Gah

Hi kids... Unfortunately, for the first time in Daring Baker history, I did not rise to the challenge as planned. Remember the sickness of last month that caused me to finish my Yule Log late? Well, it got worse.. full blown pneumonia worse. I've been fighting it for well over 3 weeks now, and just got home earlier this week after a 5 day stay in the hospital because of it. I am feeling much better but not enough to get me arse in the kitchen yet. I am so very sorry. :( I hope our lovely hostesses, Karen of Bake My Day! and Zorra of 1x umrühren bitte, do not take my absence from January's Tuiles challenge the wrong way.. this has nothing to do with the challenge recipe, I was really looking forward to making Tuiles (and I will still make them one day!), I loved the recipes given and the creativity we were allowed.. but my lungs are just being rude and they won't cooperate just yet. :( I hope ya'll will forgive me this month. Keep clickin' on that blogroll.. there are 1000's of amazing bakers who did get their challenge done just waiting for you to stop by to see! :) xoxo

Eating Deliciously on a Budget

Some really good tips and recipes for those of us who are trying to cut back on grocery bills these days... Check out FoodieView! xoxo

Not Tho Daring When Thee's Got a Stuffed Node, Ith Thee?

Many, many apologies to The Daring Bakers, Hilda, and Marion for not getting my French Yule Log up by the designated reveal date! I am so sorry! Hubbs thought he was being funny.. har dee har har. This was a fantastic challenge - in every sense of the word. And I have to say, Hilda and Marion did an amazing job as hostesses for the month of December - as the questions were flying left and right. And what a great group of bakers we have! The logs I've seen this past week have just blown me away with all the different flavor combinations, creativity in decorating and just pure awesomeness! Congratulations to all who participated! :) So a little introduction.. This month's challenge is brought to us by the adventurous Hilda from Saffron and Blueberry and Marion from Il en Faut Peu Pour Etre Heureux. They have chosen a French Yule Log by Flore from Florilege Gourmand Once again, my mad frosting skillz are top notch! The rest of this post is going to be short and sweet (for me).. I'm pretty sure by now ya'll have gotten the gist of the challenge this month, yes? :) I went with a caramel mousse, lemon creme brulee, dark chocolate crisp (I used rice krispies), dark chocolate ganache and then a dark chocolate icing. Ya'll might notice the base of my log is a wee bit different from everyone else's.. well *blush* my almond daquoise kind of started smoking and then full on burned in the oven as the "chef" might have been on the phone and not paying attention. *sigh* Unfortunately, I didn't have another nut in the house - other than moi - so I had to improvise.. I chose to do a graham cracker crust because, well.. that's all I had in the pantry that was uhmmm.. crusty. :P So the big thing with this challenge was time.. it's time consuming to put something so magnificent together. But all 6 of the components? Easy as pie. I had no problems whatsoever with anything other than the aforementioned "casualty". It's too bad you can't really see the creme brulee insert.. and I took the advice from other DBer's and broke up the crisp layer for easier cutting - I don't think I broke it up small enough though because cutting through that layer was pretty difficult. The taste? OHMYGOD, I have never before had a frozen treat that tasted so amazing. The tart lemon brulee is exactly what the caramel mousse needed to keep this dessert from being overly sweet. Going with dark chocolate for all of the chocolate components also helped with the problem of being too sweet. Caramel, citrus and dark chocolate are truly an amazing combination. And the different textures were just fabulous as well.. the mousse and brulee were very creamy, yet different as the creme brulee was more dense. The ganache was probably my favorite texture wise as it reminded me of the ONLY part of those Dairy Queen ice cream cakes that I enjoy. hee! And well.. the crumbly graham cracker crust was perfect in adding something different to the mix. Oh Look! It's levitating! :D truly loved this challenge and will definitely make this again next Christmas - and I might even get it done IN TIME for Christmas! ;) Thanks so much Hilda and Marion for a truly "Daring" challenge! And HAPPY NEW YEAR everyone! :) xoxo