i miss this:. santos, brazil.

I few weeks ago I shared some of my photos from my trip to Rio de Janerio, Brazil.  The next stop on our trip was Santos, Brazil, a small port town that is Brazil's bigger exporter of coffee, sugar and orange juice.  This was our site for our studio project, and we spent a quick four days exploring the port and choosing locations for our individual projects, an area that is referred to fondly as "cracklandia." It was a little terrifying, run down, overgrown and enthralling all at once.  Here are some of my favourite moments.

In order to explore the port in greater detail we took a little boat tour of the estuary, it was rainy and misty and absolutely wonderful to see the variety of warehouses, massive ships and cargo cranes towering into the sky.

Ther was a cupcake shop across the street from our hostel.  My hair was not friends with the humidity/rain combo of the day.

Small catria boats take the people of Santos from the city across the esturary to a small neighbouring island.  The boats pass under the port through a series of locks before emerging into the open water.

I hope you enjoyed this little adventure to Santos with me! Have a wonderous weekend. xo, T.

i miss this:. rio de janerio, brazil.

So, after baking that mango coconut cake last week (see here) I realized two things: that I missed Brazil and that I hadn't really gone through any of my pictures. This is an attempt to fix that. While in Brazil for three weeks in December and January our group visited rio, santos and sao paolo. It was crazy to all of a sudden be in a super warm, super dense urban environment, but I loved it. It was so colourful, so busy, filled with samba music and delicious mangos.

I hope you enjoyed this little adventure to Rio! Have a delightful weekend! xo, T.

eat me: mango coconut upside down cake.

I've been missing Brazil lately.  A lot.  When I went in December it was the first time I had been to South America and it was an amazing experience, occasionally overwhelming, but so good!  I loved the beaches, the sand, the waves, the buildings, the tiling everywhere, the fruit, the shoes...I adored the shoes!! The fruit especially was amazing, I have never eaten a mango or a pineapple that has tasted nearly as good as the ones I had there!  I had a mango for breakfast almost everyday, along with coconut cake.  Yep, cake is a breakfast food in Brazil.  Until then I hated coconut, or at the least the super sweet north American version, but between the cake, popsicles, coconut water, and candies Brazil converted me.  I LOVE coconut.

So after six months of being home and wishing I was on the beach at Copacabana, it was time to bake something Brazilian.  This cake turned out super well and combines both of my favourite Brazil flavours, mango and coconut.  The cake is super moist from the coconut milk and the coconut flavour isn't sweet, it's just...nice, it's kind of a soft taste.  I was a little hesitant about cooking mango but it turned out lovely and sweet on top of the cake!

mango coconut upside down cake.  very loosely adapted from flavors of Brazil. a little blog that has a whole bunch of other Brazilian-inspired recipes!

mango topping

1/8 C. brown sugar

2 tbsp. butter.

1 1/2 medium-sized, ripe but firm mangoes.

cake.

1/4 C.  butter.
1/2 C.  white sugar.
1 egg.
1 1/2 C. flour.
2 tsp baking powder.

1 1/2 C. coconut milk.

1/2 C. shredded, unsweetened coconut.

1/2 mango, cut into cubes.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  while oven is heating place butter in 9" round cake pan and place in oven to melt.  once butter is melted mix in brown sugar and smooth evenly across baking pan surface and sides until evenly coated.  slice mango into thin slices, about 1/8" and place in cake pan, covering as much of the surface as possible.  set aside.

In a mixer whip butter and sugar for 5-8 minutes until fluffy.  add egg and mix.  sift flour and baking soda together and add to butter mixture, alternating with the coconut milk until all the flour is added. fold in shredded coconut and mango.  spread evenly into prepared baking pan and bake for 30 - 35 minutes or until the top is golden brown and a knife comes out clean.  let pan sit on a cooling rack for 20 minutes before turning out onto a cake plate.

Writing out this recipe has reminded me that I haven't really shared any of my Brazil photos with you yet, I need to do that!  In the mean time here are my two favourite songs from Brazil:

They played these songs ALL the time while I was in Rio and Sao Paolo.  I have no idea what they're singing about, but I love them.  So bake your cake, listen to Don Omar and pretend you're in Brazil! xo, T.

chairs.

January has been an absolute whirlwind.

New years on the beach in Rio with 2 million people and David Guetta.  Two more weeks in Brazil.  Then coming home to a 60 degree temperature change and spending 14 hour days cutting out pieces from a large piece of foam.  But it's wondeful to be home....except for having to wear 12 layers everytime I leave the house.  I didn't miss that.

Brazil was amazing, the beach, the density, the little shops, the fruit juices, the crazy buildings with their intense ramps and weird, uneven staircases.  Being warm all the time, even when it rains.

I've begun to sort through my photos, but there are literally a 1000, so some serious editing is required.  However I've gone through a few.

One of my favourite parts of Brazil was being able to walk everywhere and look at things.  We walked so much, like all day, for eight hours.  And it was wonderful.  So much colour, so many neat buildings and neighbourhoods.  There is constantly something to look at.

The streets are filled with market stalls, little booths selling purses, watches and ipod cases, stands covered in belts and an assortment of objects.  The street in Brazil is an incredibly public space that is always used.  Bar stools and tables spill out onto the boulevard at night, security guards set up chairs on street corners and old men sit in lawn chairs outside shops and watch people.  If you look carefully enough you constantly encounter objects that people have placed on the street for later use, and no one moves them, its incredible.

My favourite objects were the chairs.  So many chairs everywhere, often unoccupied at the moment waiting for the specific time when their owner would come back to use them.  I loved it.

This first chair is my favourite.



There is something so wonderfully odd about finding furniture in use on the street.  xo.