Red Velvet Cheesecake

I have been thinking about what dessert to bring to our first ever Christmas gift exchange this year. I checked out Martha Stewart's website and immediately decided to try making my very first cheesecake. But, what kind? After some soul-searching (right?), I decided on making Red Velvet Cheesecake - perfect color to celebrate Christmas.

I am not a huge cheesecake fan. Actually, I'm not a huge cake fan. Hahaha. Ironic, right? I just love to bake. And nothing's more satisfying for me than to have my creations consumed by people important to me. That's what I love and enjoy about baking - sharing it. But this recipe is amazing that I became a fan! I finished two slices one after the other. It's light and smooth, not too rich - hits you in just the right spots.

Baked Alaska and Petit Fours - August 2010 Daring Bakers Challenge

August was my first month as a Daring Baker. The Daring Kitchen is the home of The Daring Bakers and The Daring Cooks. The premise of both groups is to create one recipe each month, given to us by a monthly host. We all create the same exact recipe and then post about it on our personal blogs on a designated date. And so here I am on my first challenge and already a week late


The August 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Elissa of 17 and Baking. For the first time, The Daring Bakers partnered with Sugar High Fridays for a co-event and Elissa was the gracious hostess of both. Using the theme of beurre noisette, or browned butter, Elissa chose to challenge Daring Bakers to make a pound cake to be used in either a Baked Alaska or in Ice Cream Petit Fours. The sources for Elissa’s challenge were Gourmet magazine and David Lebovitz’s “The Perfect Scoop”.

I have to admit that I was nervous about this first challenge. Ice cream from scratch? Torch? Meringue? Petit Fours? Brown Butter? What??!? I got so close to foregoing the whole thing but then the weather got so hot that I decided...hmmm...maybe I can try making Ice Cream.

Beatty's Chocolate Cake

So you got the tools and the basic ingredients - it's time to bake your first cake! Everybody loves Chocolate Cake so I decided that it'll be my first ever cake from scratch. I wanted to try my hand in baking first before I start learning how to decorate. A beautiful cake is a waste if it doesn't taste great. After all, you want to have your cake and eat it too, right?

To make the story of my long search short, I found this recipe on the Food Network website. It's from Ina Garten - the Barefoot Contessa. It had a 5-star rating with over 700 positive reviews. I'm so glad that it had a video because honestly reading recipe instructions overwhelm and intimidate me. Even the word "sift" is so scary to me! It is so much easier learning a new skill when you watch it get done rather than just reading about it.

So, here's the video and then the recipe follows. I'm going to include another video after the recipe that shows you how to prepare the pans using the baking spray with wax paper and use the cake leveler to level the cake before frosting.