L'Opera! : Daring Baker's May Challenge

I was happy to see this challenge was cake and a fancy one at that. I quite enjoy baking and decorating cakes though I had never heard of an opera cake.

Due to our crazy schedule this month and only having baking time on the weekends, I didn't get to this cake until Memorial Day. By that time, I was not much in the mood to make this cake anymore. I already knew I was going to be reducing the recipe by at least half when I went to the grocery store. I was even more glad of that when I saw the price of the ingredients require. Almond meal was over $11 for two pounds and the white chocolate bar(the only one I could find in the whole grocery store) was almost $4 for 3.5 ounces. If I had made this cake full size I would have spent over $20 just on those two ingredients, though I would have had some almond meal left. As it is, my little cake is worth about $10 and it's not even pretty. I skipped buying the almond meal and made my own, which may have not been the best idea.

My cake has a definitely gritty texture, due to the almonds. I followed the directions and allowed the sponge cake to cool on a piece of wax paper which didn't go so well since the side against the wax paper became quite soggy, which I thought might happen yet still did it. I used my own favorite buttercream flavored with lemon extract and also flavored the cake with lemon syrup and skipped the mousse as I am not a fan of mousse.

I didn't really understand how the cake was to be assembled since the directions didn't specifically say. I put butter cream on the top as suggested and once I added the glaze, it slid right off. I ended up scooping that all off and pouring glaze all over the cake since it was already stuck on the sides from sliding off.



I admit, my attempt at this cake was rather lacking in enthusiasm, but based on the cost on ingredients alone, I don't see myself making this cake again. The taste was nothing special, but that was also my fault since I didn't want to spend anymore money and tried to work with what I had on hand. Maybe a traditional chocolate version would be better. I am not a fan of white chocolate, but I will take dark chocolate any day. At least the little slice is kinda cute.



Be sure to check out the other DBer's attempts at opera cake on the blogroll, and if you feel up to attempting this recipe yourself you can find it here.

Slacker

I didn't do my Daring Baker's challenge this month. I was not in the mood to make balls of cheesecake and dip them in chocolate. Seems like too much work and mess for something I don't want to eat or make. I wanted a challenge to my baking skills! I was also really tired and busy on the weekends. You can check out the others' creations here.

So instead of making cheesecake balls on sticks I knitted, got my hair cut and played Mario Kart and Raving Rabbids with a little Rayman thrown in for variety.

Why is it that I can't sleep in during the weekends past 7 but am perfectly capable of this during the week?

March DB Challenge - Dorie's Perfect party Cake

When I saw this month's challenge was a cake I got rather excited. I love baking cakes; I don't need an occasion, though it usually helps. I am just glad Josh and I have friends and coworkers willing to eat my cakes. My family was never big on cakes. We much preferred brownies, which may explain why I prefer baking and decorating cakes to eating them.

I made this cake yesterday since all my plans to get this done on previous weekends failed miserably. Between forgetting to purchase one of the ingredients, weekend guests, car problems and other things it just didn't happen.

This cake required a cooked meringue butter cream, which was totally new to me. For the filling, I used blueberry spread made locally. I flavored the cake and butter cream with lemon, and used whole wheat pastry flour because I didn't realize that is what I had purchased. The cakes didn't rise as well as I had hoped, but still enough to allow me to split them in half for filling with blueberry goodness. I think I could use some new baking powder as evidenced by these cakes and last weekend's flat biscuits.



As for taste, the cake is lovely; so is the blueberry spread. I am definitely having peanut butter and jelly for lunch again. The butter cream is just not for me. Not a fan of frosting, with the exception of those containing cream cheese, I found the butter cream to fluffy and whipped cream like. I am not a fan of whipped cream mostly due to it's texture. I know, I am weird. I don't like ketchup either.



I have posted the recipe here if you want to try it, which I definitely suggest. Don't forget to check out the other, probably prettier variations, my fellow DBer's have made. I should really get a pretty plate for my cakes.

Daring Bakers: Julia Child's French Bread

I was nervous about this challenge. First of all, it is my first Daring Bakers challenge, and second, the sheer length of time needed was a bit daunting. I set aside my Saturday for bread making. I started around 11:00am and pulled the loaves out of the oven a little before 7:00pm.

The dough is simple enough. Comprised of flour, water, salt and yeast, I had all the ingredients needed in my pantry, but the recipe, when printed, was over 10 pages long. The techniques for making a beautiful loaf of French bread were mostly new too me. I have very little experience with yeast breads and had avoided using yeast for quite awhile until No-Knead Bread came along. I had several loaves made in my mom's bread machine not rise when I was a kid and was leery of using yeast for many years. After a few successful loaves of the No-Knead variety, I went for yeasted cinnamon rolls for my family and Josh's for Christmas morning. They turned out beautifully and some of my confidence in yeast doughs was restored. I even had fun making them. Bread dough is like Play-Doh for big kids, and you can eat it later.

For this bread, I went for the electric mixer method rather than the hand method because I have a mixer and love it to death. I had also used my mixer for the cinnamon rolls and had some idea of what the dough was supposed to look like in the mixer. The dough came together as it should and I started to feel good about this challenge.


During the first rise, I placed my marked container with the dough in my slightly warmed oven because my apartment doesn't usually get above 65F in the winter. The dough rose well, if a little faster than specified, to it's volume of 10 1/2 cups. My oven was a bit warmer the the specified 70F. The second rise went well too.

The shaping was the trickiest part for me. I wasn't quite sure how to go about it. I went with three small round loaves for ease's sake. My first one was a bit sloppy, but by the second I had an idea of what I was doing and it and my third one looked even with a nice tightness to the dough. They looked kinda cute wrapped in towels in the warmed oven.



They didn't rise as well as I had hoped, but were obviously bigger. Josh wanted dinner and so did I, so I got them out of the oven. A couple slashes across the top with the knife I received from the cooking competition and the loaves were ready for the oven.

I baked them on unglazed quarry tiles I picked up at Lowe's. The only problem, with the tiles was I couldn't fit all the loaves on one rack because only 4 tiles would fit on each rack which wasn't enough area for all three loaves. The bottoms of the two loaves on the lowest rack got a little burnt but they turned out pretty well otherwise.



As for the taste, the bread is salty. Saltier than I expected but should have due to the amount of salt in the dough. Normally, I don't like my bread that salty but I don't think I have ever had a loaf of "real" French bread so I do not know how it compares. I was hoping for a more rustic and crisper crust, not unlike what I can achieve with a loaf of No-Knead Bread, but either my technique or the recipe itself, didn't produce such a crust. The texture of the bread itself is nice; just what I was hoping for.

The first loaf made some excellent garlic bread to go with pasta and the second loaf was used to sop up creamy chicken and wild rice soup. The third loaf is still in the freezer, but may make an appearance during some cheese fondue this weekend or become garlic bread again since Josh was a huge fan of that. I doubt this is a recipe I will make on a regular basis, but it was a good experience. I enjoy a challenge and one that results in bread is not a bad thing.

ETA: Ok, I have now looked at other DBers' breads and many of them got a nice crusty loaf, so it must be me. Maybe I will have to try it again, but start a little earlier in the day.