Buongiorno! Megan of My Baking Adventures leads us to Italy, the land of Tiramisu with Dorie’s Tiramisu Cake. In an attempt to be faithful to the recipe, I’ve been all over town trying to find mascarpone cheese. My last ditch effort was at a natural food store on Tuesday, but no luck. I know some people have been able to find it at Publix, Walmart (gah!) even, but I did not. Thankfully I came across a great website that gives (somewhat cryptic at times) substitutions for mascarpone cheese, as well as others. Click to continue…
Tagged as:
Chocolate,
Coffee,
Resource,
TWD
by Aimee on April 29, 2009
You know the song in Alice In Wonderland, “A very merry un-Birthday to you!” Well, a very merry un-Iron Cupcake challenge to you! At least I’m going to try since I obviously did not make the deadline…yet again…this month. I still managed to get a cupcake designed and baked though, and that’s what the challenge is really all about right…baking cupcakes outside of the box!
I really wanted to branch out with this month’s Iron Cupcake flavor inspiration of soda pop. There are so many sodas to be had out there other than plain ‘ol cola…red apple, crushed melon, green tea, lavender…there’s even orange cola. Being the bohemian that I am, I wanted to experiment with one of the more uncommon flavors. My only problem was that I couldn’t find any of them available locally. Sorry dear reader, but I’m not going to make a special 45+ minute trip galavanting across Florida trying to find Kumquat soda. If I had had more foresight (which I should have by now) I would have known that I live in a proverbial no-man’s land whose only fizzy consolations come in plain Coke and Pepsi Co. flavors, and I could have simply ordered something unusual from somewhere exotic…like Scottsdale. *sigh* But I didn’t. So I was stuck with cherry. Click to continue…
Tagged as:
Cherry,
Chocolate,
Cupcakes,
Recipe!,
Soda
by Aimee on April 28, 2009
Shesh, has another week gone by already? Some weeks I’m not all that jazzed about the TWD selection, sometimes I’m in excitement mode, and then there are weeks where I’m neither jazzed nor excited. This week initially started out jazzed, then turned lukewarm. When I initially heard the title, “Chocolate Cream Tart” (selected by Kim of Scrumptious Photography) I got excited because who doesn’t get excited when they hear the word, “chocolate”. Then I looked at what was entailed, don’t ask me why, but the technique seemed like a bit of a let down. I have no idea what I expected when I heard “Chocolate Cream Tart”, but I do know it didn’t involve what sounded like a glorified chocolate pudding thrown in a tart shell. Well, sometimes it’s good to have low expectations, or none really to speak of. This was PHENOMENAL! Click to continue…
Tagged as:
Chocolate,
Coconut,
Cream,
Recipe!,
TWD
by Aimee on April 21, 2009
by Aimee on April 14, 2009
by Aimee on March 2, 2009
My first true visual disaster in a Daring Bakers challenge. Who knew that I could screw up a three ingredient recipe? What you see here is actually an illusion. I know, it looks pretty appetizing (at least I think so). However, I had to perform radical surgery to get the cake to look so appealing. Despite that fact, I am IN LOVE with the taste of my visually disastrous cake. I have to add that while I love the cake, the coconut ice cream (recipe below) and strawberries really put this dessert over the top.
The February 2009 challenge is hosted by Wendy of WMPE’s blog and Dharm of Dad ~ Baker & Chef. We have chosen a Chocolate Valentino cake by Chef Wan; a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Dharm and a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Wendy as the challenge.
While our hosts were kind enough to include two recipes for vanilla ice cream, we had the freedom to choose any flavor our little hearts desired. As luck would have it I just picked up Dessert FourPlay
(nudge, nudge, wink, wink, say no more! Sorry, but I couldn’t help the Monty Python reference) by Johnny Iuzzini. While perusing this tome of sugar porn, the stars aligned, doves took flight and silver trumpets rang out when I came across a DIVINE recipe for coconut ice cream. It was meant to be. Thoughts of tropical islands, Polynesian gods, and creamy coconut ignited my imagination and the genesis of a rich chocolate, coconut and strawberry confection was conjured in my mind’s eye. Click to continue…
Tagged as:
Chocolate,
Coconut,
Daring Bakers,
Ice Cream,
Oops!,
Recipe!,
Strawberry
by Aimee on February 18, 2009
Someone finally picked the recipe for the picture that is most likely responsible for over half of the sales of this book
. Stephanie of Confessions of a City Eater picked the jaw-dropping Devil’s Food White-Out Cake.
Despite appearances, this cake is actually pretty easy to make. The thing you want to remember when making cakes, at least for creamed butter and sugar batters, never cheat on your mixing time in those initial stages. Creaming sugar and butter can really make or break your cake. It can mean the difference between discovering a brick or a fluffy cloud of sweetness in your oven. Click to continue…
Tagged as:
Chocolate,
TWD
by Aimee on February 6, 2009
One of these days I’m actually going to be on time. It’s going to happen. It’ll probably be the day a giant meteor hits the earth destroying all life on the planet before anyone gets to read it. Figures. This weeks selection is brought to you by Jessica of cookbookhabit. Click to continue…
Tagged as:
Chocolate,
Salt,
TWD
by Aimee on December 29, 2008
Yep, those were the exact words that left my lips the night (or was it morning?) when I finally finished the assembly of this challenge. I just joined the Daring Bakers group last month and while last month’s challenge wasn’t too difficult for me, seeing as I had made a caramel cake a couple of months earlier, December was certainly a doozy. pics
Tagged as:
Chocolate,
Daring Bakers,
Hazelnuts,
MacGyver Baking Tip,
Oops!
by Aimee on November 10, 2008
I came across this post on Food Interviews the other day and I wanted to give everyone a last minute alert to a deal that Patric Chocolate is offering through Food Interviews until Wednesday, November 12th. First, there’s a contest to win up to $100 of chocolate. The way it works is every tenth person who orders online using the code 3FLMDE will get their order free. Even if you don’t win, the code will take 10% off your purchase (including sale items) AND two complimentary chocolate bars on any purchase over $50. Please make sure you read the fine print in the Food Interviews post. I love supporting these smaller, artisan businesses when I can, and maybe you can get some free chocolate to boot!
Tagged as:
Chocolate
