When I started as a Daring Baker there were 5 of us. Ivonne and Lis of course because they are the founders. Then there was my less evil twin Helen. And crazy Brilynn. And me. We made Chocolate Biscotti from who else, Dorie Greenspan. From there we grew to 7 of us where we learned not only could we make croissants but we could invent new swear words as well. Helen and I lucked out as we were the two who had already made them before. We had many a humorous exchange of emails. There was the evil crepe cake that I hated more than life itself. The cake itself was a beauty and I knew why Brilynn picked it, but that is where the adoration stopped. For we made that cake in April 2007, and I have yet to make a crepe since! :( When it was my pick I had us make a Strawberry Mirror Cake which was hit and miss depending on who's blog you read. I personally loved it, but then again, I picked it. Out of all the challenges I would have to say my favorite was the Yule Log. As it was something that … [Read more...]
Bear with me….
Life is often funny. Sometimes in the literal sense and sometimes in the ironic. Ironic is what I have going on. And more of the tragic irony. You see when we got the Daring Baker challenge(which I actually finished early again) I knew that I would have to alter the shape in some way. For we were making braided breads. I have a thing(not really a rule but a thing) in which I only bake braided bread when I lose someone to death. Having not lost anyone to death in awhile I did not want to “jinx” it so to speak(I am superstitious) and so I made bear claws instead. Really big ones....I call them bears on steroids claws, because I gave then like twelve claws each. I guess I was in the go big or go home mood that day(or the if I make them smaller it will take less time mood. :P ) This last Wednesday morning my father received a phone call letting him know that his best friend and a man we called my uncle Red had passed the night before from a heart attack. Now my uncle Red was … [Read more...]
The Angel Made Me Do It….
April 30th I made a cake. I spent a good portion of my day on said cake. A GOOD portion. I made an Opera cake. It was rather a pain in the butt, I will not lie to you. So imagine my delight when I read that we were making Opera cakes as the Daring Bakers challenge. I thought yes, for once I will be ahead of the game, oh happy day. I didn't read the rest of the post and went on with my happiness, not worrying about it. Checking our website(the DB one) I started noticing that everyone's Opera cakes all had white glaze on top. Odd, I thought. I went back and read the recipe/instructions. You want to hear somebody swear? I out rivaled ANY swearing I do for hockey, I was that pissed. “I don't to make this f#%king thing again!!!” I professed loudly(you see it could not be dark in color...and mine was chocolate). And I really didn't want to. I considered not doing the challenge at all or just being a rebel and submitting the chocolate one. Suddenly I had an angel on one … [Read more...]
Pop Goes The World…
Well, this was a Daring Baker first for me. No, it's not that I haven't made this before, it's that I have never waited until the day it was due to do the challenge! AHHHHH. I thought I had more time, guess not. This month's challenge comes from Elle of Feeding My Enthusiasms and Deborah of Taste and Tell. They selected Cheesecake Pops from one of my newer cookbooks, Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey. These fell into the messy category as the dipping in the chocolate and the flying sprinkles everywhere got a little messy. Then again, I was in a bit of a hurry. :) These fun little pops would be a great thing to make with your kids or to serve at one of their parties. They can be formed into many shapes. If I had a little more time to be creative, I would have gone that route. Even if you are not a kid, these are certainly tasty...I mean it's cheesecake on a stick...covered in chocolate! Cheesecake Pops Makes 30 ¢â¬â€œ 40 Pops 5 8-oz. packages cream cheese at room … [Read more...]
