Taking Time Off from Daring Bakers

Yup...I've finally decided that I HAVE to take some time off from the challenges. There's just too many things I have to do, and want to do, it's difficult to stick to my monthly commitment. However, I'll still be around and I'll also be stopping by other blogs whenever I can. Hopefully someday I'll be back to take on all the fun Daring Bakers Challenge! :)

Daring Bakers April Challenge ---- Traditional English Pudding

I didn't think I was able to complete this challenge. But here it is...2 days late. These are some of the things I have been doing for the past 2 weeks (besides the regular routine) --- getting the house ready for my best friend's visit (the last time we met up, Yesmin was only 2 months old...so that's almost 10 years ago!!!)...I had to get the crap room, a.k.a guest room cleared!!! I was also trying to prep some food that I wanted to make for her. Then the worst of all...a call from the school 3 days before my friend's arrival. I thought Yesmin was sick again...but this was worst. She fell on the school's play structure during recess and hurt herself. We end up spending 5 hours plus in the emergency room!!! Thankfully, she didn't break any bone, there was no internal injuries, no stitches. *phew*

Back to the challenge...

The April 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Esther of The Lilac Kitchen. She challenged everyone to make a traditional British pudding using, if possible, a very traditional British ingredient: suet.

If you haven't heard of suet.... suet is raw beef or mutton fat!!! Yikkeesss....oh, and by the way, the English pudding isn't the custard base pudding we have here in U.S. It has a totally whole different texture and taste. For more detail information, go to Daring Kitchen, Esther did a fantastic job in describing.

Then one day, this is what a friend posted on her Facebook page --- she found THIS in our local Safeway store!!!


We all had a good laugh (those of us with a "gutter brain") --- at the name, of course. Some suggested it'd be great stocking stuffer!!! :P Can you imagine when the cashier announcing "Price check on Spotted Dick on register 9, please!" I had to pick one up....especially since THIS IS what we're doing for the month's challenge!! :)

So, for this challenge, I didn't open up the can and call it done, of course! :) We had the choice of making it sweet or savory; with or without a suet crust. I chose to make the Spotted Dick. I added to the given recipe, raisins, cranberries, apricot and toasted pecans. I also soaked the dried fruits with Myers rum for 10 minutes. One thing I didn't have was a regular bread crumbs. I used my left over panko whole wheat breadcrumbs instead. And instead of suet, I used butter flavored Crisco that was in my pantry. This is what mine looks like.



Not bad looking. Since it is traditionally serve with a custard sauce, I made Francois Payard's creme anglaise.

My version of Spotted Dick

I took a scoop....it's ok...took another....ok, I think that's it....I'm NOT having anymore...I wonder if it's the after taste of the Crisco?? It just didn't work....doesn't taste good at all! Kinda disappointed. Maybe it'd taste better with the REAL SUET?! I'm sure there are other Daring Bakers out there who made a delicious steamed pudding. So, don't let mine stop you....check out the other blogs here and they might be able to convince you otherwise. HOWEVER....by all means, DON'T torture yourself trying the canned Spotty!! Look at THIS!!!



Just that, should already tell you something....but I HAD to try it... So...I dress it up with my custard sauce....

Heinz's canned Spotted Dick

....and I took a bite....I spit it out right away!!! YUK!!! :P After this, I really don't know if I have the guts to try Spotted Dick again. Nonetheless, it has been an interesting experience. Thank you Esther, for the experience. :)

Creations!!

Can you guess what these yellow monsters are made from?


They were made from the wax casing from the Babybel cheese!

Update on Mohawk Lucas!

Remember this from my previous post??


Two months later...




His hair is still standing at 3 inches long!!! (I couldn't hold his hair straight while holding the ruler on one hand and the camera on the other...unless I have a 3rd hand! ;) )

Birthdays!!!

March was another busy month. Started out with my turning another year WISER --- I hope!! ;) I was so tired from all the Chinese New Year baking, I didn't even felt like making any thing for myself this year. Luckily, my very sweet hubby went to Cheesecake Factory and got my favorite carrot cake cheesecake and 2 other slices of cakes for himself and the kids. We had a simple celebration. The next day, hubby had to fly off to Taiwan for work!! :(



A friend/neighbor, K asked if I could make a cake for her son's 7th birthday. Of course I said yes! Lucas will be in kindergarten in September, one year after that, he'll be in school full day. I 'd love to take these 2 years and gain as much experience as possible, so that by the time he's in school full day, I can possible start my business, get my kitchen license...etc. So, I jump on any opportunity I get. Back to the cake, K requested for a Mario cake. I Google and found MANY adorable Mario cakes to get an idea on the characters. Went to the Decorette Shop to look for a cake topper, but they didn't have any...so I checked online...WOW! It's expensive!! Forget it! But I really needed a Mario figurine...cos' I knew I wouldn't be able to make HIM! So I went to Toys 'R Us...thank goodness they have ONE Mario left!! Phew!

Honestly I really like the idea of having a toy figurine for the cake, instead of making ALL of them out of fondant...reason behind that is that after all the cake and icing are gone, the birthday child will still have a toy to play and remember with!! :) So, I started making the other characters. It's so fun, cos' they ARE SOOO CUTE!!! :D And I sure LOVE the edible markers!!! They are so convenient for the little eyes!!

I didn't make Mario, he was from Toys 'R Us!! :)

See the fluffy clouds?? I learn that trick from Melody of My Sweet and Saucy. If you're in the Long Beach area, check out her bakery!! I also thought about using marshmallow for filling up the inside of the cloud ---it'd be fun when the kids bite into it...but I didn't wanna go out and buy a BIG bag of it.

K told me that the kids were debating as to who gets to eat WHAT!! :)

Two days before she pick up the cake, K called and asked if I could make her daughter --- Ellie's birthday cake!!! I was nervous about it, since I only have a few days to work on that. Poor K, have both kids' birthday ONE week apart!! Try organizing 2 birthdays in a row!!! Yikes! I'm already complaining about the birthdays between Lucas, Yesmin and Nd(Lee)...which is 3 weeks part from each other's. I told her that I can't make detail fondant decorations like Mario's, but a simple and fun one should be alright. The nice thing about K is she isn't picky either. On the day she picked up Mario cake, I showed her the cakes from the Whimsical Bakehouse...and I showed her 3 choices that I thought would suit Ellie best.

Daring Bakers Challenge --- Orange Tian

I am late, I am late, I am so-so-so, very, very LATE!!! :( It's been a busy month with 2 cake orders --- oh ya, it's a BIG deal to me...we'll talk about that later. Also, March has always been the month where we take a turn on getting SICK in the family!! *sigh* Anyhow, I am so glad to have gotten this month's challenge down!!! :)

The 2010 March Daring Baker’s challenge was hosted by Jennifer of Chocolate Shavings. She chose Orange Tian as the challenge for this month, a dessert based on a recipe from Alain Ducasse’s Cooking School in Paris.

I've never had or heard of Orange Tian before this...but there's always the first time...and it was a GOOD one!!! I LOVE marmalade for one... if I can only have ONE jelly/jam for the rest of my life, it will be marmalade. So, it was exciting to know we HAVE to make homemade marmalade for the challenge...however, I'm not into canning(YET --- cos' I'm a sucker...easily persuaded)...otherwise I might just get hooked on!

In the recipe, it says to weigh the oranges of you have blanched, then weight the same amount of sugar to cook the marmalade. I cut the sugar in half...and it was already too sweet for me!! I'm glad I changed that part of the recipe.

1st time making homemade marmalade --- yum!

Lucas sniffing at it... trying hard to be patience before the whole dessert comes together! :P

We also had to make a pate sablee. I'm used to making pate sucree, and have never made a sablee...and apparently there's a difference. So, I tried the Pate Sablee recipe provided! LOVED IT!! :) Yesmin could just eat the baked sablees by itself!! I didn't want to go out and buy a dozen of medium size eggs...so I used the large egg yolks I had in hand.

Pate Sablee

Initially I had plan to make it family style --- in one big pan...then I decided to make them bite size...so I used some 2" muffin cups I bought back in Malaysia. I think it was just the right size. I serve mine with the caramel and a chocolate sauce/glaze I have from left over. It was DELICIOUS!!! :)

So, if you are interested in the recipe, just click here for details. And stop by our blogroll to check out what other DB-ers' version of Orange Tian.

THANKS JENNIFER FOR THE CHALLENGE!!! :)

Not Participating in Daring Baker's Feburary Challenge --- Tiramisu.

In case you stopped by for the February challenge, I'm sorry that I haven't been able to participate this month. There's just too many things going on this month. The hostess, Aparna of My Diverse Kitchen and Deeba of Passionate About Baking chose Tiramisu as the challenge. Drop by The Daring Kitchen website for more post/info.

Have a great weekend!!!