December Daring Baker's Challenge was a CHALLENGE

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

Although I had made creme brulee, ganache, and mousse on other occasions, this challenge for me did not turn out to well as you can see from the pic. I was hesitant to post it, but when I read other posts, a few others had the same problem although most other daring bakers' logs came out beautiful!

FINALLY!!!

We finally rec'd our final approval from Dept of Agriculture! YAY!! It's been a loooooong stressful process, but we are finally ready to open! Here are some pics of our small, but functional and LEGAL (YAY YAY YAY!) space.

Almost there!

Here are a couple of pictures of the bakery. It's been a very LOOOOOOOOOOOOONG process. We signed the lease back in April, but the Dept of Health (bakeries are usually under the Dept of Agriculture, but because we will be offering light lunches, we are under Dept. of Health), nixed the first set of plans. The guy from the Dept. of Health was kind of enough to make a floor plan that would work, but because the second unit we have is free for six months we did not want to be tied to that second unit. Complication due to the location of the bathroom. What you see here is a plan Tracee came up with. The wall creates a hallway leading to the bathroom that prevents clients from going through the kitchen which was the problem with the first set of plans (which we did not come up with). So now its almost mid-November and we are almost done!

The Daring Bakers September Challenge!

September's challenge was lavash crackers! Mine came out more like pita bread, but they were still very tasty!!!

Brush Embroidery

I had been wanting to try this and finally had the opportunity. (My husband has been away on a business trip for a week. He should be home in an hour! He loves fondant cake and I made this litte heart shaped one). I used tip #2 (#3 was too big). I used a flat brush and gently pulled. Using the same bag I did the leaves and did the vines as well. I think it came out pretty good!

2nd Annual N. Georgia Cake Challenge 2008

YAY! Zoe won 1st Place in the Intermediate Category. (Shhhh! The judges said she should have been in advanced and if she had been competing in that category she would have placed. I won't say what place.)

It was a lot of fun. She did get a little nervous because of the time, but like she did to me last year, I told her keep going, we can do it! If you'd like to see more, go to: YOUTUBE VIDEO

Gumpaste Bra

At ICES I attended a demo (Marciella's Secret Bra). It was not as complicated as I thought it would be. You do need a pattern or cutters and some other tools, but all in all it was pretty easy! Here are ones I did.