La Vita e Dolce By Letitia Clarke
La Vita e Dolce By Letitia Clarke
La Vita e Dolce is a new cookbook for beautiful Italian desserts
La Vita E Dolce By Letitia Clarke is a new cookbook filled with just one thing – Italian desserts.
It’s a brave thing to create a cookbook with only sweet treats in it, and Letitia has done a brilliant job with La Vita E Dolce.
What I like most is that La Vita E Dolce bursts with sweet moments of everyday pleasure. And with each new dessert recipe is an opportunity to create joyful moments, during a year where we probably all need a little extra comfort.
What are the recipes like in La Vita E Dolce By Letitia Clarke?
La Vita E Dolce By Letitia Clarke is an Italian-inspired cookbook, so instead of traditional recipes we have an eclectic mix.
There are custard cakes, biscuit kisses, and homemade mascarpone ice cream. And Italian confections, marzipans, and wobbly desserts like panna cotta. It’s all here.
I flick through and am glad to find that most recipes have a full page, facing picture. I love running my eyes across a picture of food, and the photography in La Vita E Dolce is particularly beautiful.
Best of all are the recipes themselves. They start with a short story, which could be an introduction to the ingredients, or a little more information about the history of the dessert. It’s a nice touch, and the stories pave the way to the recipes themselves.
Although the cakes and sweet treats in La Vita E Dolce look totally professional, the recipes all seem very straightforward. In fact, they’re exactly right for a home cook.
In terms of ingredients, most things are easy to come by, and there are very few niche items.
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Caramelised apricot, almond & orange blossom upside-down cake recipe
Phew, what a long name for a cake. This caramlised apricot upside-down cake is probably one of the more complex recipes in La Vita E Dolce because you’ve got to make a caramel…
And regular readers will know I have no skill when it comes to making caramel, so it took my three tries to make a decent caramel to use here.
Once you’re past the caramel hurdle, it’s plain sailing. And the resulting apricot upside-down cake is a pure delight.
Almond, ricotta, olive oil & cherry cake
I fell in love with this recipe as soon as I saw it. I mean, what’s not to love about a cherry and almond cake, made moist with olive oil? Yum
I would say though that this is a cake for summer when fresh cherries are in season and in the shops. I made the cake in November and couldn’t find any fresh cherries, so I used a tin of cherries. The cake turned out to be scrumptious, but next time I’d try frozen cherries instead. I think those would work better.
Chocolate, pear, hazelnut & brown sugar cake
This chocolate and pear cake is one of the richest I’ve had in a while. It’s also a flourless cake, and the texture is akin to a mousse. But it’s best feature is its lightness and crispness, and also the intensity of chocolate flavour. Although I like all of it, my favourite part are the hazelnuts, which make the cake almost like a ferrero rocher.
The one true apple cake recipe
I love the story at the start of this recipe. Letitia says that an apple cake is to Italians what a Victoria sponge cake is to us Brits. So it’s a classic, and every Italian nonna has her own. It’s also meant to be a simple cake to make, and I manage to bosh one out in record time.
I really like this apple cake recipe, and it’s a great way to use up a bunch of apples in your fruit bowl. What’s more, the recommendation to leave the skin on the apples in a nice one, as it lends a bit of colour and contrast to the cake. All in all, it’s one of my favourite recipes in La Vita E Dolce.
Caramelised citrus tart recipe
I made this caramalised citrus tart recipe for my mums birthday, because she’s a fiend for a lemon cake. This is a brilliant recipe that results in a gloriously lemony tart. It also uses orange zest and juice, which rounds out the flavour and adds extra complexity.
What’s more, I even made the pastry from scratch, which was hugely satisfying and delicious. But, just between us, I’d probably use ready made shortcrust next time to save some time.
Overall thoughts on La Vita E Dolce By Letitia Clarke
So far I’ve had the best time making delicious Italian desserts from La Vita E Dolce. Every cake has been scrumptious, and I find myself wanting to revisit recipes.
All in all, La Vita E Dolce is a gorgeous cookbook with brilliant dessert recipes. The only hard bit is choosing which sweet treat to make.
Buy La Vita E Dolce By Letitia Clarke.
