Posts tagged as:
We revisit the golden lemon this week with Babette of Babette Feasts. She chose Dorie’s Tartest Lemon Tart which, as written, uses the WHOLE lemon, “zest, pulp, and juice.” This zesty combination truly gives you one of the tartest lemon tarts you’ve ever tasted. Click to continue…
{ 11 comments }
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…
{ 8 comments }
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…
{ 15 comments }
At the beginning of March I had great plans and was really getting into a groove. One of those was a concoction for March’s Iron Cupcake theme of Nuts and Seeds. I came, I baked, but again did not conquer because I was unable to get my post up before the 24th. Oh well.
When contemplating the theme, while hazelnuts certainly tugged on my tongue it was lemon that tenaciously stalked my taste buds. For some reason I’ve had citrus on the brain for a couple of weeks now. This predilection wasn’t chastened with March’s Tuesdays With Dorie selection of the French Yogurt Cake, which optioned making it a layer cake with lemon curd. But what to do with a lemon on your mind when you need a nut or seed? Turn to poppy seeds of course! Click to continue…
{ 8 comments }
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
{ 11 comments }
I’ve been thinking about doing an Iron Cupcake challenge for awhile now, and I couldn’t resist this month’s flavor, coffee. I can’t promise something every month especially since I’m not exactly great at following someone else’s recipes, let alone tinkering with my own. Despite that fact I think I created a yummy little cupcake, if I may say so myself.
Some of you may be asking, “What praytell is an ‘Iron Cupcake’?” Well, it is a challenge in which, “bakers from anywhere, all over the world, to take place in the ultimate flavor challenge and promote world peace, one cupcake at a time.” The way it works is there’s a flavor picked every month and you take that flavor as your inspiration to create culinary bliss inside your mouth through the medium of…a cupcake. But wait there’s more! You can win stuff too! Here’s the booty:
Our February ETSY PRIZE-PACK is from artists:
* something to warm your cupcake heart by DIANA EVANS
* as well as a pair of cupcake earrings from LOTS OF SPRINKLES.
* PLUS, IronCupcake:Earth can not forget our good friend, CAKESPY, who is now going to be doing a piece for our winner each month until further notice – sweet!
As an added bonus for February, SWEET CUPPIN CAKES BAKERY AND CUPCAKERY SUPPLY will be tossing in a variety of cupcaking supplies.
Last and certainly not least, don’t forget our corporate prize providers: HEAD CHEFS by FIESTA PRODUCTS, HELLO CUPCAKE by Karen Tack and Alan Richardson, JESSIE STEELE APRONS, TASTE OF HOME books, a t-shirt from UPWITHCUPCAKES.COM. Iron Cupcake:Earth is sponsored in part by 1-800-Flowers. All voting in the Iron Cupcake challenge takes place at No One Puts Cupcake in a Corner. Voting ends March 6th.
{ 8 comments }
It is ironic that what appears to be the simplest of tasks turns into a laborious challenge. That was the big lesson I learned attempting January’s Daring Bakers Challenge.
This month’s challenge is brought to us by Karen of Bake My Day and Zorra of 1x umruehren bitte aka Kochtopf. They have chosen Tuiles from The Chocolate Book by Angélique Schmeink and Nougatine and Chocolate Tuiles from Michel Roux.
They also supplied a recipe for savory tuiles from Thomas Keller from the French Laundry and his cookbook
{ 4 comments }
Here we are again with another challenge from the Tuesdays With Dorie group. Sorry for not posting this on Tuesday, but I’ve been overcome by election mania and glued to the TV for the past two days.
As far as this weeks challenge goes, Grace from Piggy’s Cooking Journal’s pick of Rugelach was a real winner for me. I tried a couple of different fillings with one half of the dough in an effort to see what I liked. I did a combination of the apricot, nuts, (semi-sweet) chocolate and crasins since I couldn’t find currants. I did this version with cinnamon sugar and without. Then I took a lead from I♥cuppycakes! and tried Nutella, nuts and toffee bits. Lastly I did one with just nuts and chocolate. And the winner is…none of them – ha! Actually I found elements that I liked in all of them, but I discovered that what I really liked was apricot, nuts, and chocolate without crasins or cinnamon, so that’s what I made with the other half of my dough.
Also, I never used regular nuts. I had been looking through one of my old magazines filled with Christmas cookie recipes and came across a recipe for Sugared-Almond Truffle Triangles. I liked the idea of sugared nuts and cooked up some sugared pecans to use for the nut component. The unfortunate thing about these nuts is they are TOO GOOD and TOO EASY to make that I ended up gorging myself on some leftovers last night. If you’re the type of person who likes to get their sweet and salt fix at the same time, don’t make these because you’ll end up eating them 24-7. Nuts aside, Rugelach was a real treat and I really enjoyed every version I tried. Click to continue…
{ 3 comments }
Stop me if you’ve heard this one… But seriously, according to one tale a French baker and a Polish King would collaborate in bringing to the world one of the most beloved French confections … the Madeleine. There’s as many theories about the origins of the Madeleine as the origins of the Universe, though not as much fervent argument (I think. Uh-oh, maybe I was wrong). My favorite is still the one about the Polish King who became so enamored with the petite cake when he tasted it that he named it after Madeleine, the French servant who baked them. At least King Stanisław Leszczyński had some sweets to cheer him up when he was in exile from his country.
Of course the history of the Madeleine doesn’t just include Kings and Queens. You’ve got your literary references as well. Who can forget it was Proust who gave the Madeleine much acclaim in Remembrance of Things Past. Talk about being enamored, “…at once the vicissitudes of life had become indifferent to me, its disasters innocuous, its brevity illusory – this new sensation having had on me the effect which love has of filling me with a precious essence … I had ceased now to feel mediocre, contingent, mortal.” Now I’ve been known to drown my sorrows with sweets, but I don’t remember ever having one of those experiences. “I had ceased not to feel … mortal”!? Wow. Maybe I’m just not that type of a writer. I’d love to eat something that made me feel like a superhero.
You may remember from a previous post that I had been in search of a Madeleine Pan
{ 8 comments }
I can honestly say that I have joined the ranks of Harry Houdini, but more on that in a moment. First I want to put out an important warning about bakeables. Sharing bakeables that is. Yes, all you would-be bakers out there must beware this important caveat, if you share the fruits of your labor, they will come calling when not regularly supplied with something from your kitchen. Case in point my Mom drifted through the living room the other morning dropping, “Hmmm, I’m in the mood for something . . . cake, pie, or canelés? What are you going to bake for me?” So there it is, the inescapable fact that if you bake and share, you will do so for the rest of your days and on a consistent basis or jeopardize every relationship in your life. This is the sad truth of when you weep in the kitchen if a cake falls it’s not because of all that work for naught, but because you most likely will be shunned from your family in response.
Here’s where I flex my magical skills. Click to continue…
{ 5 comments }
