Cafe Darak

Last weekend, I made my way to Cafe Darak, a Korean-owned, vintage inspired cafe that just recently opened not too long ago. I've heard many good things about this little place and have been dying to try it out! While the boyfriend was still in town, what better time to try somewhere new?

This place once again fed my obsession for interior design. It was obvious that the vintage trend was prevalent here and I thought it was quite adorable. I just really enjoyed the ambiance overall. It seemed like everywhere you turned, there was something to look at. For a small place, it had such a comfortable atmosphere where people could just sit back, relax, and enjoy a cup of coffee or tea and munch on delicious desserts.

I actually really liked the fact that none of the furniture or decor really matched.

I loved their collection of vintage cameras and radios.

I cannot stress how badly I wanted to go into the tent and fall asleep. Sadly, there were people in it the entire time.... I could tell that this place had a thing for Volkswagen from some of their signs and small knick knacks lying around, and of course this giant tent!

I thought the little trinkets on their serving trays were a cute touch.

Now finally, on to their food! They had a variety of drinks (mostly tea and coffee as well as common bottled/canned options) and desserts. Going to Cafe Darak I already knew what I HAD to try, and that was their macarons and their Honey Bread. Sadly they only had raspberry macarons left, but it was nonetheless delicious. The center was a little on the sweet side, but also had a slight tartness. Such a flavor had to have been made with fresh raspberries (probably that morning). The macarons were a dollar each which, compared to many other bakeries, is very reasonable. 

"Do you know what my shirt's made out of? BOYFRIEND MATERIAL."

To accompany the macarons, I thought I'd try out their coffee and ordered an iced Cafe Mocha (usually my drink of choice at cafes). I don't like my coffee too sweet, so this definitely satisfied me. It was a good balance of sweet and bitter in my opinion. The coffee that they offer in general costs a little less than a venti frappacino at Starbucks (a little under $5).

I can't tell you how excited I was to try their Honey Bread. After sampling what Bay Area cafes had to offer (those of which were much larger and fancier than this and costing ~$12), I've been on a mission to find anything that compares here in Vegas. The syrup was definitely SUPER sweet, as expected, but surprisingly the vanilla ice cream on top was not, so I thought the two balanced quite well. The bread itself was warm and soft yet still crispy and flaky. Although not nearly as glamorous as what I've had before, I actually really enjoyed it for what it was and I'd say that it was worth the $5.

All in all, the boyfriend and I (and friends) enjoyed our first experience at Cafe Darak and I'll definitely be coming back soon with an empty belly! 

I only wish that this place wasn't so far from my house!

Lemon Cake (Happy 50th Birthday Daddy!)

Some time ago (March 15th actually...whoops), was my dad's 50th birthday! So I thought, what better way to celebrate than with a homemade cake! He has a thing for lemon so naturally I looked toward lemon cake recipes. I ended up using a good ol' Martha Stewart recipe, which can be found here. Personally, I feel like the recipe didn't really work well for me and that the cake could have turned out SO much better. I mean it tasted delicious, of course, but I have this personal standard I'd like to uphold. So in this case, this post won't necessarily be a formal recipe, but a picture guide, because who doesn't like pictures right? But by all means, try the original recipe for yourself and see how it works for you!

Lemon Cake

• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter (room temp.)
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt (omit if using salted butter)
• 1 tbsp lemon zest
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 2 large eggs + 3 large egg yolks
• 2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
• 1 cup buttermilk (low fat)

You may be wondering why I've omitted a couple of the ingredients. Well being pressed for time, I didn't read the list very carefully. Those two were meant for the whipped frosting for the original recipe, but I ended up using a different frosting recipe.

I found that 4-5 medium sized lemons were enough for a tablespoon of lemon zest.

After preheating your oven to 350 degrees and greasing your two 8in cake pans, mix together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and lemon zest in a bowl.

In a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, or an electric hand mixer, cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

It should look something like this.

Mix in eggs and yolks, adding them one at a time, following with lemon juice. Add flour mixture and buttermilk, alternating them, starting and ended with the flour. Continue mixing until just combined.

You'll find that this batter is quite thick and wont rise too much in the oven. I didn't even have to level it, which saves me time for sure.

 Bake for 32-35 minutes and allow to cool in the pans for 15 minutes before removing them to cool completely on a wire rack. 

Use this time to make your frosting! Any frosting of your choice, really. The possibilities are endless! I ended up with a very basic egg white whipped frosting using only egg whites, sugar, and some leftover lemon juice.

And here comes the fun part (and the most difficult part) - putting everything together!

I felt that in this instance, the sweet and slightly tartness of the raspberries would go great with the lemon and I was right, it was so good. (The leftover raspberries and frosting made for a good midnight snack keke.)

After looking at this cake more, I've realized that it looks just like the cake emoji...sweet.

Even though the cake didn't turn out exactly as I had hoped, it still looked and tasted great and my family liked it nonetheless. But of course, there's always still improvements to be made! 

As per usual, there's always more things on the way, so until next time, thanks for taking a break out of your busy lives and hanging out with me!