January, either!)
from Love and Olive Oil http://bit.ly/2PRhBtI
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