Sorry I've been neglecting this blog. I really do love it, but it is the neglected second bloggy child. I recently reread all my posts when I realized it was the blogiversary of Mia Cucina. It was great to see the best of last year's meals in review, but I did realize how much better the posts were with pictures. No time to post a photo since then, so no posts until now.

Colin and I recently made a yummy gooey Cinnamon Struesel cake. It comes out of the oven quite underdone in the middle, but that is was makes it irresistable. After a few days, though, it wanted eating, so being in the coffee cake family I served it for breakfast.



The kids could not believe their luck. "We can eat cake!?! For breakfast?!?" Sure, just this once. I'll have a piece, too, not knowing the incredible sugar headache I will get two hours later, followed by lethargy and crankiness.

1 cup butter

2 cups sugar

2 eggs

1/2 cup vanilla yogurt

1/2 cup sour cream

2 cups cake flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup sugar

1 cup chopped pecans

1 teaspoon cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9- or 10-inch cake pan.

Cream butter and sugar with an electric mixer. Add eggs one at a time and blend. Add yogurt, then sour cream. Blend some more until smooth.

Sift together flour, baking powder and salt. Add gradually to batter.

Mix sugar, pecans and cinnamon and set aside. This is the topping.

Pour half the batter into cake pan and sprinkle with half the topping mix. Pour in rest of batter. Sprinkle rest of topping mix over batter.

Bake for 1 hour. That should get it gooey-to-slightly baked.

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Today Anna wanted to get in on the cake-baking action, too. So both of them helped me make this, Nigella's Cupboard Chocolate Cake. Very dense, and since we made it with berry jam, reminiscent of Sudie's cupcakes.



1/2 cup unsalted butter

4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, broken into pieces

1 1/3 cups good, thin-cut marmalade (or other jam as you desire)

1/2 cup sugar

pinch of salt

2 large eggs, beaten

1 cup self-rising flour


8 inch springform pan, buttered and floured

Preheat the oven to 350F.

Put the butter in a heavy-bottomed saucepan over a low heat to melt. When it's nearly completely melted, stir in the chocolate. Leave for a moment to begin softening, then take the pan off the heat and stir with a wooden spoon until the butter and chocolate are smooth and melted. Now add the marmalade, sugar, salt and eggs. Stir with your wooden spoon and when all is pretty well amalgamated, beat in the flour bit by bit. Put into your prepared pan and bake for about 50 minutes or until a cake tester or skewer comes out clean. Cool in the pan on a rack for 10 minutes before turning out.


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I'm not much of a baker, so what inspired me to try these desserts? They are both dead easy (no frosting, etc) and are dense, gooey, rich... just like I like dessert. Without the sugar headache, thankyouverymuch.