Chocolate Pavlovas with Chocolate Mascarpone Mousse

I should have known that it all wouldn't go smoothly with my first Daring Bakers' Challenge.  From remaking my recipe to a big ol' camera snafu, the first one left me a lot to learn from.  Without further ado, here's my shorter than spectacular post!


The June 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Dawn of Doable and Delicious. Dawn challenged the Daring Bakers’ to make Chocolate Pavlovas and Chocolate Mascarpone Mousse. The challenge recipe is based on a recipe from the book Chocolate Epiphany by Francois Payard.

A little about my level of expertise on this subject.  Before this challenge I had NEVER:
made a pavlova
made a mousse from scratch
made my own creme anglaise

I had really only dabbled in cookies, cakes, pies, and a few breads, so I was excited and definitely taking out of my culinary comfort zone for this, my first challenge.

The first item I made was my creme anglaise...TWICE.  My first go round turned into a big pot of curdled vanilla goop.  Not good.  After realizing that I needed to lower my temperature and use a different burner altogether for the second step of the creme anglaise, it turned out smooth, custardy, and very, VERY tasty.  I seriously ate a ton of it with a spoon.
The next step while that was cooling was to get my chocolate pavlovas going since the recipe said they'd bake for 2-3 hours!
This I actually didn't have any trouble with.  Whip the dickens outta the egg whites and fold in the cocoa powder and confectioner's sugar.  I placed in a piping bag, but I just cut the tip.  For my first go, I was going to success instead of fancy pants.

Here's the one recovered photo:

A few rounds, and two hearts.  Cute.  Except the centers were so marshmallowy, that removing them from the sil-pat ruined their shape.  My finished product ended up looking more, erm, rustic. :-)  Delicious, but rustic.
I made some with just vanilla, too.

I think they look like peeps.  These are amazing on their own.  The Mascarpone Mousse was another element that was made twice due to my temperature giddiness.  Adding my chopped chocolate to the heavy cream was an expensive step since the first chocolate was added when the heavy cream was WAY too hot, and I ruined it.  After another trip to Meijer in Richmond, the second go went much better.

I plated four of the chocolate pavlovas with some chilled mousse, and I went heavy on the creme anglaise since it was my favorite part.  My guinea pigs (John's mom, dad, brother, and sister-in-law) licked the plates clean.  Since one of our favorite shows is Top Chef.  They made me present it as if they were "Judges Table."  I peed a little, but I did get 5 stars from all but one (the portion wasn't big enough for one!)  :-)
I will make these again, especially since my beloved Canon ate my plated dessert pictures, and I do want to try this with some peanut butter or caramel. Stay tuned!

Cake-Cake here, A cake-cake there...

Here a cake, there a cake...

  Here's a few pictures of the cakes I've done in the past year. 

A cake with a Dark Side.

So, I got these little guys from Williams-Sonoma last week, and I almost peed my pants from sheer joy.  How stinking cute are they?  Except I didn't want them for cookies (though I tried unsuccessfully-puffy sugar cookie dough was uncooperative), I wanted them for fondant and gumpaste decor on John's birthday cake!  Cutting them out was easy.  Painting them, not so much.  I dropped the first Boba Fett on my pants...And I am praying to the gods that my Tide pen can remove all of that coloring from my khakis.  The little guys were a huge hit!  May the force be with you this weekend!

Perfect Day for Fishing

 

This little guy was made for John's Dad and Pap.  Their birthdays are two weeks apart, so they wanted one cake to celebrate.  They are avid fishermen, and I decided I wanted to try to work on figure making.  I used all fondant, gumpaste, and the little fishing rods are uncooked spaghetti painted brown.  It was fun to make them, and I learned a ton about figures from awesome tutorials provided on YouTube that Cake Central.  The cake was a milk chocolate cake with a triple chocolate filling...my fave part was the chunks of white chocolaty goodness mixed in with the dark and milk chocolate ganache.

I need to remember to take better pictures of my cakes instead of taking them quickly right before they are cut and destroyed!
Again, thank you to my family and friends for letting me bake up a storm for them.

There's always room for cake!

Happy June

June is the month of weddings, and since it's June 1st, I thought I'd start off with a post featuring my favorite wedding cake I've done yet.  This was also my 2nd ever cake!  The cake was red velvet and strawberry flavors with vanilla buttercreme.  The calla lilies have a secret hidden support in there that holds the bride and groom's tier up.  Heart attack putting that thing together, I tell ya.  Alas, I think it turned out well, and I'm quite proud of this one...as were the recipients, Andy and Michelle Sherrow last June.  Thanks for taking a chance on this novice baker, guys.

Elmo is tasty!

At least he was according to Leslie who ended up eating this little guy:

I'd have that look, too, if I were about to be eaten.





I did this cake last August for Leslie's son, Zayden Ace.  Zay turned 1 last year, and like many 1 year olds, loves him some Elmo.  Instead of going for an Elmo pan and pipe approximately one-zillion stars, I decided to try to make a 3D member of Sesame Street.  After watching Food Network Challenge countless times, I made the executive decision to use Rice Krispie treats. They seem to be more forgiving and more moldable than cake or any other mediums that I had thought of, so I set out to make Mr. Elmo.
Goodness, RKT are sooo goood.

I just began to mess around with shapes while just using a photo to go by:  I came up with this...

But then I couldn't figure out how to keep him sitting...or how to color him correctly.  In a panic, I went to the grocery store and bought Food Coloring Mist in Red.  I figured I could just color him, and then the texture of the treats would give him the "fur" look that he had.  I was wrong. :-(

So, then my bright idea was to roll that in red sprinkles while he was still wet and tacky...

WRONG again. 

This was the last look before Elmo fell off his dowel and perished in my kitchen.  The "mist" dissolved the marshmallow concoction and made it completely mushy destroying Elmo quicker and more efficiently than if I had thrown him against the wall and stepped on him.  Seriously, those two things Elmo could have survived.  Food Mist was no match, and lesson learned.  Back to Elmo square one.

  After re-sculpting Elmo's body and adding support in the form of 3 strategically placed toothpicks (one to attach each leg, and one in the body with just enough to connect the head to the torso), I embarked upon another "furring" technique.  Grass tip 233 and tinted buttercreme.

  When I took my Wilton class last year, they told me that colors deepen as they sit, so they could be darker in two hours, so be careful...I've learned this the hard way, but this time I stopped adding a combination of Christmas Red and No Taste Red gel coloring at the right time.

I started in the back of Elmo to get my technique down first.

Continuing all over Elmo until he was all piped and ready for a face.

Using fondant tinted orangey-yellow I made an egg shaped nose and white fondant made two round eye balls.  I used black piping gel for the inside of his mouth and his pupils.

 The cake was a dark chocolate cake with a milk chocolate ganache and buttercreme icing. 

 The 1 is made from Candy Melts in white chocolate, and hand piped onto wax paper, cooled, then placed on the cake.





No 1 year old birthday party is complete without a smash cake. 

Tickle him.  I dare ya...:-)

May the force be with this cake

This little guy will be adorning the cake that I'm working on for John's 30th birthday this weekend.  Coincidentally, this year also is the 30th anniversary of The Empire Strikes Back, John's favorite installment of the Star Wars saga.  More details to follow!  Hope you're having a great Memorial Day weekend!