Daring Bakers - Caramel Cake with Caramelized Butter Frosting

The Daring Bakers were charged with loving sugar this month. Shuna Fish Lydon of Eggbeater gave us her signature caramel cake...and it was delicious.

I chose to make cupcakes with this challenge and we all enjoyed them at school. Actually making the cupcakes and icing was not a challenge for me...caking from scratch is something I do on a regular basis. I do not, however, often come up with great flavor combinations. Plain-jane chocolate and vanilla are my most-requested flavors, although sometimes I get to spice things up with peppermint, german chocolate, or strawberry. Switching to the sweet, yet bold caramel flavor was great.

These cupcakes were very popular at school and have been requested for future celebrations. The cake itself had a soft caramel flavor and balanced the extreme sweetness of the caramelized butter icing.


I was excited for making the caramel syrup as that is something I have never made. I was not excited to realize I didn't have a pastry brush--after I had started the process. You can see by the picture what happens when you don't have a brush and can't find a suitable tool. There's definitely a reason the directions say to wash down the sides of the pan. Although I cooked my syrup until it felt "sticky between two fingers," I think I should have cooked it longer as it turned out to be pretty thin when I used it on top of the cupcakes.



Important Information:

• Our leading lady this month is Shuna Fish Lydon of Eggbeater (http://eggbeater.typepad.com/)

• In a supporting role we have an optional challenge: Alice Medrich’s Golden Vanilla Bean Caramels, with LOTS of variation. Guaranteed to keep us all on a sugar-induced high all month! --I didn't do the optional challenge this month, but I have made caramels before--they are delicious!

• Helping me (http://culinarycuriosity.blogspot.com/) host this month are
  Alex (Brownie of the Blondie and Brownie duo: http://blondieandbrownie.blogspot.com/)
  Jenny of Foray into Food (http://forayintofood.blogspot.com/)
  Natalie of Gluten-a-Go-Go (http://glutenagogo.blogspot.com/) for the gluten-free recipes

• Recipe source:
  
  Caramel Cake with Caramelized Butter Frosting courtesy of Shuna Fish Lydon as published on Bay Area Bites
  
  Optional Caramels: Golden Vanilla Bean Caramels from Pure Dessert by Alice Medrich, Artisan Press, Copyright 2007, ISBN: 978-1579652111
  
  Bay Area Bites - Caramel Cake recipe
  
  Shuna's cake - direct link to the cake post

Daring Bakers - Pizza & Toppings

Another month brings us to another Daring Baker's challenge. In some respects, I failed; in others, I did okay.

For October, Rosa, from Rosa's Yummy Yums chose an easy to follow recipe for “Pizza Napoletana” from Peter Reinhart's “The Bread Baker's Apprentice” which yields a beautifully tasty, thin, crispy, yet chewy pizza crust.

In her announcement post, she said, "I’m sure you’re going to like (well, I hope…)" We loved it.

Because of the need to have a photographer present while making the crust, I decided that pizza-making would be a great activity for the family to do while my mom was in town. Saturday evening was chosen as our special day.

On Friday night I began the process by making the dough and putting it in the fridge to rest. The next day we made 6 rounds from the risen dough. When they were ready, it was time to try tossing. This is where I failed. I wasn't in a great mood to begin with, but as a prepared my dough, it kept stretching and as I started to toss, holes would form immediately. I couldn't figure out what I was doing wrong and how to fix it.




Julia, on the other hand, picked up a piece of dough and tossed perfectly:

Doughs ready to be topped.

We didn't go wild on the toppings this time. Four pizzas gave us four opportunities to mix flavors.

Green bean, onion, tomato, chicken.

Chicken, tomato, onion, mushroom.

Here Lisa is explaining the soggy issue with the crust being too thin. It happened on every crust that was tossed. We plan to divide the dough into four sections instead of six next time to see if the increased amount of dough will help us achieve a slightly thicker crust.

The final product, minus the plain cheese version.

Happy Birthday, Kyah!

It's Kyah's 3rd birthday and she requested a Snow White cake. I had hoped to try a 'barbie doll' cake, but time and supplies were limited. Instead, I created a color-flow image of Snow White, complete with Mickey head/Disney stamp.
White cake, plain BC.

Baby Shower

Happy Birthday, Melanie

It's Melanie's birthday on Monday so it's time for another birthday cake. Last year Melanie got a cute little white cake with raspberry filling just like almost everyone else did. She loved it and didn't share any, but I know her favorite kind of cake is carrot cake. My mom shared a recipe for carrot cake that came from the mother of one of her good friends...an old recipe that is wonderful.
She gave me the recipe last year for Melanie's birthday but I didn't have time to bother with trying a new recipe at that time. This year I made time. I have never been a fan of carrot cake, but tonight I changed my mind. This is a very dense and moist cake. It has carrots, pineapple, coconut, and walnuts in it. I am not a fan of cooked raisins (no, I never order the cheese and raisin ravioli at Bona Casa). The icing is simply cream cheese, butter, and powdered sugar.

The cake is an individual size again this year, but torted and filled, then topped with cream cheese icing, I can't imagine Melanie eating this one alone--it would do her in. I wouldn't blame her, though, if she attempted it. It is definitely a cake worth keeping to herself.

Daring Bakers - Lavash Crackers & Toppings

It's time for the Daring Bakers again!

This month's challenge was presented by Natalie from Gluten A Go Go, and co-host Shel, of Musings From the Fishbowl. They wanted to have us make something savory so they chose Lavash Crackers from Peter Reinhart's The Bread Baker's Apprentice (pp 178 - 180). Please see their blogs for full recipes and directions.

I was excited to see this challenge because Lavash is a favorite treat served at a great restaurant down the road from me. It is one of the reasons my friend Kelly and I continue to go back. Yes, the rest of the food there is wonderful, but Kelly was right when he said that the crackers are the best part of the dinner. We have so much fun eating the crackers and 'dipping' them in the raspberry vinegar and oil they serve with it.

On to my story...I carefully chose a day when I had little else going on to bake the crackers. I wanted to put my full attention into the project because I knew this was a recipe I would want to make again often...especially for Kelly's birthday.

Well, things never work out exactly as planned. The windy remnants of Hurricane Ike hit Louisville on that chosen Sunday morning and by noon I had lost power. Most of the city lost power throughout the afternoon. The crackers didn't get made. On Tuesday when my power finally came back, I decided to make the crackers. I didn't have to work so there was plenty of time to bake and enjoy.

I pulled out the recipe and my ingredients and found that they didn't match. The recipe called for bread flour (I did not do gluten-free on my first go-around). I accidentally measured out whole wheat flour. Not wanting to admit a mistake even to myself, I bravely continued on with the recipe. I followed it exactly, except that my dough needed twice as much time to rest and rise.

I rolled out the dough until it was paper thin. Some of it I kept whole, planning to break it into pieces after baking. Some of the dough I cut with cookie cutters. I learned that mini flowers are not the best shape choice for these crackers. As I picked up each piece, the petals stretched and repositioned themselves until I couldn't tell some were supposed to be flowers. Not a problem, though, as I was more interested in the natural break-apart crackers ayway.

I ended up with 4 pans of cracker dough. Two pans were paper thin and baked for 12 minutes. They both turned out dark brown and much crispier than I would choose. I made the dough in the second two pans slightly thicker and baked them for only 8 minutes before turning on my eagle eye to watch for doneness. These crackers turned out much better--a perfect golden brown. Half of the crackers were sprinkled with sesame seeds (I have no idea why) and half were sprinkled with sea salt (my favorite).

I chose to make guacamole for my dip. Guacamole is my favorite dip and I order it whenever I can. Because of the price of avacados these days, I rarely make it for myself, but today was an exception--great crackers call for great dip. I can't give an exact recipe because I generally throw things in a bowl until it 'feels right,' but I used 2 ripe (soft but not mushy) avacados, 1 Roma tomato, a slice of white onion, lemon juice, 1 habanero pepper, and salt. Everything was diced and mixed, then chilled for a few minutes while I broke the crackers apart.

I need to make these crackers again, but doubt I will get to it before posting day. I want to make them with bread flour like the recipe calls for. My crackers tasted wonderful, but whole wheat is not the same as a finely milled flour and I want to see if I can get my lavash to be even more similar to the kind at our favorite restaurant. I also want to try other spices on top. The sea salt was great with the guacamole, but there are so many spices, seeds, and salts that would be good. Finally, I want to try the gluten-free option given in the challenge. There just isn't enough time in the day (or the month) to do everything. It's good that I have a running to-do list...this is on it again!

TWD: Chunky Peanut Butter and Oatmeal Chocolate Chipsters

These cookies are great! Thanks to Stefany of Proceed with Caution for choosing these yummy cookies.

I need to finish this post but there's not much to say. The recipe for Chunky Peanut Butter and Oatmeal Chocolate Chipsters can be found on page 73 of Dorie's cookbook or at Stephany's blog.

I took most of these cookies to school. When I bring treats, I usually put them in the lounge when I get to school and they are often gone by the time I get back to the lounge before picking up my students. This time I got smart--I took them to the lounge when I went down for lunch. Everyone there at that time took a few and commented that these were the best cookies yet. I agree. Chocolate chip cookies, peanut butter, and oatmeal all together in one package. YUM!