November 2008 Daring Bakers Chalenge!
Saturday, 29. November 2008, 23:43:00
Hello, everybody! This is the first time I am part of a Daring Bakers Event!
Well, just as a quick explanation, The Daring Bakers are a comunity of blogers and anonimous cookers who have united themselves to dare baking some new and different recipe, decided by the monthly hosts, and then, we post all our results in the very same day (which, for November 2008, it is today, the 29th!).
This month's chalenge was hosted by Dolores, from Chronicles in Culinary Curiosity and co-hosted by Alex (from Brownie and Brownie) and Jenny (from Foray into Food). And to help about alternative baking, Natalie, from Gluten-a-Go-Go gave a special assistance!
And Dolores told us to bake Shuna Fish Lydon's Caramel Cake, from Eggbeater. Her original recipe is posted here.
Baking this cake was really funny!
First, I made the caramel syrup. Last time I tried to make caramel, I burned the first batch, and the second one was more like molten sugar than caramel (ok, I know, melting sugar is the process to make caramels, but really, the flavors are so different!). But I think I had luck, and this time, it worked really fine!
Then, I made the cake, and baked in two formats. A small one, to send my parents, and a larger one, for a small home party, I had with some friends!
Well, just as a quick explanation, The Daring Bakers are a comunity of blogers and anonimous cookers who have united themselves to dare baking some new and different recipe, decided by the monthly hosts, and then, we post all our results in the very same day (which, for November 2008, it is today, the 29th!).
This month's chalenge was hosted by Dolores, from Chronicles in Culinary Curiosity and co-hosted by Alex (from Brownie and Brownie) and Jenny (from Foray into Food). And to help about alternative baking, Natalie, from Gluten-a-Go-Go gave a special assistance!
And Dolores told us to bake Shuna Fish Lydon's Caramel Cake, from Eggbeater. Her original recipe is posted here.
Baking this cake was really funny!
First, I made the caramel syrup. Last time I tried to make caramel, I burned the first batch, and the second one was more like molten sugar than caramel (ok, I know, melting sugar is the process to make caramels, but really, the flavors are so different!). But I think I had luck, and this time, it worked really fine!
Then, I made the cake, and baked in two formats. A small one, to send my parents, and a larger one, for a small home party, I had with some friends!
After baking the cakes, while they were getting cooler, I made the buttercream. As I had already read other DBs opinions, I made mine with half the sugar demanded, and the final result was really awesome! And, as you can see, the texture was great to pipe, too! Afterall, even me, who was using the confectioner's bag for the first time, to make a decoration, could get some quite acceptable results!
Well, besides making this small cake, I have shown above, the largest part of the batter went for the larger cake, to serve in my small party. I baked it in a 10cm X 30cm pan. I thought it would get lighter and taller, but I think I overmixed my batter, so my cake was a bit denser than a normal cake.
This cake was meant to be for about 10 people! And good enough, everybody I invited came by!
We were in eight. As I spent the whole day baking this cake, as well as taking care of my girlfriend, who was making some work, I wanted to go take easy on the dinner, so I had with a simple pasta with what we call it Bologna Sauce, which is minced meat and tomato sauce.
For the desert, as you can see, everybody had a lot of cake, and that's what was left. Well, that should mean something... There was A LOT of cake! And well, with just a small piece in the plate, I think people liked it! But I was wrong...
Not about people liking it or not, but actually, for having leftovers! When I thought It would be a nice time to start stacking up dishes in the counter, I made a small question: Does anyone want some more cake? Cause I don't really need these left overs, I still have another small cake. (I tell you, most of the people had already got doubles and some even triples!)
To my surprise, one of my friends said "Well, then, ok! Send it here!" And he finally devoured it to the last tiny bit of it, with a little help from my other friend! At least, I didn't need to take any plastic container to store left overs!
Thank you all, guys! To Dolores, Alex and Jenny for hosting and co-hosting this month's chalenge, to Shuna Fish Lydon, for her great recipe, and to my friends, who so nicely accepted my invitation to come by!
Ah, and remember to check out other Daring Bakers' results, following our main blogroll!
- Higa
WIDGETIZE
Anonymous # 30. November 2008, 23:37
wtf, why my previous comment isn't here?
Well, anyway. I said sth like
"Well, caramel... lol! Yeah, taking care of me while I messed out your baking, huh? Hahaha... the first pic came out so nice, congrats! And I bet you would have missed the posting deadline if I didn't remind you of doing it yesterday... ¬¬"
Anonymous # 1. December 2008, 04:55
Great job with this cake! What a compliment that you friends polished the whole thing off! Welcome to the Daring Bakers!
Bauer1 # 1. December 2008, 12:48
Tava muito boa a receita mesmo!
Abraço
Anonymous # 2. December 2008, 14:02
Hungryyy... rsrsrs
Jityan # 3. December 2008, 14:52
Anonymous # 5. December 2008, 14:23
Your cake looks lovely.. especially the frosting.
Cheers,
Ramya
Rhiga # 5. December 2008, 17:05
I'm still learning how to properly use the piping bag, but that smaller cake left me really proud of myself! Hahahah