Happy Birthday, Mom

Today is Mom's birthday. Crystal is down here for a visit and we decided to make and mail Mom a birthday treat. Since Mom is a HUGE Hello Kitty fan and we are Bakerella fans, the decision was an easy one. We made Hello Kitty Cupcake Pops.

Here are some pics of the process:

White cake mixed with vanilla buttercream. We formed the heads by hand and placed each on a stick. Then we used white chocolate chips for the ears. Next we froze the pops.



















Pops waiting to be dipped.

Freshly-dipped pop.

Pops were dipped in white candy melts.








Hellos are getting bows.

Which bows are on the wrong side?

Bows were made with mini M&Ms and large heart-shaped sprinkles.








Adding fine details. We tried Wilton and Kopykake food-writing markers and neither worked well. We are on the hunt for Americolor pens now.











The final product.





Idea from: http://bakerella.blogspot.com/2009/02/here-kitty-kitty.html

Daring Bakers - Lasagne of Emilia-Romagna

Post editing to come...until then, here are some notes and pictures. Yummy!










The recipe we’ve chosen this month is Lasagne of Emilia-Romagna from The Splendid Table: Recipes from Emilia-Romagna, the Heartland of Northern Italian Food by Lynne Rossetto Kasper (published by William Morrow and Company Inc., 1992).








The March 2009 challenge is hosted by Mary of Beans and Caviar, Melinda of Melbourne Larder and Enza of Io Da Grande. They have chosen Lasagne of Emilia-Romagna from The Splendid Table by Lynne Rossetto Kasper as the challenge.

Daring Bakers - Chocolate Valentino

We are already at the end of the month. Time flies when you are busy! Luckily, I did find enough time this month to make and enjoy the Daring Bakers challenge.

From the DB challenge post: February’s challenge is a Flourless Chocolate Cake, Chocolate Valentino, inspired by Malaysia’s “most flamboyant food ambassador”, Chef Wan. Recipe comes from Sweet Treats by Chef Wan

In addition to making the cake, we were asked to make our own ice cream.
I chose a Trader Joe's dark chocolate bar for my cake flavor and made vanilla bean ice cream...the perfect complement to the dark cake.
The cake had only 3 ingredients...chocolate, eggs, and butter. It was very dense and didn't appeal to me. I did like it a little better when I matched it with the vanilla bean ice cream and raspberry sauce, but this is not a recipe I'd choose to make again.

To read more inspiring stories, see what our hosts Wendy and Dharm had to say.






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.

Daring Bakers - Tuiles!

This month our Daring Baker challenge was to create tuiles. Tuiles are thin, crisp cookies that have a lacy texture. The traditional shape is a curve, much like a pringle.

Karen of Bake My Day and Zorra of 1xumruehren bitte aka - Kochtopf are the hosts this month. Check out their blogs for full recipes and much better writing.

This recipe was quite easy--only a few ingredients and quick mixing and baking times. The challenge was to come up with a great design and accent flavor. I chose to make plain tuiles...no chocolate or other special flavors this month. I do have a few ideas up my sleeve, but an upcoming move to a new classroom (with 18 five-year-olds in tow) is hampering my cooking ad dreaming time this month. I can't wait for summer when I can go back to all the challenges from this year and try them again...variations galore!

I made some tuiles in the traditional curve shape and rolled the rest. Each was drizzled with homemade caramel sauce...a perfect accent to the light flavor of the cookies.

Thank you to Karen and Zorra for a fun month!

Please look at the Daring Bakers blogroll to see how the tuiles turned out for others.

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.

Mendhi Cake

For some time now I've wanted to try creating a mendhi design. On a rare day off from school, I gave in to temptation and made a spectacular pistachio cake. Since I was trying new things, I decided to also try a new buttercream recipe. Thanks to indydebi for her great icing.

I used a henna pattern book found in a google search to for inspiration on the design. Dark chocolate made a great-tasting 'ink.' To make the design, I started with the overlapping squares in the middle and worked my way out. The whole design was completed with a #1 tip. I wish I would have spaced the pattern a little more evenly in some places, but I am happy with my first attempt at mendhi.

Working on the sides of the cake convinced me that I need a tilting turntable. The design there did not turn out as planned : (

To up the challenge, I think my next mendhi cake will have a more circular or flowing design.

Stats:

• Pistachio cake
• Indydebi icing
• Dark chocolate icing

Daring Bakers - French Yule Log

This month's challenge is brought to us by the adventurous Hilda from Saffron and Blueberry and Marion from Il en Faut Peu Pour Etre Heureux.
They have chosen a French Yule Log by Flore from Florilege Gourmand

The month finally came when I have to say "I couldn't do it." Between school, handbell practice and holiday concerts, traveling to see family, and needing to sleep, I was unable to fit in baking.

Please look at the Daring Bakers blogroll to see how the French Yule Logs turned out for others.

Make sure to visit our hosts Hilda and Marion for great posts about this challenge.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

From this month's challenge post:

SO, what is a French Yule Log you say and how is it different from the Yule Log we made last December if you were a member then?
In France you can buy two kinds of Yule log, either the Genoise and Buttercream type that we made last December, or what is more commonly purchased which is a frozen Yule Log very reminiscent of an ice cream cake, only often it’s not made of ice cream but rather frozen mousse of some sort. In French this is called an entremets which is sometimes loosely translated in English as simply a cream dessert. This also means that this recipe is not holiday-specific, it is also just a scrumptious dessert recipe.
This recipe comes almost entirely, except for one small labeled portion and some of the variations courtesy of our dear Daring Baker Fairy Tartelette, from the website: Florilège Gourmand (address above) which belongs to Flore (who has not disclosed her last name to me in my exchanges with her) and is unreal. Her website is in French and different portions of the recipe have been pulled from the recipes in the entremets section.

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