Daring Bakers-Maple Mousse Served in Edible Container- Challenge #4

The April 2011 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Evelyne of the blog Cheap Ethnic Eatz. Evelyne chose to challenge everyone to make a maple mousse in an edible container. Prizes are being awarded to the most creative edible container and filling, so vote on your favorite from April 27th to May 27th at the Daring Kitchen!

I had several ideas for the edible container for the mousse.  However, every idea I came up I saw that someone else had the same or similar idea.  After some more thought, I got inspiration from a Martha Stewart episode I saw a few years ago about meringue snowmen filled with chocolate mouuse.  Since it was close to Easter, I thought about eggs or bunny rabbits.  I decided to go with bunny rabbits.  I made the meringue bunnies and baked them for about an hour, then scooped out the soft meringue in the middle so I would have hollow bunnies.  I then baked the meringue bunnies til they were nice and crisp.  I used chocolate to make the eyes and whiskers. 

For the mousse, I decided to make maple bacon.  Bacon baked in the oven then brushed with maple syrup the last few minutes.  I then chopped the bacon into small pieces and added it to the maple mousse.  I'm glad I did, because for me the maple mousse was too sweet by itself.  So the saltiness of the bacon greatly helped.  I filled the bunnies with the mousse.  The meringue bunnies added a nice crunchy texture to the mouuse.

Here are some pictures of the meringue bunnies and the finished product.

Daring Cooks-Edible Containers (Savory)-Challenge #3

Renata of Testado, Provado & Aprovado! was our Daring Cooks’ April 2011 hostess. Renata challenged us to think “outside the plate” and create our own edible containers! Prizes are being awarded to the most creative edible container and filling, so vote on your favorite from April 17th to May 16th at http://thedaringkitchen.com !

It was a busy month and the time to complete this challenge almost slipped away.  I was amazed by all of the containers that fellow cooks had created.  An idea finally came to me to use the quick quits I had in the pantry.  I made the grits and then poured them over an upside-down mini muffin tin that I placed in a bigger glass casserole dish.  I then chilled the grits for an hour in the refrigerator.  I then cut the grits into squares (each having a small circular indentation in the middle).  The next morning, I lightly fried the grit squares in butter.  Then, I made some scrambled eggs and filled the grit squares with the eggs.  Next, I may try a twist on the Southern shrimp and grits; filling the grit squares with shrimp instead of the eggs.  Below is a picture of the finished product.