January 2016 Daring Bakers' Challenge: Cake Design

I'm pretty sure that this month's Daring Bakers' challenge was created with me in mind. We were challenged to decorate a cake or cupcakes with fondant or gum paste. When I read the challenge brief, I'm pretty sure I smiled from ear to ear and did a little happy dance. Talk about something being right up your alley!! I was so excited about the challenge that I had a hard time falling asleep that night because cake ideas and visions were zooming around in my brain. 

Eventually, after considering many designs (including a beach scene, a person soaking in a bubble-filled bathtub, a Lego-theme, and a baking theme), I opted to try a book cake: A William Shakespeare anthology, to be exact. (Yes, I really am THAT big of a literature geek!)

Once again, my artistic director (aka Eric) was a huge help and gets a lot of credit for how this cake turned out. His engineer skills were incredibly beneficial when it came to figuring out how to approach the cake (linear thinking at its best!!) and when it was time to rough out the templates for cutting the cake and bookmark.

My two favorite Shakespearean plays are "Taming of the Shrew" and "Much Ado About Nothing", so we showcased both plays by having the finale of "Shrew" on the left-hand page and he beginning of "Much Ado" on the right page.

This cake makes me smile so very much. It represents my love of literature and how some of my loved ones had a hand in creating it. Can't beat that!!!

Eric putting his knife and sculpting skills to work

Conor helping me smooth the fondant

A book you can REALLY sink your teeth into

Much Ado About Nothing page

December 2015 Daring Bakers' Challenge: Gateaux Pithiviers

This time of year, I go into high gear when it comes to baking. I have quite the to-do list because I really like making cookies for Christmas: sugar cookies, gingerbread men/women, pizzelles, krumkake, etc. Needless to say, this can make getting my December Daring Bakers' challenge a bit to get around to, no matter how excited I am to complete the challenge. This year was no exception! Here I am on the 27th and just now finished the monthly challenge.

This month's challenge definitely required some planning and some upper body strength! We had to make our own puff pastry, which is time consuming because it requires quite a bit of resting/cooling time, and rolling out cold dough gives my various arm/torso muscle groups a lovely workout. Can't complain when baking causes muscle soreness!!

The gateaux pithivier is basically a frangipane (sweet almond-based paste) sandwich that has puff pastry instead of bread. :)

Because my creation is currently cooling, I can't tell you how it tastes yet, but it sure is pretty!! I'm thrilled with how my puff pastry's layers turned out. Their lamination makes me quite happy, I must say!! I even made cinnamon sugar twists with the leftover puff pastry. Whee!!

Thanks to the Daring Bakers' community for another fun challenge that added a new recipe to my "been there, done that" baking checklist.

For the month of December, Kat challenged us to make Gateaux Pithiviers.

Daring Bakers Challenge November 2015: Cheesecake Crumble Pie

This month's Daring Bakers challenge was completely new to me, but seemed like a "how could this possibly turn out anything but yummy" kind of challenge. We were asked to do our own take on a cheesecake crumble pie. When I first read the challenge brief, I thought "they want us to make a what??" Lo and behold, this "cheesecake crumble pie" is really a thing and quite a popular thing. Who knew??

We were given quite a bit of leeway when it came to the flavor profile, so I opted to fill my go-to pie crust recipe with a pumpkin cheesecake recipe that I've been meaning to make for YEARS. Plus, it's fall ... no better time for something flavored with pumpkin! Based on the cheesecake recipe given in the challenge brief, I decided to half the cheesecake recipe I decided to use and I'm glad I did ... it was the perfect amount for my pie. I followed the crumble recipe that was provided in the brief (YUM) but easily could have halved that amount, too. I wound up with a bit too much on the pie and still had plenty left in my mixing bowl. That said, always better to have too much than too little when it comes to a crumble topping! :)

 I served the pumpkin cheesecake crumble pie as the dessert for our recent family dinner and everyone gave it a big thumbs up! I wasn't sure if our kids would think much of it, but from the pictures below, you'll see that I shouldn't have wondered. :)

Taste test

Future food critic's official verdict

Crumble face

Here are the recipes I used:

Butter Pie Crust (from a pie-making class I took a few years ago- amounts below make 2 crusts)
2 1/2 c all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1 c cold butter
1/2 c ice water

Pumpkin Cheesecake (I halved all of the amounts listed below when I made the pie)
Four 8-oz packages regular cream cheese (room temp)
1 1/2 c sugar
5 eggs (I used 3 when I halved the recipe)
1/4 c flour
2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
14 oz can pumpkin puree
Pinch of salt

Directions: Beat cream cheese until fluffy. Slowly ad sugar. Add eggs one at a time. Gradually add everything else.

Crumble Topping (from challenge brief)
1 cup scooped and levelled / 140g all-purpose (plain) flour
½ cup / 75g rolled oats
1 cup / 200g white sugar
⅔ cup / 135g brown sugar
½ tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp salt
½ cup / 1 stick / 113g cold unsalted butter

Directions: Mix all dry incredients together in small mixing bowl. Add butter and crumble together until it resembles a coarse meal (pea-sized).

For this challenge, I made and pre-baked the pie crust. When the crust was cool, I filled it with the pumpkin cheesecake filling, baked it at 500 for 15 minutes (10 would have been enough!), dropped the temp to 200, topped the pie with the crumble topping, and baked for 1 hour more. I should have followed my gut instinct and covered the crust with a collar before the 2nd bake because it got too dark, but oh well! No big deal... just a slightly darker crust than I otherwise would have preferred.

Pumpkin Cheesecake Crumble Pie

Yum!

 For the month of November Krista & Nicole of "Two Cups of Sugar" challenged us to make our own version of cheesecake crumble pie.

October 2015 Daring Bakers' Challenge: French Macarons

This month's Daring Bakers' challenge gave me the opportunity to tick another item off of my baking bucket list and I couldn't be more excited about how the whole thing went! This month, we were challenged to make French macarons ... no, not the coconut macaroons ... macarons ... the egg white-based sandwiched cookies that basically taste a little like Heaven.

We had to decide whether to use the French or Italian method of making these airy little delights. I opted for the Italian method, simply because I knew by bringing the sugar to a boil, I wasn't at risk of having gritty cookies. Gritty cookies = no bueno. 

We had free range for our flavors, so I made orange-zest cookies with a chocolate ganache filling. Oh... my... goodness. They were so yummy!

Because I'd never made them before, I was a bit nervous about how they'd turn out. Fortunately, watching various baking shows (a special thank you to Great British Bake Off) I knew some of the methods and tricks that would help lead me toward success. And success I did have!! Each cookie had its foot (aka bumpy part around the sides) that showed the air properly escaped as it poofed up the cookie. 

The cookies were properly crispy and chewy all at the same time. I really couldn't have been happier with how they turned out and will definitely make them again in the future.

Macaron feet

Orange and chocolate macarons

For the month of October we got to take on one of many bakers' deepest, darkest kitchen nightmares : macarons. Our talented bakers Korena from Korena in the Kitchen and Rachael from pizzarossa made the intimidating task of mastering these French beauties a breeze.

June 2015 Daring Baker's Challenge: Charlotte Russe

The day I was supposed to blog about last month's challenge landed smack-dab in the middle of our camping trip. Needless to say, our tent in the middle of Bay View State Park didn't have wi-fi. :)

This month, we were challenged to make either a Charlotte Royale or a Charlotte Russe. I opted for the Russe, which is basically ladyfingers that are surrounding a whole bunch of creamy/chocolaty goodness ... and tied with a bow for extra specialness.

I'd never made ladyfingers before and was rather excited to try it out. Let's just say that they didn't turn out (visually) as expected .... I'm thinking because I didn't have a tip that was ideal for the job ... but that didn't stop them from tasting really good. I also added raspberry liquor from a local distillery to add a bit of extra flavor to my chocolate "filling". All I can say to that is OMG sooooo good!

I gave the kids Charlotte Russe "sandwiches" and both gave the experiment their (sticky) thumbs up. Can't complain about that!

For the June daring bakers challenge Rebecca from BakeNQuilt.comchallenged us to make Charlotte Royale and Charlotte Russe from scratch. Savory or sweet Charlottes were definitely tasty showstopper

November 2014 Daring Bakers' Challenge: Paris-Brest

I'm writing this post as the rest of the family are off doing various Thanksgiving activities: playing cards, watching TV (currently, a dog show), rough housing, and chatting. Thus, I'll make this brief because I don't want to miss out on the fun. :)

This month, we were challenged to make a Paris-Brest, which was pretty darned exciting to me because I actually knew what it was thanks to a past season of The Great British Bakeoff (Thank you Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood!). I even knew it was a reference to a bicycle race in France. (How worldly am I??)

I chose to do a Paris-Brest recipe by Jacques Pepin (click for recipe); the final product was filled with a chocolate mousse/cream instead of the traditional crème patisserie. The whipped cream was extra yummy because the recipe called for adding dark rum to the mixture. Hello! YUM!

The Paris-Brest was a bit over baked, which was a bit of a disappointment, but the rum whipped cream made up for that little issue. :)

 

The November Daring Baker’s challenge took us for a ride! Luisa from Rise of the Sourdough Preacher challenged us to make Paris-Brest, a beautiful pastry celebrating the Paris-Brest bicycle race.

Daring Bakers' Challenge October 2014: Sachertorte

This month's Daring Bakers' challenge was a definite "11th hour" things for me! I'm pretty sure that someone hit the turbo speed button on the month, because it seemed to FLY by. Well, the day before the baking deadline, there I was melting chocolate, beating egg whites, measuring flour, folding, and baking to make my first ever sachertorte!

What, you ask, is a sachertorte? Simply put, it is a dense Austrian chocolate cake that uses beaten egg whites as a leavening agent, incorporates apricot jam as a flavor layer, and is encased in a poured layer of chocolate ganache. The key is to incorporate the egg whites without deflating them ... no easy task... and no tidy task, either.

I was actually really excited about this month's challenge because Eric and I have recently gotten hooked on a show out of the UK called "The Great British Bake Off" and one of the technical challenges given during one of the episodes was a sachertorte. The show is hosted by two well-known bakers from the UK: Mary Berry (isn't that the best name ever??) and Paul Hollywood.

As I worked on my creation last night, I had many thoughts running through my head, but the most prominent one was "What would Mary Berry say?" Would she think I whipped the egg whites enough? Would she approve of my folding technique? It tickled me how a TV host was so absently involved in my process yesterday. At one point, Conor asked if he could help me prepare the cake... of course, that was just as I was folding in the egg whites, which requires a more delicate touch than he tends to display. Instead, I had him help me sift the flour... much less mission critical, but still make him feel special! :)

I'd read about a number of people having difficulty with the poured chocolate finish provided by the recipe provided for the challenge, so I opted to hedge my bets and use Mary Berry's ingredients and quantities for that aspect of the cake, and I'm glad I did. The poured chocolate went on beautifully and turned out so smooth!

The final touch of a sachertorte is writing "Sacher" on its top. The recipe called for milk chocolate, which is something I'm not a fan of and ... it turns out ... don't even keep in our house. We have dark and semi-sweet chocolate galore, but no milk chocolate. I was concerned that the chocolates I had wouldn't provide enough of a contrast with the poured chocolate, so I opted to use white chocolate for the final touches.

Because of the late hour the sachertorte was finished last night, we decided to hold off on taking it for a taste test run until tonight. So, at this point in time, I have no clue how it tastes, but it sure looks pretty and it rose during its time in the oven, so I'm taking that as a win! :)

(please ignore the flash's reflection in the cake!)

The October Daring Bakers' challenge was brought to us by Korena of Korena in the Kitchen. She took us to Austria and introduced us to the wonders of the Sachertorte.

Update (10/28/14): We dove into the sachertorte last night and gave it a big thumbs up. The kids devoured it! To save us from eating the whole thing, I took the leftovers to work, and my co-workers happily finished off the remaining sachertorte goodness.