Dad's Birthday

My sweet dad on his birthday!

Argentina is the land of beef, Malbec wine, maté, and of course, dulce de leche. You may be thinking to yourself, “oh yeah, i know what dulce de leche tastes like” but, I am sorry to tell you that anything on an American fast food menu that claims to be DDL, isn’t. And sure, Pinterest is littered with homemade DDL recipes and they are good— but it’s just not the same. DDL straight from Argentina is rich, has more depth of flavor, and is impossible to stop eating. The next best thing I have found to this is Gauncho Ranch Dulce De Leche which can be purchased from World Market for about five bucks and is typically what I use in this recipe— unless someone I know is making a trip to Buenos Aires :). 

 Dulce de leche translates to “sweetness of milk” and its history has long been disputed in South and Central America as to where it truly originated. And since you are currently reading the blog of an Argentinian, and I am controlling this narrative, I will tell you that DDL’s origins lie in Argentina. The history I was told as a little girl is that long ago, the gauchos of Argentina created DDL by slowly heating sugar and milk over a campfire in the hopes of getting a warm and sweet milk drink but, thankfully, they got dulce de leche instead and the rest in history… Argentinians put DDL on anything from toast in the morning to alfajores to ice cream to cakes. The possibilities are endless, and I, having been raised by two proud Porteños (people from Buenos Aires) couldn't resist concocting the confection I’m sharing with you today… 

If your dad is anything like my dad is, then he has a massive sweet tooth. To give you a better idea, my dad likes sweets so much he one of his fave sweets is maraschino cherries. MARASCHINO CHERRIES Y’ALL—who does that?! My dad does. Fernando Luna goes HAM on the sweets but let me be clear here, you guys: I am not hating on my father. The fact that he loves sweets so much is one of the most endearing qualities about my dad. It is also something that I definitely inherited from him and SURPRISE, it’s one of the most endearing qualities that I have as well. ;)

More to my point, and actual the purpose for this blog post, when you have a father who loves sweets as much as my sweet, Argentinian dad does, for his birthday, you make him one hell of a cake with copious amounts of dulce de leche. And this cake is no ordinary cake… no, no… this cake is is a four-in-one deal. Let’s start from the top, shall? Or the bottom, rather. The base of this cake is a decadent brownie, the recipe for which I adapted from this one by the one, the only, Ina Garten. The second part is a generous layer of— surprise— dulce de leche, followed by a layer of ripe, sliced bananas, and topped with a fluffy, lightly sweetened whipped cream. When I say lightly sweetened, I mean *lightly* sweetened and the reason for that is, if you hadn’t noticed, this cake packs a hefty sweet punch and I find that a whipped cream that has only a hint of sugar complements this cake very well. 

 This sweet cake is for all the sweet dads out there. The dads who took their daughters to see Spice World at the movies and who know the lyrics to way too many 90s pop songs. I hope you and your dad (and the rest of your family) enjoy this Argentinian inspired cake!

Ingredients 

1 brownie pie base (without the ganache)
1/2 a jar of dulce de leche
3 bananas, sliced thinly
1 pint of heavy whipping cream (whipped)
2 tsp vanilla
2 tbsp powdered sugar

How to...

• Bake the brownie pie according to Ina Garten's recipe. Allow to completely cool.
• Whip the heavy cream with vanilla and sugar.
• On top of the cooled brownie, add the layer of DDL, then the bananas, and finally the whipped cream. Enjoy!

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Dad's Birthday