Moja baka pravi najbolje palačinke s malinama i malo vrhnja.

Because moja has to agree with baka.

• baka is a feminine singular noun.
• The possessive moj changes form to match the noun:
  • moj = masculine
  • moja = feminine
  • moje = neuter

So moja baka means my grandmother.

Here, pravi is the verb to make.

It is the 3rd person singular present tense of praviti, because the subject is baka = grandmother, which is singular.

So:

• ja pravim = I make
• ti praviš = you make
• ona pravi = she makes

In this sentence, pravi does not mean real / genuine, even though pravi can also be an adjective in other contexts.

Because it agrees with palačinke.

The word najbolje here is the superlative adjective form meaning best, and it matches palačinke, which is feminine plural.

A useful thing to know is that najbolje can also be an adverb meaning best, but in this sentence it is an adjective describing palačinke.

So the structure is basically:

• najbolje palačinke = the best pancakes

Croatian does not have articles like a and the.

So Croatian often expresses the same idea without an article, and English adds the when it sounds natural.

That is why:

• najbolje palačinke = the best pancakes

The definiteness is understood from context and from the superlative itself.

Because it is the direct object of the verb pravi, so it is in the accusative plural.

The singular is:

• palačinka = pancake / crêpe

The plural is:

• palačinke = pancakes

For many feminine nouns ending in -a, the nominative plural and accusative plural look the same, so palačinke can serve as both.

Because the preposition s meaning with normally takes the instrumental case.

The noun is:

• maline = raspberries

Its instrumental plural form is:

• malinama

So:

• s malinama = with raspberries

Because malo meaning a little is a quantity word, and quantity words are usually followed by the genitive.

The base noun is:

• vrhnje = cream

After malo, it becomes:

• vrhnja = of cream

So:

• malo vrhnja = a little cream / more literally a little of cream

This is very common in Croatian:

• malo vode = a little water
• malo šećera = a little sugar

Both s and sa mean with.

Usually s is the normal form, and sa is used when pronunciation would be awkward with just s, especially before certain consonant clusters or some pronouns.

Here, s malinama sounds fine, so s is the natural choice.

Not completely. Croatian word order is more flexible than English word order.

Moja baka pravi najbolje palačinke s malinama i malo vrhnja is a neutral, natural order.

You can move things around for emphasis, but the meaning stays mostly the same because the case endings show the grammatical roles. For example, a speaker might change the order to emphasize my grandmother or the best pancakes, but the original version is the most straightforward one for a learner.

In Croatian, palačinke usually means thin pancakes, closer to crêpes than to thick American pancakes.

So depending on the translation style, English might say:

• pancakes
• crêpes
• thin pancakes

All of those can be reasonable, depending on context.