Happy Monday! Hope everyone had a great weekend. I’ve been pretty busy doing things with my husband plus I went to see my in-laws and had lunch with them at a pretty good Chinese restaurant. Also, I have started to decorate for Fall so that means a deep cleaning in every room of my house.

Let’s talk about Pisco. This drink is a Peruvian kind of brandy (from grapes) that is made in winemaking areas of Peru. You can drink it straight from the bottle (shots) or you can make cocktails like Pisco sour or Chilcanos (my favorite). This time, I’m incorporating Pisco in a soft vanilla cake that is perfect with a scoop of ice cream or a big dulce de leche dollop. I usually buy Pisco at Bevmo but if you can’t find it , you have the option to use regular brandy. Btw, this cake in Spanish is called “encanelado”.

Let’s start with the recipe.

Ingredients

For the cake

5 egg whites, room temperature

5 egg yolks, room temperature

1 cup white granulated sugar

2 teaspons vanilla extract (I used Molina vanilla)

3/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon all purpose flour

1/4 baking powder

1/2 super fine salt

For the pisco syrup or brandy syrup

5 tablespoons water

3/4 cup white granulated sugar

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 or 2 large cinnamon sticks

5 tablespoons pisco (I used Porton Pisco) – You can use brandy too

To decorate

Extra cinnamon

Dulce de Leche or ice cream

Directions

For the cake

1.- Preheat oven to 350 F.  Line a 12 by 8 inch pan.

2.-In a small bowl, mix flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

3-In a  big bowl, whisk together the egg yolks and half of the sugar until the mixtures increases in volume and has a pale color. When you lift the whisk over the mixture the batter should fall slowly forming a ribbon that will hold it’s shape for a few minutes

4.-In a bowl of a stand up mixer with the whisk attachment, mix egg whites until they form soft peaks then rest of the sugar (slowly) until you have a stiff and glossy meringue texture.

5.- When you have both mixtures ready, you will fold the meringue mixture into the egg yolk one. Then, add the flour carefully so the batter don’t loose too much volume. Pour batter into prepare pan and bake for about 30-35 minutes until firm and a there is a light golden color on the top.

While the cake cools…. make the syrup!

For the pisco cinnamon syrup

In a small sauce pan pour the water, sugar, ground cinnamon and cinnamon stick. Mix and bring it to a boil. Stir and stir until all the sugar is dissolved. Remove from the heat and add the pisco or brandy.

Now what?

When the cake is all cooled, turn the cake out of the pan and peel the parchment paper, turn the cake right side up and place it on a plate. Pour the warm syrup all over the cake and then chill for 2 hours or overnight.

Before serving, dust powdered cinnamon all over the cake and serve. You can add dulce de leche or ice cream.

Enjoy!!