Hello Everyone,
I am delighted to announce that I have successfully completed my very first Daring Bakers Challenge. I have been a silent admirer of this great blogging community since I began my blog in December 2007. Baking and I have a long and happy history. I began baking fairly regularly when I was in high school - cakes, biscuits, pastry, bread! My love affair with baking continued well into my University years, when the demands of career and travel left me with little time to boil an egg, let alone bake. Slowly, yet steadily now and with much encouragement from my husband :) I am returning to this great passion - and so I welcome Daring Bakers into my life!!
Here's my experience with the very first challenge. A couple of weeks before the challenge was posted, I ran across Dorie Greenspan's book Baking: From My Home to Yours at my local library. Browsing through, I found several recipes I was keen on trying. However, as we were expecting visitors from out of town in March, I knew there would never be enough time to get started. And then I thought I'd better wait for the recipe from the Daring Bakers, and focus on my very first challenge. To my complete and utter delight, Morven chose a recipe from the very same book!!
The Perfect Party Cake was simply a breeze to bake. Its one of the simplest recipes I've seen and without doubt a guaranteed success. Its also incredibly versatile, and given citrus addition to the batter makes it a wonderful base for any recipe requiring a slab of cake! A few notes on the process:
- I did bake the cakes the day before I iced them. They stayed well overnight.
- I put both lemon and orange rind in the batter and as a result got a wonderfully fresh flavour in the cake!
- The icing is fresh cream. It turned out delicious, except that I am not so fond of vanilla essence and I doubt that I will use it again to flavour the cream.
- I filled the cake with home-made cranberry and apple preserve which gave a great tangy taste twist to this otherwise sweet treat.
- Finally, the blueberries and blackberries on the top were perfect to give both a fresh look and taste to the cake.
So, presenting Berry Delight with Cranberry Preserve, my version of Dorie Greenspan's Perfect Party Cake. A big Thank You to the Daring Bakers for organizing this event!! P.S. For the original recipe, look here March Challenge and Blog on....
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Back with the Daring Bakers for an all new creation - Cheesecake Pops!! When I saw this recipe I was both excited and apprehensive. I'd never tried this before and as eggs are not really my favourite food, mostly because they don't agree with me, I decided to experiment. I halved the recipe and dropped the eggs altogether! The result was fabulous. The cheesecake turned out delicious - could not resist a taste as I rolled out the pops. Yumm!! 
I covered the pops with dark chocolate and coated them with cranberries and coarsely chopped Turkish apricots. Both provided the tartness that set set off the sweetness of the pops. Heavenly was the verdict. This recipe is a keeper. Looking forward to May!!!!
