What Did You Eat?

Daring Bakers: Opera Cake

This Month's Hosts:   Ivonne, Lis, Fran, and Shea 

Another Daring Baker Challenge, and it introduced me to a famous cake I never knew existed!  The Opera Cake was first introduced to the world in 1903 and has been quite popular since then.  But, I've never heard of it until now.  Maybe our noble founders of Daring Bakers, Ivonne of CreamPuffs In Venice, and Lis of La Mia Cucina, assisted by Fran at Apples Peaches Pumpkin Pie and Shea at Whiskful, knew there were people like me, and wanted to enlighten us.  Well, I'm very happy that they chose this recipe. I admit that my first glance at the recipe made me groan. It was so long and I immediately thought...too complicated. Then I remembered that a long recipe can actually be easy to make, because everything is spelled out clearly. And so it was.  I made this cake over a period of several days and easily assembled it on Mother's Day, for a party I attended.

This lovely recipe is dedicated to Barbara of Winos And Foodies, the driving force behind LiveStrong Day.  If you haven't already done so, stop by her blog and see beautiful, funny, and inspiring photos and stories.

Perfect Party Cake Rides Again

Little did I know how how popular last month's Daring Baker Perfect Party Cake would prove to be with my friends.  Last week, as requested, I made it for Nancy's daughter, the lovely Julie. It was her birthday and I let her dictate how it was filled.  Instead of jam and buttercream in between the cake layers, Julie asked for custard filling and buttercream on the outside.  Her wish was my command.  As before, the cake was easy to make, and I now have it memorized.  I can whip up a perfect party cake anywhere, anytime...as long as lots of butter and eggs are on hand.  I didn't taste the cake, but learned that every crumb was eaten with gusto at the birthday party, proof that custard works well as a filling.

I confess to doing a stupid thing.  The custard was so yummy, I set aside a dish of it for myself. Then, on a whim, I topped it with some of the buttercream frosting.  This particular buttercream is so light and fluffy, I figured it would taste a lot like whipped cream.    I should have remembered that whipped cream doesn't have three sticks of butter in it. The  custard and buttercream tasted marvelous for about three bites. Then it became ....too much.   

Daring Bakers: Dorie Greenspan's Perfect Party Cake

Yes, it's another Daring Bakers Challenge.  This time we have Dorie Greenspan's recipe for Perfect Party Cake.  I wondered if it would live up to it's name, and it most certainly did.  I baked it for Easter dinner at my friend Nancy's house, and it was a huge success.  It's always heart warming when people nearly give you a standing ovation.  The cake was really a birthday cake for her mom, Katherine, and it cut beautifully and tasted...well, perfect.  The recipe this month was chosen by the wonderful Morven, of Food Art and Random Thoughts, and I thank her very much for choosing it. I'll be making this cake a lot. I think it is, indeed, the perfect party cake.

The recipe was simple to make and, and it provided me with lots of yummy batter and frosting.  Enough to "sample"  before I baked the cake and frosted it.  I love raw cake batter more than when it's cooked, and drove my mother crazy as a child, by standing at her arm, begging for it as she tried to fill her cake pans.   I'm glad I showed restraint and baked my layers, resulting in tender, yet resilient layers that easily handled being split in half before being filled and frosted.

That part went OK, but, as usual, I had some problems.

Daring Baker's Challenge: Lemon Meringue Pie. (It's delicious! But, it looks like ....)

Hell.  That's what my pie looks like--hell!  You think I'm exaggerating, but stay with me.  The picture above is just an illusion.

I was delighted when I saw that the very talented Jen at The Canadian Baker chose lemon meringue pie for the January Daring Baker's challenge.  I saw it as a way to salute my Grandma Bessie, famous for making  majestic lemon meringue pies whenever she had people over for dinner.  She easily turned out several pies a week with great ease.  And according to my mom, Grandma often beat her egg whites on a flat plate, using a dinner fork.  None of that fancy cream of tartar and electric mixer business for her.   She used a PLATE and a FORK--and the meringue was perfect.  Her recipe came from the back of a cornstarch box, and to my knowledge, she never produced weepy meringue, or tough crust, and the pies were always quite pretty. 

As you see above, my pie looked somewhat presentable when it came out of the oven.  But, proceed with caution if you have ugly food phobia. That said, click below and be prepared to view lemon meringue hell.

Daring Bakers Challenge: Milk Chocolate and Caramel Tart

When you join the Daring Bakers there's always great anticipation at the beginning of each month.  That's when we discover the recipe chosen by that month's host.  Speculating to myself about possible choices, I thought a tart would be nice.  So, I was quite happy to see this month's challenge, devised by our fabulous hosts, Veron at Veronica's Test Kitchen and Patricia at Technicolor Kitchen, was Eric Kayser’s Milk Chocolate and Caramel Tart.  I'm a big caramel fan, and looked forward to making the tart.  But, this was a month full of chaos and stress, and I kept procrastinating.  At one point, I decided to skip the whole thing. Then one Daring Baker said her effort tasted like a Heath Bar. Well, that did it.  I was hooked.  With only two days left until the deadline, I had to make the darn thing.  Luckily, it was sinfully delicious--and did taste like an over the top Heath Bar.  And it wasn't hideously difficult to make.  As for my decoration....... it was just like my month.  Chaotic. When I have a pile of pulverized caramel shards in front of me, I must fling them with abandon. 

The Daring Bakers: My Mirror Cake Follies

Well, it that time of the month when I summon my courage and meet the Daring Bakers Challenge.  I'm new to the group, having only done the infamous Martha Stewart Crepe Cake, and Real Jewish Bagels.  This time the amazing Peabody challenged us to make a mirror cake. I've never seen a mirror cake before, never knew there was such a thing.  So, this promised to be quite interesting.  After looking at the recipe. I saw that I would be making cake layers, then combining them with bavarian cream to make a molded structure topped by a shiny gelatin layer.  It seemed like I could manage it, I told myself.  And there it was--my fatal mistake. Somewhere, the baking gods, pastry division, decided to teach me a lesson.  They'd remind Sher that she has very little knowledge or experience with preparing non-yeast baked goods. 

And here is a summary of my three days in baking hell, or How I Learned That I Am A Hapless Fool When Making Mirror Cakes. 

Daring Bakers: Heart Attack On A Plate.

Last month the amazing Yvonne at Creampuffs In Venice asked me if I would like to join the Daring Bakers.  You've probably read the exploits of these wizards of dough, masters of pastry,  empresses of batter......well, I'm spinning out of control here.   Each month they set themselves a baking challenge and their efforts are marvelous.  Clearly, I'm not worthy, but I was so happy to join them, with the hopes that trying to keep up with them would stretch my meager baking skills and give me an excuse to bake something complex and decadent.  And that's exactly what happened with my first month's effort, Darkest Chocolate Crepe Cake.

I remember seeing this crepe cake featured in an issue of Martha Stewart Living, and toying with the idea of making it.  But, I never did.  So, I was quite happy when Brilynn at Jumbo Empanadas chose it for this month's challenge. Little did I know what a challenge it would be.  Martha dear, I love you--but this was a difficult cake to make, and I think your recipe was a bit confusing.