May I Fail?

See that?

A play on words...get it. Because I used "May" as in a request and in the fact that it's May's challenge release date for Daring Bakers and I find myself with no money to actually be able to do this challenge.

I failed.

Is there a good reason? In my head, yes. But c'est la vie. Let's just say my back up savings have been taking a beating :(

Daring Baker's challenge for April

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!

It was nice to have the option of making an edible container out of bacon and nuts. Not entirely helpful for me as I have irrational dislike of nuts and I don't like eating too much bacon. What does that say about my Canadian-ness? So I was stumped for an edible container. I didn't want to make something sweet with the maple mousse. I don't know where the thought of a shortbread came from but it's not sweet enough to over power the mousse. My original plan was to dip the edges with chocolate and salt. It worked in my head, but I forgot that shortbread tends to do funny things when baked. So I didn't get to dip them, but instead I filled the shortbread cups with the mousse, chopped up some chocolate and sprinkled some coarse sea salt. It was easy and ended up being delicious. :o)

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've never made a coffee cake before, and really cake is the wrong term. It's more of a sweet bread.

This was a very frustrating challenge. What gave me the most grief was that the dough refused to rise and that the meringue just was not coming together the way it's supposed to. I think I wasted a good third of a bag of granulated sugar on it. But it got done. I'm not sure how I feel about it though.

People enjoyed it too. I did a dried Cherry, Blueberry, Cranberry with semi-sweet chocolate chunks. I think I do these baking things far too late at night. This was completed on the night of the "Super Moon" which made me not want to really bake but really be outside and sing and dance. Yeah I'm one of those types of people.

Challenge accepted

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.

I had never made Panna Cotta, but it was surprisingly easy. I loved it. I made a vanilla panna cotta with a raspberry gelee. It was nice and sweet and smooth. I think I liked it without the Florentine cookies, which I made about 5 days later *blush*

WHAT!? I had a lot going on. I was busy getting ready for the Kiwanis Music festival and I had an anniversary. Even though this month the challenge was easy in comparison to the past few months. It was nice, that I could do this challenge when it was busy for me. I'm hoping that the next few months I will have the time as after Friday I only have to look to my exam and that's it. yay.

I'm late, I'm late for a very important date

Sooo...late with this challenge business. Tell me something new right? Saturday is the day, I promise. I have it all planned out in my head, just need to put it down in a dish. The flavours are dancing around in my head like sugarplum fairies. I was inspired by the fantastic version done by my friend. It tasted like summer in my mouth. But I love citrus fruit, to me, lemons and oranges make a summer for me. I'm going to throw in ginger to remind myself that there is warmth found even in the cold months. I am not looking forward to using almonds...nuts, gross.

December

The 2010 December Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Penny of Sweet Sadie’s Baking. She chose to challenge

Daring Bakers’ to make Stollen. She adapted a friend’s family recipe and combined it with information from friends,

techniques from Peter Reinhart’s book.........and Martha Stewart’s demonstration.

I kept the recipe fairly simple. I've never made bread and I wasn't sure if I would make this work well. Nor did I think I would have time. December is a busy month for me. I turned another year older. But I was determined to do this.

My stollen was made with rum soaked raisins, maraschino cherries, almonds, marzipan and lemon and orange zest. The only day that I had enough time to bake this was on Christmas day, as I have this tendency to wake up really early in the morning. So as the sun rose, my baking went forth. I planned to bring it with us to Christmas dinner at my sister's apartment. Unfortunately, the turkey time was a little later than anticipated so we didn't partake of the stollen that night, but my sister cut away a section for her and our parents to have, and I took the rest home. I had it the next morning as my breakfast with lemon-ginger tea. It was a delicious breakfast, unfortunately, very sweet. :(

I enjoyed this challenge because it was something I have never had done before.

Let's see what happens next month.

Challenge FINISHED!

So it took some doing but Crostata has been completed. With Apples, brown sugar, Cinnamon and Caramel candies thrown into the mix! I just wanted the world to see it. Besides from being a bit leaky I think it looks so yummy and it smelled yummy too. Can't wait to try it.