Gingerbread House [db]

The December 2009 Daring Bakers’ challenge was brought to you by Anna of Very Small Anna and Y of Lemonpi. They chose to challenge Daring Bakers’ everywhere to bake and assemble a gingerbread house from scratch. They chose recipes from Good Housekeeping and from The Great Scandinavian Baking Book as the challenge recipes.

This was super fun to make ESPECIALLY because I had never made a gingerbread house from scratch before. Super easy, make the gingerbread pieces and hide all the mistakes by royal icing!

I had to make it kinda simple because I ran out of time before my party, but I added some trees and some gingerbread people made with the same recipe!

I totally forgot about taking a picture of the template, but it was similar to Anna's but measured out. I had measured the base to being 4 in by 6 in. and the front house part was a square that was 4" by 4" and then a triangle on top! I tried my best to get everything, but I'm not sure if I did.

I was standing in my kitchen for about 30 minutes trying to measure out a good size and shape for my gingerbread house while on the phone with my architecture enginnering major boyfriend begging him to create a template for me. Obviously he just laughed and made me make my own template which of course I did.

It was super fun to make and my roommates who ended up eating it loved it!

I did want to make another one, but that never came to be with all the craziness that is the holidays...maybe before I leave for college again!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS ALL!!

Dobos Torte [db]

The August 2009 Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Angela of A Spoonful of Sugar and Lorraine of Not Quite Nigella. They chose the spectacular Dobos Torte based on a recipe from Rick Rodgers' cookbook KaffeeTahaus: Exquisite desserts from the Classic Caffes of Vienna, Budapest, and Prague.

This Dobos Torte was quite easy, and hard to make. It was quite easy in its steps, but once I had gotten to getting everything together, it just didn't go as well as I hoped that it would have.

I had created mini tortes, but they just were not very well since I had forgotten to level each of the layers. Also, my buttercream was not THAT set when I had decided I needed to start putting the tortes together. My eggwhite mixture probably should have been mixed some more, but I was just too tired to care anymore. This definitely was something that I should have created on different days, just to give me time to do each part and each part well. Putting it all together in one day was just not a good idea. I had to use toothpicks to keep it all together without melting or having the tortes fall on me.

After freezing it, it did taste really good. I really enjoyed the taste of the torte and I had enjoyed making it. Next time, if I decide ever to make it again, I would make the parts separately and also have some way of keeping the torte's level and together. I think that was my major probably with this torte. The chocolate buttercream was amazing! I had to leave the hazelnuts out because I was going to have my roommates eat them and since three of the five other girls that I live with just moved in, I don't know their likes and dislikes. I would rather not feed them something they may be allergic to.

Chocolate Covered Marshmallow Cookies and Milan Cookies [db]

The July Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Nicole at Sweet Tooth. She chose Chocolate Covered Marshmallow Cookies and Milan Cookies from pastry chef Gale Gand of the Food Network.

So I decided to tackle the Chocolate Covered Marshmallow cookies first since I decided that they would be fun to do first. I know that I would not be able to make homemade marshmallows this month at all, but I did buy those jumbo marshmallows. The first batch I made some covered in semisweet chocolate, and others in milk chocolate and covered some in different toppings.

The next time I decided to make the Chocolate Covered Marshmallow cookies was for the president's retreat. I was leading a workshop that actually had the title "Chocolate River with Marshmallows." It's a team building workshop but it also works the creativity of the people involved.

from top left (going clockwise): sprinkles, green crystals, caramel, red crystal, and just regular

I decided to tackle the Milan Cookies a week later. These were pretty easy to make and I decided to make the cookies in all different sizes. It's more fun this way.

They were both easy and fun to make. I'm really glad that I was able to make these and have fun feeding my friends while doing so!

Daring Bakers: Bakewell Tart

The June Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Jasmine of Confessions of a Cardamom Addict and Annemarie of Ambrosia and Nectar. They chose a Traditional (UK) Bakewell Tart... er... pudding that was inspired by a rich baking history dating back to the 1800's in England.

This was my father's day present to both my dad and another dad from this family we're pretty close with.
We had met the family originally in Tulsa when both the fathers were getting their PhDs at Tulsa University (?)...something like that. We had moved to Fullerton afterwards when my dad found a job here, and they had moved too. But their adventure is a lot more interesting. They then moved to Northern California, Houston, Nigeria, and finally now are in Indonesia. Life is just so interesting. They do come by and visit every year or so and all the parents try to meet up and have dinner together and catch up. This year they have a purpose, college searching =]. I remembered that year for me, lots of college looking and finding the right fit, somewhat.

Anyways, this had given me the opportunity to get a new tart pan, well a tart pan since I've never had one, and bake something possibly spectacular for the dads.

Everyone was tooting my horn afterwards, but I know it wasn't the best it could have been.

I used strawberry jam that I found at the supermarket, and the tart pan was a little bigger than the one suggested. I had used the 9.5 in one, but all good. I had also used the Victorian sponge cake because I was worried about allergies with the other family. I would rather avoid an instance of allergies popping up under my watch. No nuts at all!

Also this weekend, we got our floors changed from carpet to hardwood floors. While I was baking, they were tearing up the kitchen floors and the carpet from almost all the rooms. It was a mess all over.

The tart part was a bit underdone, but oh well, it's okay, it was still edible.

*This month's Daring Baker's challenge was hosted by
Jasmine of Confessions of a Cardamom Addict and Annemarie of Ambrosia and Nectar.*

going, going,

GONE!

<3 Nina