CakeSpy Note: If we took a holiday, it would be--it would be so nice! And recently, Cake Gumshoe Stephanie escaped chilly Seattle for sunny Mexico--and had some super sweet eating experiences! So what could you expect if you were to visit yourself? Read on, and dream just a little bit:
A couple of cold Seattle residents escaped the Seattle November snow storm by heading to the Central Highlands of Mexico. Warm days, cool nights, colonial architecture, and great food.
The bakeries in town open onto the narrow sidewalks and present racks of goods of sweet doughs, sugared twists, laminated pastries, shortbread cookies, and sweet and savory empanadas.
Ice cream abounds in flavors from tequila to guanabana, pinon, and sweet corn. Paletes (popsicles) range from fresh strawberry to vanilla with dried fruits and nuts to mango chili.
Fried dough, candied yams and sugared squash are sold from street carts and hand carried baskets.
And then there are the traditional sweets of Morelia (pictured left) - crystalized fruits, fruit leathers, cajeta - goat cheese caramel, tamarind with chili (or not), coconut haystacks, coconut stuffed candied limes, candied flower blooms - rose and jamaica (hibiscus), and sweet bars of amaranth with fruits and nuts.
Dessert menus feature variations on flan and cheesecake (limon cheesecake, pictured below), and in new kitchens, they riff on traditional favorites, like chongos zamoranos, a sweet milk/honey/cinnamon dessert (pictured below cheesecake).
Find out more about the Central Highlands of Mexico here!