Yesterday was Mother’s Day. Did you remember a card? Did you remember to call? I’m fortunate to live very close to my parents so we went to their house for a Mother’s Day cookout with my siblings. I was in Long Island all weekend to be a bridesmaid in one of my best friend’s wedding. It was so much fun and I’m so happy for my beautiful friend. This, however, left me no time to make the summery bundt cake I had planned! Instead, my sister handled the dessert and it was just what Mom wanted.
She made Ina Garten’s Mixed Berry Pavlova, which is so delicious and sweet. Ina directs you to mix the berries with some of the sauce. I would suggest skipping this step and putting the fresh, uncovered berries on top and just drizzle some of the sauce over the finished product. The sauce is very sweet. For those sweet tooth-ers out there, you can always add more sauce to your individual slices.
The cake I was dreaming of making was this Berry Buttermilk Bundt by Smitten Kitchen (smittenkitchen.com), another of my faves. This cake is light (thank you, buttermilk), a tiny bit lemony, and sweet-but-not-too-sweet. Of course, this cake is AMAZING in the middle of summer with fresh-picked berries, but yesterday was the first really gorgeous and hot day New England has seen this year, so I wanted to celebrate it with something summery.
My mom also loves a special chocolate-cinnamon bundt cake that my grandma would always make for her and her siblings on their birthdays. It isn’t a favorite in my parents’ household sadly, so it’s a real treat for my mom when I make it (usually, for her birthday). The flavors are delicious together, but it’s a dense cake and tends to get a little dry. It’s amazing with vanilla bean ice cream. I won’t share that exact recipe, but I think in the future I’m going to try the chocolate-cinnamon combination using Ina’s Beatty’s Chocolate Cake (which is my usual go-to chocolate cake) or this one by Food & Wine (haven’t actually tried it yet, but sounds amazing).
I hope your mothers (and you, if you’re a mom!) had a very special Mother’s Day. I hope you felt loved and appreciated. I hope your families doted on you all day long and you got the exact dessert you asked for. Thank you to my mom for being so selfless and loving, strong and thoughtful, for putting up with me and my troublesome brother and sister for our whole lives (there’s no end in sight, I’m sorry to say). I love you and appreciate everything you do. Thank you.
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