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.

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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

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