Yeasted Meringue Coffee Cake - March '11 DB

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.

This challenge had perfect timing. We had just come back from our vacation and I was itching to bake something. I saw the recipe and got excited since I had all the ingredients I needed.

This coffee cake is actually a sweet yeast dough that I filled with meringue, cinnamon sugar and chocolate chips (I omitted the nuts). You can make different variations for the filling. You can flavor the meringue and add fruits as a filling instead. You can also dust it with cocoa powder instead of powdered sugar, or leave it plain - whatever you like!

Biscuit Joconde Imprime/Entremet - January '11 Daring Bakers

I got really excited upon learning this month's Daring Baker's challenge. I felt guilty about skipping last month's challenge of making a German Christmas bread called Stollen. So, I told myself I'm doing the January challenge no matter what.

The January 2011 Daring Baker's challenge was hosted by Astheroshe from the blog, accro. She chose to challenge everyone to make a Biscuit Joconde Imprime to wrap around an Entremet dessert.

A lot of times when my husband and I look around coffee shops and check out their display of delicious desserts, I can't help but just be in awe of how beautifully decorated they are. I can't believe that I'd actually learn to make a dessert that I used to just admire.

Crostata! - November '10 Daring Bakers

The last quarter of the year is always the busiest for me. My eldest celebrates his birthday in October, mine's in November and my husband's birthday is in December. So, please forgive me if my blogs has slowed down quite a bit. Aside from the birthdays making me busy, it's the holiday season, too.

The 2010 November Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Simona of briciole. She chose to challenge Daring Bakers’ to make pasta frolla for a crostata. She used her own experience as a source, as well as information from Pellegrino Artusi’s Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well.

I did my best to squeeze in this month's baking challenge by making it for Thanksgiving. We went to my in-laws' house for the get-together. It was a challenge trying to bake in Mom's busy kitchen on Thanksgiving Day. It was a rush and I didn't get to take a lot of pictures.

Crostata...sounds intimidating. But at the same time, sounds delicious, too, right? Anyway, it's basically Italian tarts. A quick Google search, and I found that it's traditionally made without the tart tin and can be filled with anything you like.

Let's Go Nuts for Doughnuts! - October '10 Daring Bakers

Talk about photo-finish. I've been busy trying to get ready for a vacation and then going on vacation that it took me til deadline to actually make the challenge this month.

The October 2010 Daring Bakers challenge was hosted by Lori of Butter Me Up. Lori chose to challenge DBers to make doughnuts. She used several sources for her recipes including Alton Brown, Nancy Silverton, Kate Neumann and Epicurious.

We were also given a choice to make cake doughnuts or yeast doughnuts. I decided to go with Alton Brown's yeast doughnut - one which my son is more familiar with. He would be the one consuming the sinful goodies.

Decorated Sugar Cookies - September 2010 Daring Bakers Challenge

It's that time of the month again. Not THAT time of the month. The Daring Bakers Challenge time of the month.

The September 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Mandy of “What the Fruitcake?!” Mandy challenged everyone to make Decorated Sugar Cookies based on recipes from Peggy Porschen and The Joy of Baking.

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.