Daring Bakers- Battenberg Cake- Challenge #8

Mandy of What The Fruitcake?! came to our rescue last minute to present us with the Battenberg Cake challenge! She highlighted Mary Berry’s techniques and recipes to allow us to create this unique little cake with ease.

I'm back!  And I'm glad to be back.  The past year has been challenging and super busy. I lost my passion for being in the kitchen and also just did not have time to cook and bake as well.  However, I am now glad to be back at it.  I really enjoyed making this cake and look forward to future challenges.  I debated back and forth between what flavors I wanted to use for the cake.  At first, I was thinking chocolate and salted caramel, then I thought coconut and lime. The winner ending up being the coconut and lime Battenberg.  I went with a coconut sponge cake. I adapted the recipe provided by Mandy, but omitted the almonds for shredded coconut and the almond flavoring for some coconut milk.  I then made a homemade lime curd for the filling.  I decided to make a white chocolate plastic for the covering.  The covering was very challenging for two reasons.  The day I attempting it, it was warm and second I think I over filled the cake with the curd.  In the end though, my friends were impressed and thought the cake was very tasty.  Below is the cake, before it was completely devoured.

Daring Bakers-Croissants-Challenge #7

The Daring Bakers go retro this month! Thanks to one of our very talented non-blogging members, Sarah, the Daring Bakers were challenged to make Croissants using a recipe from the Queen of French Cooking, none other than Julia Child!

I'm late, I'm late, I'm late.  Boy, does going back to school after 20 plus years make you think how did I do it when I was so young.  Anyway, I enjoyed this challenge, even though it did take all day.  I impressed a lot of people for even attempting the challenge.  I do need to work on the rolling and forming of the croissants. I have had requests for chocolate croissants next time.  Juli sure made it look easy!

Daring Cooks- Stock Soup and Consome-Challenge #8

Peta, of the blog Peta Eats, was our lovely hostess for the Daring Cook's September 2011 challenge, “Stock to Soup to Consommé”. We were taught the meaning between the three dishes, how to make a crystal clear Consommé if we so chose to do so, and encouraged to share our own delicious soup recipes!

It was nice to make homemade chicken stock, something I had not done in awhile.  I ended up using the stock to make a staple dinner that I make at least once a month in the fall and winter.  I made meatball soup with carrots, potatoes, and celery.  I sometimes also throw in pasta.  It's a quick and easy soup.  I also made pepper drop biscuits to go with the soup.  Enjoy the picture!

Daring Cooks-Appam and Curry- Challenge #7

Mary, who writes the delicious blog, Mary Mary Culinary was our August Daring Cooks’ host. Mary chose to show us how delicious South Indian cuisine is! She challenged us to make Appam and another South Indian/Sri Lankan dish to go with the warm flat bread

I enjoyed making the curry for this dish, but had an awful time with the appam.  They just would not cook up right. I'm not sure if I did not have the pan hot enough or did something wrong with the batter.  I'll try and give it at try another time. I did love the green curry I made though. It was fantastic!

Daring Bakers- Fresh Frasiers - Challenge #6

Jana of Cherry Tea Cakes was our July Daring Bakers’ host and she challenges us to make Fresh Frasiers inspired by recipes written by Elisabeth M. Prueitt and Chad Robertson in the beautiful cookbook Tartine.

I was initially going to skip this challenge because life got in the way, but then I was visiting a friend who encouraged me to pick some fresh raspberries and strawberries from her yard.  The fresh fruit made me think of this challenge.  I decided that the combination of both of these fruits would go great with the chocolate chiffon cake.  The making of all of the components was easy.  I learned that I am not a huge fan of pastry cream.  I can take it or leave it.  The challenging part was the assembly of the cake.  As you can see in the picture, the berries can be seen around the sides, but not as pretty and nice as I was hoping.

The taste of the cake was very nice; the pastry cream and cake still let the taste of the berries shine through.  The two other people that were lucky to have a piece, said it was very tasty.  I can see making this again, definitely for more practice on the assembly part.