Daring Bakers Cake turned MACARON! weeee

What to do with leftover buttercream, preserves, nuts, and ganache?  

Seriously, this cake's leftovers were screaming macarons.  

So we get cashew macarons with peach preserves, cashew praline buttercream, and dark chocolate ganache with grand marnier.  Tastes just like the gateau.  But much more fun.

=)

Daring Bakers - Filbert (read: cashew) Gateau with Praline Buttercream!

This is what happens when Allison is reunited with an oven after two months of basically living in a hotel.  I like to think it was a magical reunion.  =)

I got back from Japan Wednesday night, when alll the other Daring Bakers were posting about this wonderful cake, brought to us by July's host, Chris of Mele Cotte, and all I could do was pass out in bed and dream about it since I had been up and riding planes for the previous 30 hours.  4 countries in 1 day, baby!!!!  But no cake to show for it... yet!

So naturally the first thing I did when I woke up yesterday was plan out my baking schedule for the next week.  I decided this cake should come first because, even though I missed the posting date, it's close enough that this can count as a late post rather than a skipped month... hopefully?  And also because my grandmother's birthday was in June, and I know she loves praline and chocolate, and she happens to be visiting us in Canada this week.  

I had my doubts about this cake before starting it... I wasn't really sure how all the flavors would work together, and while I know hazelnuts and chocolate to be a killer combination, the idea of hazelnut praline with apricot and chocolate was kind of rubbing me the wrong way.  So I decided to use cashews instead, since I had never used cashews in anything before, and I guess I was just in a cashew mood.  I am generally not a fan of apricots, and my mom had about 40 peaches in a huge basket in our kitchen that she was begging me to do something with... so I made a year's worth of peach preserves and used some of that for the cake!  And ooh it was peachy.   Also, my grandmother doesn't like rum, so I just used grand marnier and vanilla throughout.  However, in the peach preserves, I added some lychee liqueur and cinnamon.  

Every Friday, my dad's band comes over and they practice their rockin' music in our garage.  Lucky for my cake, today is Friday!  So it was eaten and well appreciated after band practice, and then was packed up in yogurt containers and sent off to the band members' wives.  

Everyone loved it, even my mom who always says she doesn't like buttercream (but who eats it every time I make it!).  I was actually surprised at how awesome it was!  I think I will definitely make this cake again in the future - definitely.  Cause it was prettty ridiculously wonderful.

So thanks Chris!  I don't think I would have made this cake normally after just looking at the recipe, but I'm so glad you gave me a reason to because it turned out to be incredible!!  YAY for Daring Bakers!!  

If you're interested in making this cake, get the recipe from the host's blog here!

Daring Bakers - Opera Cake

Cake Love.

=)

What a wonderful month this was - apart from the bliss of being in Japan, this has been my favorite Daring Baker`s challenge so far!  It was hosted by our wonderful co-founders, Lis and Ivonne, as well as Fran of Apples Peaches Pumpkin Pie and Shea of Whiskful, and they chose to have us make Opera Cake!  This is a cake that is traditionally made with chocolate and coffee, but the hosts specified that we keep the cakes light in color and flavor.  Apart from that, the flavors and decorations and all that were up to us!  And oh... what that led to... a ton of amazing and very unique cakes!  

I was so excited to make this that I couldn`t decide on what flavors to use, so I kind of just gave in to my indecisiveness and made two.  And what a delicious indecision it was...

I made the first cake with a pistachio jaconde, a vanilla and lemon buttercream, a strawberry lemon syrup, a strawberry glaze, fresh strawberries in the layers, and chopped pistachios on top.   

The syrup for the buttercream looked so cool when it was boiling that I had to take a picture...

I had been wanting to try pistachios and strawberries together for a long time, and thought this was a perfect opportunity because of the nut based cake and... strawberry season!  Also, I wanted to use a fruit glaze instead of white chocolate because my mom is one of those white chocolate haters, and I was actually at home and baking for my parents when I made this.  

But of course, I love white chocolate, and of course, there was another flavor combination that I have been wanting to try forever that works so perfectly with this cake.  Yes, it's green tea and white chocolate...  I think a ton of other people have done this, too... as well they should, because it is seriously amazing.  And what can I say, I made this the day before I left for Japan, so it was probably the Japan excitement that made me do it.  (mmm Japan excitement is a glorious thing!)

I did an almond and green tea jaconde, a white chocolate and green tea buttercream, a vanilla and jasmine syrup, and the white chocolate mousse and glaze. I actually finished this cake 2 minutes before bolting out of the door to catch my flight to Japan, so I was only able to taste one bite of it, but it was an amazing bite! The green tea went perfectly with the white chocolate, and the jasmine gave the whole thing a wonderful flowery essence underneath the big flavors.

mmmm green tea buttercream.... amazing.  

I said that this was my favorite Daring Baker's challenge to date, and that's because I feel like I have accomplished so much with it!  I made both cakes without any problems, they tasted amazing, and I think they are pretty much the most aesthetically pleasing things to ever come out of my kitchen (I'm always so bad at making stuff pretty...).   

Plus, I had never even heard of an opera cake before this challenge, so it opened my eyes to a piece of pastry I had never before known, and I always love it when that happens!  It's happening every day I'm here in Japan, by the way. =)

So thank you, wonderful hosts, for another fantastic Daring Baker's challenge!  I loved it, and I look forward to seeing everyone's cakes!

If you want to try your hand at opera cake, see here for the recipe!

Chocolate, Hazelnut, and Kiwi... Best Breakfast Ever.

The best grocery shopping days are always the ones when I find good kiwi.  Yesterday was one of those days.  =)

Usually, when I come home with kiwi, I eat some of it right away straight with a spoon.  Sooo delicious.  And then for the next few days I'll have toast for breakfast, and I'll top the toast with nutella and kiwi slices.  It's an amazing way to start the day... and kiwi is healthy, right?

Yesterday I needed to bake cupcakes for my actors (I'm a film student, so I don't pay them with money haha), and I saw the kiwis, and I thought, "hey, if it's good on toast, it can be awesome on a cupcake!"  And it was.  Except I didn't have any nutella (because I thought I did when I was at the store and then once I got back I realized I was out and didn't have time to go back.... argh).  So I just added a ton of frangelico to everything, and I think it worked pretty well!

These are chocolate hazelnut cupcakes, topped with whipped milk chocolate hazelnut ganache, and kiwis.

For the cupcakes:

(adapted from this recipe)

2 cups all purpose flour

2 cups granulated sugar

1 cup cocoa powder

2 eggs

1 cup milk

1 cup buttermilk

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1/4 cup frangelico liqueur

2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Combine the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in one mixing bowl. Combine the milk, buttermilk, oil, eggs, and liqueur in another bowl.  Make a well in the dry ingredients and pour the milk mixture into it.  Mix until combined.  

Pour the batter into lined muffin tins, filling the cups 3/4 of the way.

Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until an inserted knife comes out clean and the tops spring back when touched.  

Makes about 25 cupcakes.

For the ganache:

1 cup chopped chocolate  (I used about 3/4 milk and 1/4 bittersweet)

1 cup heavy cream

3 tbsp frangelico liqueur

Heat the cream in a saucepan until it begins to simmer.  Pour over the chopped chocolate.  Wait for a few minutes, and then whisk the mixture until it is smooth.  Mix in the frangelico.  Cover and chill until set.  This takes a long time, but I put mine in the freezer since I was in a hurry.  So, in the freezer, it took about 2 hours.  

Once it is set, whip it until it is light and fluffy.  Immediately spoon, pipe, or spread over cooled cupcakes.

Slice up some kiwi and put it on top, and it's ready to eat!  YAY!

Thai Doughnuts

I love sweetened condensed milk so much that I could eat it with a spoon - and have, on several occasions...  But this week I decided that, in light of Tartelette and Peabody's doughnut event, I should eat it with a doughnut instead.  

I have actually been wanting to make Thai Doughnuts for a while now, since surprisingly, none of my friends in this city have ever tried them; even the ones who love Thai food!  And I haven't seen them on a Thai menu since I've been in Miami.  This all makes me very sad, because good Thai Doughnuts are seriously one of my favorite desserts.  The doughnuts are warm, soft, barely sweet, and when dipped in the sweetened condensed milk, they taste like heaven.  And the peanuts add just the right amount of texture and flavor to make the doughnuts even more fun to eat!  

For the actual doughnuts, I used a recipe that didn't include yeast, because unfortunately I was out of yeast and couldn't get my hands on any in a moments notice.  But if I decide to make Thai Doughnuts again (which is very probable) I would definitely use a yeasty recipe, because these yeast-free doughnuts just didn't have the lightness I was looking for.  Oh well; they still all got eaten very quickly!  Because how can anything be bad if you deep fry it and then dip it in sweetened condensed milk and peanuts?  A perfect breakfast, if you ask me!

Thai Doughnuts (adapted from this recipe)

3 cups all purpose flour

1 cup water

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1 tsp sugar

1 tbsp vegetable oil

sweetened condensed milk, for dipping

chopped peanuts, for dipping

Combine the baking soda, powder, and sugar.  Add the water and mix well.  Add this mixture to the flour, and stir a little bit.  Add the oil to the mixture, and stir until a dough is formed.  Cover the dough with a moist cloth and let sit for 4 hours at room temperature.  

Heat oil for deep frying.  On a floured surface, break the dough into small (about 1 inch) pieces, and flatten them into oval shapes.  When the oil is hot enough that a small piece of dough will bubble and float in it, start deep frying the dough.  Fry each piece until it is a golden color.  

Serve while the doughnuts are still warm: dip them in the sweetened condensed milk and then in the peanuts, and enjoy!