Daring Bakers' March Challenge: Perfect Party Cake

I had mixed feelings about this month’s challenge. Obviously, I was very happy to see one of Dorie Greenspan’s mouthwatering recipes finally featured for the Daring Bakers to explore. On the other hand, the “Perfect Party Cake” seemed to be a little too grandiose for only two adults and a toddler; and I hate any cake that has butter cream as a filling or frosting.

My plans were made. My mission was clear:
1- I had to substitute another filling and frosting for the yucky butter cream. In this case, I made a chocolate mousse for the filling and a Ganache Soufflé (Whipped chocolate) for the frosting.
2- Since I was going for a chocolate and orange combination, I used orange zest in the batter instead of lemon zest and brushed the cake with an orange marmalade instead of the strawberry jam.

A few weeks ago, I was having a friend of mine, and her family over for dinner. I decided to make this cake hoping it will be the perfect party dessert.

I made the cake a day ahead. The cake was very easy to work with, much easier than making a basic genoise. It rose perfectly in the oven and has a crumbly and soft texture when it cooled down. I wrapped it up and stored it at room temperature for tomorrow to be filled and frosted.
The following day, I made the chocolate mousse, which was delicious, and frosted the cake with ganache soufflé and decorated the edges with coconut flakes.

I believe my next step was what turned this Perfect Party Cake into Perfect Hall of Shame Cake: I refrigerated the cake and served it to my poor guests only half an hour after getting it out of the fridge. And it was cold that day.
Having used a chocolate mousse as a filling and heavy cream for my ganache soufflé, I though I should refrigerate the cake to let it set. It was a mistake. The cake that once was so moist, so delicate, and so fragrant suddenly turned out into a dried Sahara desert.

Still my guests ate it all. They were polite and nice to me. But I couldn’t retain my disappointment. I couldn’t believe I served them something I have never made before (My mother always warns me not to try new things when I have people over. I didn’t listen to her. Again!)
And the worst of it all is that I had the nerve to wear a big, proud smile on my face when I was bringing the cake to the table.
I couldn’t take it much longer. I had to confess my sins. Especially when I saw my husband, the one who is supposed to support me no matter what I serve, rolling the cake in his mouth for hours and giving me the look of I know what's wrong with this cake. I had to speak. I had to speak before someone else does. I spoke: “ The cake is kind of dry! I think it would have been nice to brush it with a syrup to moisten it a bit”. They all nodded in agreement as if they were just waiting for the toddlers to start screaming of despair or for somebody to explode and throw the cake at me and wipe this smile off of my face once and for all.

I am exaggerating a bit. The cake didn’t end up in the trash, but still, it was a big disappointment and I take full responsibility for it. Though the texture was quite nice the following day when I left out for more then two hours before having a slice.

Bottom line, the sponge cake itself was great, and I will use this recipe again instead of the genoise. But this time I won’t refrigerate it. But if I have too, I will serve it two hours after getting it out of the fridge.

So thank you morven for this baking lesson and for this month’s challenging challenge.

Daring Baker's February Challenge: French Bread

First and most of all, I would like to thank Mary and Sara for their hard work explaining every step in making Julia Child’s French bread. Thank you, ladies!

I was very pleased with this month’s challenge, as I love bread very much. I love to eat it, to smell it, to touch it’ and to watch it rise slowly in the oven. I don’t imagine a table without some crusty bread. And a salad; but that’s another story.
As I said before, I was pleased to be making French bread, but also very nervous. Especially after the “assiduous student” told us how much it took them to make this bread: ten hours. Yes, ten!

After days of insomnia and hot flushes thinking about the ten hours, I finally get the courage to make it two days ago. I read the recipe over and over again. I read my fellow Daring Bakers advices and misfortunes. I set my ingredients, tied my apron around my waist, performed The All Blacks Haka and started making French bread. The dance really helped!

Although the recipe is very long, it took me about eight hours from start to finish, it wasn’t that complicated. It’s mainly flour, water, yeast and salt mixed together, and most of the time was about the rising of the dough.
The only thing I did differently from the recipe is reducing the amount of salt to 1½ tsp as a lot had complained about the bread being too salty.

Overall, the bread developed a nice crust and a beautiful golden color. But the crumb was a bit dense and chewy. I am presuming it had to do with the last rise where I was in a hurry to bake it.

Thanks again Mary and Sara for this wonderful challenge and for all your efforts and generosity. For more information about the recipe, head over to their blogs; and don’t forget to visit my fellow Daring Bakers chef d’oeuvre.

Daring Baker's Meringue Lemon Pie

Not being able to complete last month’s challenge, it felt like ages since my last Daring Baker’s Challenge. This time, Jen form Canadian Baker is our host and she had chosen the Classical Lemon Meringue pie for this Month’s challenge.

I believe I’ve mentioned before how my darling can’t stand the tart flavor of the lemon and that I have to add extra sugar to my lemon tarts to suit his taste. This time, not wanting to add the extra calories to my hips and thighs, and with the gorgeous lemons I’ve found at Whole Foods the other day, I’ve decided to use Meyer Lemons for my lemon meringue Pie. Meyer Lemons are believed to be a cross between real lemons and Mandarin Oranges. They are smaller in size and rounder than a lemon. They also have a light orange color when ripe. They are sweeter and less acidic than the lemons (Eureka and Lisbon) commonly found in the US, this is why I had to reduce the amount of sugar in the filling. Sssweet! Or should I say: Less Sssweet!

The Lemon meringue pie that I regularly make is my mother’s recipe. What differs it from the DB’s one is that my mother’s recipe uses fewer eggs for the filling, no butter and no cornstarch too. When making the filling, although the appearance of the lemon curd was gorgeous and smooth, it took a lot of time to thicken, past boiling point.

The crust was hard to work with at first, and I had to add some extra flour to stop it from sticking. And while the dough was able to hold the filling perfectly out of the pan, it wasn’t as flaky as I like it to be.
The meringue on the other hand was my favorite part: not too sweet and not too egg tasting.

Overall it was a fairly easy challenge, a little time consuming but I would have to say that my mother’s recipe remains my favorite by far.

You can check out the detailed recipe here. Thank you Jen for this lemony Challenge, and be sure to visit my fellow Daring Baker’s for more mouthwatering creations.

Daring Bakers' Tender Potato Bread

“ It’s impossible to think of any good meal, no matter how plain or elegant, without soup or bread in it”. M.F.K Fisher.


Another month, another Daring Bakers challenge and this one was on the savory side, which was quite what I hoped for after having too many sweets lately.

I love making bread. In fact, at my house we only have homemade bread: the whole wheat and honey bread for breakfast and the focaccia for lunch and dinner. But it has been a long time since I kneaded my bread without the help of my Harley Davidson (that’s how I call my Kitchen-Aid Stand Mixer. I even sing for my bike when it kneads my bread).
My mother thought me how to knead my first bread when I was about fourteen and I used to hate it. The dough was sticky, my tiny arms were getting tired and when I would ask my mom how to know if it’s done, she would answer: “you should feel it. When it’s smooth and elastic”.

Now, with some experience behind me, I enjoy kneading bread and find it very relaxing and somehow poetic to go from separate dry and wet ingredients to a magnificent piece of bread. Simple yet so comforting.
Making your own bread is very rewarding. Not only you are happy to enjoy fresh from the oven loaf of bread but also your house will smell like a warm bakery on a snowy Sunday morning.

Potato bread is basically: potatoes, cooked then mashed, mixed with whole wheat flour, all purpose flour, salt, a tiny bit of butter and water. I only needed a little less than 8 cups of all-purpose flour for the dough and shaped into two huge loves (1 lb each).
The dough was very sticky at first but then became very easy to work with after the 6 cups of flour. The texture of the bread is just lovely: very airy, light and a little chewy.

It was my first attempt on making potato bread and from my entourage excitement I can assure you it won’t be the last. I enjoyed having my sticky fingers and floury hair again.

Thank you Tanna. And be sure to head over to her blog for more details on the recipe, and to visit my fellow Daring Bakers chefs-d’oeuvre.

Bostini Cream Pie Adventures

Five reasons not to make Chiffon Cake while watching The Health Channel Veria:

1- You will start talking weirdly and using terms you rarely use, like: metabolism, healing your body and macrobiotic diet.
2- You will feel guilty about baking chiffon cake and you will look for a way to make it “healthier” by adding whole-wheat pastry flour.
3- You will blame yourself for not excising in months when you see people walking and running outside, and you will take your anger on your egg whites by over whipping them.
4- You will convince your husband that a salad for lunch is all we will have while he wonders if he did something wrong.
5- You will forget to add sugar to the batter, and notice it after you put the cake in the oven. You over whip your cake for the second time.

Yes, this is what happens when you watch Veria. Needless to say that my experience with chiffon cake was one to remember.

I waited until yesterday to make the cake thinking it’s an easy challenge and I will have no bumps along the road. Oh how I was wrong!

My first mistake was to replace white cake flour by a whole-wheat one. It gave me a lumpy and thick batter that I had to strain before baking it.

My second mistake, as mentioned earlier was to forget the sugar. Picture this: I put my batter in my tiny ring molds. I put them in the oven and when I turn back to start cleaning the mess I made, here it is. My sugar is still on the scale wondering: “ Where do I come in? Isn’t my turn yet?”

I had to quickly take my molds out of the oven, invert them into my mixing bowl and “gently” fold in the sugar. Although the dough has already been beaten and strained and badly treated.
Surprisingly the cake turned out not as bad as I imagined it would be, but obviously not as moist as a chiffon cake should be.

Oh! And did I mention I forgot to add half the juice? I didn’t? (Sigh!) No wonder it was a bit dry. I went out for some fresh air after this.

Thankfully there was the custard and the melted chocolate on top to save the day; otherwise I would be crying and blaming it on everything but myself. Like blaming it on... a TV Channel!

Thanks Mary for a challenge that made me feel like the real daring baker sketched on our logo. It was fun.

Don’t forget to hop over to her blog for more details on this fabulous Bostini cream Pie. And be sure to check out other daring bakers Chefs-d’oeuvres.

Happy week everyone!

Daring Bakers September Challenge: Cinnamon Buns

When I saw that this month’s challenge was going to be Cinnamon Buns, I laughed.
Although I have never had cinnamon buns before, I share with these yeasty treats a funny story. It all started less than two years ago, my hubby and I were entering the mall when I started feeling nauseous: “The smell of cinnamon is so strong today, almost repellent.” I told him. “ I don’t smell anything.” He replied, noticing that I really wasn’t feeling good. "Are you pregnant?” he asked joking.
A few days went by and I confirmed that I was indeed pregnant, and yes cinnamon buns were my free pregnancy test before the real revealing test. For the next nine months I couldn’t stand the smell of cinnamon and avoided to go pass cinnabon as much as possible.

Thankfully my repulsion for cinnamon faded away after I had my daughter and I was really excited to make cinnamon buns for the first time, as I love everything that involves yeast and kneading.

I made the buns earlier this month, as I knew I would be pretty busy later when moving out of our apartment.
I didn’t want to add any nuts or any other spice to the dough because I wanted to experiment the authentic taste of the buns.
The dough was wonderful to work with though I didn’t expect it be that soft. I preferred to use whole milk instead of buttermilk, and didn’t want to make sticky buns because nor my husband and I are adept of caramel glaze.

The smell of cinnamon buns in my kitchen was just fabulous, and they tasted wonderful as well. In fact I loved them so much, I ended up making another batch two days later. I glazed some of the buns and kept the others plain to dunk in my mug of milk.

But something intrigued me in the recipe: the quantity of fondant glaze was just too much. I still have half of it in my fridge.

So what to think about my first cinnamon buns experience? Well baking it twice gives you an idea of how much I loved it. The recipe is already in my repertoire and I even added a note to myself next time I make it: “Add more cinnamon, it wasn’t strong enough”.

Thank you Marce for the recipe and for this marvelous choice. And be sure to head over to her blog for more details on the recipe.

Daring Bakers August Challenge: Eric Kayser's Milk Chocolate and Caramel Tarts

Saying that I was reticent about this month’s challenge is an understatement. My fear? The combination of milk chocolate and caramel that I find really odd. To me milk chocolate is just too sweet, and caramel…well it’s sugar!
I was afraid I would end up with something that tastes more like an overly sweet candy than a tart.
Dark chocolate being not allowed, I started to think about other ways to make the tart tastes a little less sweet than it sounds, without having to break my daring baker pledge or being pointed to as a rebel.

What I did differently:
First, I divided the recipe in half. Nothing to do with sweetness you might say, but it was to minimize any final bad surprise.
Second, I wanted to have small portions, similar to petits fours, so I went with my mini brioche molds.
Third, I replaced ground hazelnut in the crust by ground walnuts. I find walnuts being bitter than hazelnuts. If it makes any sense!
And finally, I used walnuts halves to decorate my tiny tarts instead of caramel bits.
Overall, everything went smoothly. I tried to use the dry method to making caramel Veronica, but immediately switched to my usual water and sugar method when I saw it drying out. The caramel was a success, smooth with a gorgeous color.
I didn’t expect the pastry to puff that much when baking. My brioche molds being so small, I didn’t have much space left to fill it with the caramel and the milk chocolate mousse. The shortbread pastry was so flaky and melts in your mouth with the exact amount of sweetness, that I couldn’t stop eating it.

The milk chocolate mousse was surprisingly not as sugary as I imagined it would be! The only mistake that I made is when I finished making the mousse, before even pouring it over the cooled caramel, my daughter woke up from her nap, crying. I had to put the bowl of mousse in the fridge and went to console her. Fifteen minutes later, after wiping her tears and feeding her, I remembered the mousse. It had already set, so when pouring it over the caramel it looked more like a puree than a mousse.
Despite some bumps here and there, my hubby and I enjoyed these tarts very much. We shared most of them with his co-workers who just went crazy for them.
Now the combination of milk chocolate and caramel makes more sense to me, thanks to Patricia and Vero. But when it comes to chocolate nibbling, I am a dark chocolate girl through and through.
You can head to Patricia's and Veronica's blogs for the recipe.

Daring Bakers Challenge: Bagels

Before this month’s challenge I thought I didn’t like bagels, American bagels that is. The few bagels that I had until now were not memorable: too plain, too chewy, too tough; in other words, bad memories. Making bagels was really challenging for me since I have never made this kind of bagels before and have no experience on how the real bagel should taste or feel like. For me the kind of bagels that I grew up eating and loving has a texture crossed between bagels and brioche and flavored with anis seeds, sesame seeds and orange zest. I then decided to seek some advices from some bakeries around where I live, explaining them my situation, without broking my daring baker pledge of course. I really wanted to know what makes a bagel, a bagel and how to make sure that my bagels don’t float, since the water bath was the thing that scared me the most. Some baker were nice enough to take the time and explain it to me and some thought I was trying to steel their secret recipe. Some bagels were good; some of them were not that good.

Days went by when I started checking with some studious fellow daring bakers that had already tried the bagel recipe. Two words came back over and over again: floating and sinking. My fear of the water bath for the bagels was then multiplied by one hundred.
Then came the Bagel Day. I followed the recipe while taking notes of my friend’s advices. Come the water bath stage and here I see all my bagels floating. Not only they were floating but also they were getting bigger and deformed. I thought about sinking them my self but then I remembered that I should only stick to the recipe. The result: my first batch of bagels was ugly, shameful, misshapen and chewyliscious. Yes, I even invented a word for them.
I was so disappointed, I told my self that I would never make bagels or eat bagels or even look at a bagel again. But then I remembered what the foundation of the daring bakers was all about. It is about trying once, twice until you learn. It’s about being patient and trying to see objectively what went wrong. What went wrong with my dough? I overproofed the yeast. Yes, you read it right, not the dough, the yeast: You know, the first stage when you mix the yeast with the water and you are supposed to let it rise 5 min, well with me I left it 30 min. From there, everything went super puffy.

The following day, I started all over again: the yeast, 5 min this time, didn't add all the flour, kneading well and harder, punching down the dough with all the muscles that I don’t have, trying to shape as little as possible and using malt syrup instead of sugar. The result: Although not all the bagels went straight to the bottom of the pan, 5 out of 7 came out just as they were supposed to. They didn’t have the same shape but I was pretty happy with the result. The texture was just a little chewy with a lot of softness to it. For some people, it might not taste as a bagel but for me it was just the way I like it. I used sesame seeds and kosher salt as a topping for half of my bagels and poppy seeds, sesame seeds and garlic flakes for the others. As a filling I used Nutella instead of cream cheese and the garlic bagels were used as a sandwich bagels with lettuce, goat cheese and turkey patties. Sorry if I don’t have pictures of them but I couldn’t wait to eat them.
Once again thanks to Jenny and Freya for this challenge that made me appreciate the real, homemade bagel. You can head to their respective blogs for more details on the recipe.

Daring Bakers Challenge: Le Gâteau Saint Honoré

Once upon a time there was a beautiful swan
Who lived in a lake made of sugar and cream
The swan was happy in his little sweet dream
Surrounded by whipped clouds and caramel bun

When I first saw this month’s challenge, chosen by Helene and Anita, I was a little skeptical and afraid that I wouldn’t be able to make it. I’ve never made Le gâteau Saint Honoré before and I know that if it weren’t for my fellow daring bakers I would have never done it. I guess I am not an adventurous when it comes to this kind of cakes.
Having some bad memories from a greasy, sticky puff pastry, I just didn’t know what to expect with this one. But I wasn’t disappointed. I wasn’t disappointed at all. Not only the puff pastry turns out wonderfully flaky and delicious but also the making of this cake allowed me to challenge my pastry skills and to face my fear of…piping bag.

For years I’ve been avoiding recipes that involves piping bags, using instead ziplog bags or my handy dandy…spoon.
My icing flowers weren’t perfect. Actually they were far from being perfect but I haven’t given up hope that one day I will be an expert on this subject. For a beginner I am quite proud of my self.
The thing that I will change next time is making a smaller portion of this cake because it is just too much for only two persons. Or, I will invite all the daring bakers to share it with me!

Who wants the swan?

Thanks to Helene and Anita for this May’s challenge and for introducing me to this delicious cake that is Le gâteau Saint Honoré. Head over to their respective blogs to find the recipe in its entirety.
Don’t forget to check out other daring bakers’ beautiful creations.
I am now a daring baker and proud of it.