Daring Bakers march challenge - because every party needs a cake!

This month's challenge was courtesy of Morven from Food Art and Random Thoughts, and I got to do what I love most... CAKE!!!!!

I loved this month's challenge because we had quite a bit of freedom to do as we pleased with the cake and put our personal stamp on it.. not that we are not allowed to do that often.. but I guess this time I just had a field trip with the recipe.

Anyway.... it all began with the basic recipe for Dorie Greenspan's Perfect Party Cake from her book "Baking from my home to yours" and while I was reading the recipe my imagination began going wild...thinking about raspberry sauce between the layers and some lemony icing besides adding some pecans to it as well!!!...

But every good baker has to assemble the basic ingredients first.. so I did



I added pecans to the batter of the cake, and I must say that it came out beautifully.. it is just such a perfect cake.. so moist! Once the cake cooled down I cut the layers and I put raspberry sauce (some mashed raspberries with lemon and sugar) between them, when the cake was assembled.. it was time for the icing.

I decided to do some 7 minute icing (because I've never made icing before) instead of the butter cream, and I also added some lemon to the icing so make it tart (I really like lemony stuff.. so my cake was all fruity and lemony) the icing was good.. however not what I expected.... I was hoping that the 7 minute icing tasted more like the icing that the cakes that I ate when I was little had.. that sort of cheap icing (well maybe not cheap .. I dunno) but that it was mostly icing sugar and it had a lemony taste and it was a bit hard.. hopefully one day I'll find the recipe for that icing "the cheapo icing that the wedding cakes that I had when I was little had"

Well the cake was finished.. all covered in icing and looking pretty nice!!! I must say it was a really yummy tasting cake and I highly recommend making it sometime.. or you know.. whenever you need a cake for a party!!





And now.. please go visit some other Daring Bakers blogs to see their wonderful creations ... see you soon!!!

Come in Spring... would you like some Brioche?

How am I celebrating the arrival of spring??
home.. bundled up and drinking tons of echinacea tea.. that is RIGHT.. I am sick.. sniffling and coughing, and I wish that I could just disconnect from school and some of the stupid people in my groups would just let me rest and get better!!

Enough complaining I made brioche the other day.. and what do I think?? BRIOCHE is the greatest thing ever!!! I swear... heaven must smell like Brioche yum..

I leave you with some pictures while I go flop on the couch

Lemon Sabayon Nests

Friday March 14th was PIE day (also known as PI day as in 3.1416), unfortunately I didn't get to make any pies that day, but on Saturday I made lemon meringue tartlets for Miss Martha and her Josh.. it is really nice to use a recipe from the Daring Bakers over and over, the recipe has proven very delicious so that is WHY I keep going back to it.
I knew that I would have leftover curd from the tartlets, so I decided to adventure and do something from the LCBO's Food & Drink magazine for the Spring 2008 LEMON SABAYON NESTS *giggles* I love saying sabayon... sabayon.. sabayon.. *clears throat* anway, I made the nests for which you need:
* a muffin tin (greased)
* a preheated oven at 350F
* a few sheets of phyllo dough
* melted unsalted butter
* granulated sugar
the way to prepare the nests is: roll the dough and cut little strips like pasta, then separate them, put little piles of the dough in the muffin tins, gently hollowing out the centre to make a nest shape, you then proceed to brush them with butter and sprinkle them with sugar and bake them for 6-8 minutes.
Once the nests were done I only had to fill them with the same curd that the tarts had, but I wanted to make them prettier so I mashed some raspberries and mixed them with a little bit of sugar and pour that mixture over the filled curd nests ........ and this was the result!



I am sad to report that the nests did not survive the trip to Miss Martha's house, they were too fragile, however the tartlets were enjoyed and I was happy... I love making people happy with my baking!

That is all for now, may you have wonderful dreams of spring desserts!

Can't stand winter anymore

Lately I've been feeling blue, just feeling sad and moping around... the stress from school has taken a toll on me and this loooong winter isn't really helping at all, right now it is actually snowing out there... just what we need MORE SNOW!!!..

Maybe I just need to eat some cake with loooots of chocolate, or maybe I need to MAKE a spring cake to entice spring to come over.. or maybe I need a new apron (having a new apron would be great) that is flowery and that I can wear around the house to make me feel pretty and springy and in a good mood.

Luckily Miss Martha tried to help me out with this mood and brought me a present (yay for presents!!!) meet Miss Gretta



There is one more thing that has been putting a stress on me, and that is the fact that I am graduating soon and I need to find and job, and this search is driving me INSANE!!! I went to this job interview yesterday and the guy asked me at the end of the interview whether I had a car or not, when I answered NO.. he looked at me like I was a leper.. and proceeded to tell me that I would probably need to get one. Yeah.. cause what the world needs right now is MORE cars on the road, I bet he hasn't been on the public tranpo in.... well he has probably never been on a bus who am I kidding .. /sigh

I'll go back to my knitting for now, I hope your lives are going much better than mine!!! and if you are making me... could I come over?

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

*throws some confetti around*
*sings Happy Birthday*

YES... Happy Birthday to Bad Monsieur Josh this year you are 25 years old, but I thought you should remember how you looked not so long ago




I hope this year brings lots of excitement and good things, may all of your dreams come true. I hope to have you in my life for many years to come.
Thank you for being my friend and lover, for being my shoulder to cry on and the person who loves me as strange as I am!
*huuugs* Happy Birthday!!!

<3

Say Hello

Yes Say Hello to a new member of the family
Miss DAPHNE



isn't she pretty? I've been wanting to get a Daffodil for a really long time, now I am really happy.
And.. one more thing this is the toque that I just finished knitting, it was my first time making a pompom and I must say it was very successful it is very full and it is a fun pompom.. I like my new hat!!

February's Daring Bakers challenge

Finally I get to post the results of February's challenge.. yay!!!! I've just been so busy with school that I didn't have time to do it at the appropiate time, and that made me feel really sad, however I am a DARING baker so I made time this weekend to do my challenge and I was really happy.
When I first learned how to make bread my objective was to one day be able to make baguettes without a problem, well this is the beginning of that... so I was really excited when they announced that the challenge for February was FRENCH BREAD!!!! Thanks Mary and Sara

As always, I assembled all the ingredients



And then the adventure began, it was challenging this time... I had to go over the instructions a couple of times, and waiting for the bread to rise was torturous (but not as torturous as waiting for the bread to cool so I could take a bite) because I just wanted to taste the end result and I really wanted to try my hand at slashing the dough. It was challenging to make this bread, but then again that is WHY I am a daring baker, however I enjoyed every single bit of it... and...
THIS IS THE END RESULT!!!



Will I try this recipe again? DEFINITELY... I'll keep trying it until I perfect it for sure.... I love the taste of French bread, if I had it my way I would eat it everyday, so I'll keep trying this recipe and eating some awesome bread!!!
THANK YOU TO ALL OF YOU DARING BAKERS OUT THERE, who can make amazing bread out of FOUR ingredients!!! YOU ARE MY HEROES!!!

The adventures of the traveling PIE

To all of my fellow Daring Bakers, my apologies for not posting my challenge on time this month, but school has been absolutely crazy, I'll make my bread this weekend and do the official February challenge post then.

However, I'll leave you with the adventures of the traveling PIE!

Bad Monsieur Josh and myself made a pie for Valentine's day... a peach pie with ground pecans on the crust...
But we couldn't finish the pie and we had to travel to Midland, ON on Saturday so we took the pie with us.. a TRAVELING PIE!

The pie waited patiently in line to get on the bus




The pie took the Toronto subway and had to be particularly careful of the GAP...



The pie arrived to it's final destination, and it was a happy pie because it had seen some of the world!!!