May 2011 Challenge - A Walk on The Wild Side

The May 2011 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Emma of CookCraftGrow and Jenny of Purple House Dirt. They chose to challenge everyone to make a Chocolate Marquise. The inspiration for this recipe comes from a dessert they prepared at a restaurant in Seattle.

The original recipe was HUGE and served a lot more people than my one person household could ever feed, so I made a 1/4 recipe which happily serves 6. Only the marquise and torched meringue were mandatory, but I felt I may as well go the whole hog and make the caramel and nuts too! I changed the spicing from the original recipes to suit what I had to hand, so I'll give my own adapted recipes (as usual) and you can no doubt find the originals on either Emma or Jennys blogs. :)

April 2011 Challenge - Maple Mousse, Chocolate, Meringue and .... Bacon!?

The April 2011 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Evelyne of the blog Cheap Ethnic Eatz. Evelyne chose to challenge everyone to make a maple mousse in an edible container. Prizes are being awarded to the most creative edible container and filling, so vote on your favorite from April 27th to May 27th at http://thedaringkitchen.com!

This was certainly an experimental challenge for me, despite the fact that bacon/maple is a common combination in Canada, it's certainly not something the Irish palette comes across on a day-to-day basis!

March 2011 Challenge - A Decievingly Titled Recipe

The March 2011 Daring Baker’s Challenge was hosted by Ria of Ria’s Collection and Jamie of Life’s a Feast. Ria and Jamie challenged The Daring Bakers to bake a yeasted Meringue Coffee Cake. 

I was so excited about this, until I realised that "Coffee" cake referred to cake to have at coffee break time, and not cake with coffee flavour! But as it turns out, it was quite delicious! Beware, this cake can take ages to prepare, but is worth the effort IMO.

February 2011 Challenge - A Lucious Italian Dessert

The February 2011 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Mallory from A Sofa in the Kitchen. She chose to challenge everyone to make Panna Cotta from a Giada De Laurentiis recipe and Nestle Florentine Cookies.

Life is Like a Box of Chocolates...

... and lately I seem to only be picking out the ones I dislike!

Apologies for the complete lack of posting lately, but this will be fixed soon :)

Coming up this month, I have 2 completed Daring Bakers challenges to post about (February's Panna Cotta & Florentines and March's Yeasted Meringue Coffee Cake), as well as this months challenge (my lips are sealed!) my version of a cake known as M'Hanncha (Moroccan for "snake") served with a sticky orange & date sauce which was made with the help of a friend following a cooking demonstration a month or so beforehand, as well as my take on a spicy cous cous recipe from the same demonstration.

Now I just need to find the time to upload pictures and write the blogs! Stay tuned :)

January 2011 Challenge - Délicieux Gâteau

So I'm finally back on the Daring Bakers trail, and what an amazing challenge to come back to!

Blog Checking Lines : The January 2011 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Astheroshe of the blog accro. She chose to challenge everyone to make a Biscuit Joconde Imprime to wrap around an Entremets dessert.

The Biscuit Joconde Imprime is a patterned, thin sponge intended to wrap around a dessert. It gives a marvellously intricate look to any simple enough dessert, and is actually quite easy to make. It consists of a paste with which the pattern is made and a sponge batter which makes up the bulk of the imprime. We were given the freedom to use any dessert we wished, we were required only that the Imprime was around it!