Hecho con gusto, hecho en Mexico

To give a follow-up to my previous posts... our TV series obsession with Velvet came to an end. It went from too much drama to completely insane. Pregnant women pushing each other down the stairs and similar over the top dramatical things, so I fast forwarded the series to the end. Call me naive but I want to watch pleasant things if I turn on the TV. Beautiful surroundings, beautiful clothing, beautiful people. I leave crazy bitches and stupid asholes to other people. Not my cup of tea.
And as for the wine section... well we still get to buy wine thankfully, so I went to the store that sells our local sparkling wine. And bought 3 bottles. It feels so lovely to consume delicious sparkling wine produced only 65 km from our doorstep. 

I equally enjoy the fact that I get to drink coffee produced in Mexico. However it's not quite as close to Oaxaca from here. You have to add 650 km to the 65 and you will see some coffee plantations. And I have yet to visit that place in person.

My husband took up baking some weeks ago. It started with bread and then he moved over to vanilla cake, so he asked me to buy vanilla. I knew Mexico is famous for their vanilla but I didn't know that is the only country who has the real deal. The orchid plant can grow in other countries but for it to produce the vanilla pod, a special bee is needed and that one only lives in Mexico. Any other real vanilla, like for example the one cultivated in Madagascar is artificially pollinated. So vanilla is Mexico's gift to the world. A nice gift indeed. Unfortunately the reality nowadays here in Mexico is that a lot of criminal activity is linked to the production. It takes very long to grow so along with saffron it's the most expensive spice in the world and therefore very juicy to steal. 
As my husband started baking and we started having ingredients at home I decided to bake the only cake I ever make... kladdkaka, I guess it's a kind of mud cake in English. Fast, easy and darn delicious and for the first time ever made with products within more or less a 1000 km from my doorstep. Cacao here in Mexico is cultivated close to the Guatemalan boarder, so unfortunately a 12 hour drive away. I don't know how local you can call that but at least it's made with products all within lovely Mexico. We have the Aztecs to thank for the vanilla as a spice and the Mayans to thank for the cacao. So I'm really in a good place to justify baking this cake, despite all the calories that comes with it.