February's Daring Baker's Challenge

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.

Chocolate Valentino
Preparation Time: 20 minutes
16 ounces (1 pound) (454 grams) of semisweet chocolate, roughly chopped
½ cup (1 stick) plus 2 tablespoons (146 grams total) of unsalted butter
5 large eggs separated

1. Put chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl and set over a pan of simmering water (the bottom of the bowl should not touch the water) and melt, stirring often.
2. While your chocolate butter mixture is cooling. Butter your pan and line with a parchment circle then butter the parchment.
3. Separate the egg yolks from the egg whites and put into two medium/large bowls.
4. Whip the egg whites in a medium/large grease free bowl until stiff peaks are formed (do not over-whip or the cake will be dry).
5. With the same beater beat the egg yolks together.
6. Add the egg yolks to the cooled chocolate.
7. Fold in 1/3 of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture and follow with remaining 2/3rds. Fold until no white remains without deflating the batter. {link of folding demonstration}
8. Pour batter into prepared pan, the batter should fill the pan 3/4 of the way full, and bake at 375F/190C
9. Bake for 25 minutes until an instant read thermometer reads 140F/60C.
Note – If you do not have an instant read thermometer, the top of the cake will look similar to a brownie and a cake tester will appear wet.
10. Cool cake on a rack for 10 minutes then unmold.

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