The Fat Lady Sings...on my opera cake

You are supposed to see a post of a Spring-inspired Opera Cake for Daring Bakers challenge today. However, after three failures in three days, I gave up last night (and ran out of eggs). (And, yes, I can hear my mother saying I should have started earlier...but I don't know where a whole month went!)

First, made my own blanched almond meal in the food processor. I don't think I processed it enough and somehow the layers came out completely thin. Like flour tortilla thin. Mr. Trashcan, here we come.

Second, I picked up some Bob's Red Mill Almond Flour/Meal and this batch was strangely sticky and too flat as well. (Yes, I carefully folded in the egg whites)

Third, last night I tried again and used a smaller pan so I can get some lift. I planned to finish it tonight. After I finished the buttercream (using a swiss meringue recipe from Martha) and syrup, I started to assemble the baby. But the parchment paper I used to store the cake (top and bottom) ended up getting stuck to the cake...and pulled the whole thing apart.

I give up. I feel defeated and completely exhausted (stayed up too late last night). All I have to show for all these efforts is a sink full of dishes, enough egg shell compost to fill, well, a compost bin, and Mr. Trashcan is stuffed to the gills.

I bought strawberries at the Farmer's Market this weekend for this recipe. At least I'll end with a happy photo! (I'll try this recipe again after going shopping for more ingredients - need lots more eggs!) Be sure to check out the other Daring Bakers who didn't have a total collapse of baking and completed the challenge!

Cheesecake Pops!

Cheesecake Pops!

This is the April 2008 Daring Bakers challenge - Cheesecake Pops from Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey by Jill O’Connor. A favorite website Rosa's Yummy Yums has posted the recipe.

It was a lot of fun to create, and were a total hit at work. You should totally make these for a party!!

The basic idea - bake a cheesecake without the crust in a water bath, chill out, roll into balls, freeze and coat in melted chocolate. I read that a lot of Daring Bakers were having difficulties baking the full recipe...the recipe says 35-45 minutes, and some people had to bake it for over an hour. I ended up making 1/2 the recipe and using a 9-inch cake pan.

This was my first time making a cheesecake with a water bath. Because I made 1/2 the recipe and I used a tall 9x3 pan, the batter only came up 1/3 of the pan. The recipe says to put the pan in a turkey roaster (or similar pan) and fill with boiling water 1/2 way up the side of the pan.

Um. I created a new island. The Cheesecake Island. I added too much water and my poor pan started to float in the vastness of boiling water.

What did I do? Did I mention it was BOILING water? I wasn't about to risk a burn (which I would soooo do to myself), so I just popped my new Hawaiian island into the stove.

In 35 minutes, I had a firm but not brown cheesecake! I can't imagine how long it would have baked if I used all 40 ounces of cream cheese to make the full recipe.

Cheesecake without the crust is chilled and rolled into little ball

After freezing, balls are covered in chocolate and dipped in toppings

Topping choices include: colored sprinkles, UCLA blue and gold sprinkles, and food processed gingersnap cookies

Cheesecake sitting in a bowl of rice! (I needed something to hold them up)

Perfect Party Cake

I've joined an online baking community - Daring Bakers! Each month, members make the same recipe and post them on the same day! To learn more about it, or join yourself, check out their website.

This month, Morven selected the Perfect Party Cake from Dorie Greenspan's book, Baking: From My Home to Yours (page 250). What a perfect challenge...I just bought the book and have been going through a lot of the recipes lately.

Of course, my procrastination gene came out full force... although we have a month to complete the challenge (just post it on the same day) I baked and posted on the same day! Luckily, it's my dad's 76th birthday tomorrow so I had a perfect occasion for the perfect party cake!

Trial #1 - Not-so-perfect party cake

I did try to make the cake on Wednesday night, but the cake came out sooooo flat. I read some other bakers had the same problem...but most of them were using all-purpose flour and not cake flour. However, I used all the correct ingredients (Swan's cake flour and buttermilk) with no substitutions. I don't know what happened!

Yesterday, I tried again and brought all the ingredients to very room temperature in case that was the problem. I creamed the butter first and then added the lemon sugar. Also, I switched from the recommended 9-inch pans to smaller 8-inch pans. This time, I got more lift!

Buttercream in motion! Start with egg white and sugar, whisk over a double boiler for 3 minutes (until 160 degrees to kill any yucky stuff), beat for another 5 minutes on the KitchenAid and then drop in three sticks of butter. It curdles a bit, but it all comes together with lots of beating!

Assembling the cake...jam, frosting, cake and repeat.

Sweetened coconut is placed on top of the buttercream. However, next time, I'm going to skip the coconut as I'm not the biggest fan of coconut.

I liked the taste (I pushed the coconut off my slice! :) but I felt the raspberry jam was a bit overpowering. I bought this raspberry seedless jam imported from England from Surfas for $7.50. It is a nice jam for shortbread cookies, but I think I should have listened to Cook's Illustrated who rated Smuckers the best raspberry jam.

Here is a photo of my niece and nephews and their grandpa at the Hof's Hut for birthday breakfast! Happy 76th Birthday Dad!

P.S. Whew! Although I'm late in some parts of the world, I still made it under the wire by Los Angeles Daylight-Savings time! Can't wait for the next challenge!