Tiramisu ~ Heaven on a Dessert Plate!

I always wanted to make Tiramisu, but here in Kuwait we rarely get Mascarpone cheese and it is inevitably always highly priced. When I found the recipe for homemade mascarpone cheese on Vera’s blog I really wanted to make the mascarpone and Tiramisu at home, and so began the search for the perfect Tiramisu recipe. And in February when the Daring Bakers Challenge hosted by Deeba and Aparna was announced, I saw the entire blog sphere was filled with Tiramisu recipes. I knew I could trust Deeba’s recipe blindly as I had already tried several of her other recipes earlier and they were all really good. So when my brother visited last week I made Tiramisu for him and we all really liked it. So here is the Tiramisu recipe I tried from Deeba’s place.

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Classic Chocolate Whoopie Pies With Marshmallow Crème Filling ~ December Daring Bakers' Challenge

Whoopie pies are a cross between a cookie and a cake (not a pie!), with two round, mound-shaped halves sandwiching a sweet creamy filling. 

The December Daring Bakers' Challenge had us all cheering - the lovely and talented Bourbonnatrix of Bourbonnatrix Bakes was our hostess and challenged us to make fun, delicious and creative whoopie pies! Delicious little cake-like cookies sandwiching luscious filling in any flavors we chose... What else is there to say but "Whoopie!"

Since this is the first time I am making Whoopie Pie I wanted to stick to the Classic Whoopie Pie recipe. For filling I couldn’t find Marshmallow Fluff/ Marshmallow Crème in the market here, so I had to make it at home. Found an easy recipe for the fluff on the net. It was really fun making whoopee pie, marshmallow fluff and the filling all from scratch. This time my super picky eater son loved the whoopie pies and he was the one who ate the most!

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Pastel de Tres Leches – Three-Milk Cake ~ Daring Baker’ September 2013 Challenge

Pastel de Tres Leches or Three milk cake was on my do list for quite some time and I even bought all the ingredients once too… But somehow I was never able to make it …. When this month’s Daring Bakers’ challenge was announced I did not want to miss the opportunity to make this cake. I did not add fruits to the cake layers, just decorated the cake with some raspberries. If you want you can add fruits like peaches, mangoes, berries or cherries. I really enjoyed this month’s challenge and will definitely make this cake again!

This recipe slightly adapted from an interview given by one of Mexico's best Pastry Chefs; Paulina Abascal to the magazine Revista Secretos de la Pastelería Caserais it produces a super moist yet light Tres Leches.

Pastel de Tres Leches– Three-Milk Cake is a super moist, light, airy and super delicious sponge cake soaked in the three kinds of milk (evaporated milk, condensed milk, and heavy cream). Tres Leches is a very light cake (especially if made without butter), with many air bubbles in its crumb. This distinct texture is why it does not have a soggy consistency, despite being soaked in a mixture of three types of milk.

Inma was our Sept. 2013 Daring Bakers’ hostess and WOW did she bring us something decadent and delicious! Pastel de Tres Leches or Three Milk Cake, creamy yet airy, super moist but not soggy.. just plain delish!

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Chocolate and Caramel Tart ~ June Daring Bakers' challenge, Life Of Pie :)

Rachael from pizzarossa was our lovely June 2013 Daring Bakers’ host and she had us whipping up delicious pies in our kitchens! Cream pies, fruit pies, chocolate pies, even crack pies! There’s nothing like pie! :)

Rachael gave us four delicious sweet pie recipes to choose from and I really wanted to try all of them… But I could only make this smooth and utterly indulgent French Chocolate and caramel tart before I left for our vacation in beautiful Switzerland…. I used store bought caramel (Dulce de Leche) for the caramel layer and we really enjoyed this chocolate indulgence…. Thank you Rachael for the great challenge :)

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Mango and Passion Fruit Flavored Savarin ~ April 2013 Daring Bakers Challenge

Savarin is a yeasted cake made with the same dough as Rum Baba. I made Rum Baba a couple of years back… the difference between the two  are, rum baba has raisins or currants in the dough and is baked in tall cylindrical baba mold and served without a filling. Savarin is made without raisins and baked in a large ring mold and the hole in the centre is filled with pastry cream and fresh fruits. 

Natalia of Gatti Fili e Farina challenges us to make a traditional Savarin, complete with soaking syrup and cream filling! We were to follow the Savarin recipe but were allowed to be creative with the soaking syrup and filling, allowing us to come up with some very delicious cakes!

I made a Mango and Passion Fruit flavored soaking syrup. The glaze was made with mango jam. I served the Savarin with fresh mangoes and vanilla whipped cream. I halved the recipe and used 2 small bundt pans for baking. We all enjoyed the Savarin and thank you Natalia for a great challenge.

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Mini Carrot Cupcakes with Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting ~ March 2013 Daring Bakers’ challenge: Hidden Veggies

Ruth from Makey-Cakey was our March 2013 Daring Bakers’ challenge host. She encouraged us all to get experimental in the kitchen and sneak some hidden veggies into our baking, with surprising and delicious results!

It’s been a busy month as my son has school holidays and my whole day is spend with him.... I didn't even read the challenge properly to understand that we have to hide the veggies.... I made this carrot cupcake for the challenge.... Though the carrots are not hidden, these cupcakes are really soft, moist and tasty with the lemon cheese frosting.... try it I am sure you will love it....  

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Onion and Poppy Seed Crackers ~ Daring Bakers’ challenge, February 2013

Sarah from All Our Fingersin the Pie was our February 2013 Daring Bakers’ host and she challenges us to use our creativity in making our own Crisp Flatbreads and Crackers!  

I missed the last DB challenge and I didn’t want to miss this month too… February was a very busy and hectic month for me, birthday, Church Harvest festival and 5 days of long holidays and I somehow managed to bake these crackers on time… Thanks to Sarah for making this month’s challenge so simple and easy! These onion crackers are very easy to make and are very addictive to munch on… I also served these with little cream cheese topped with some fresh vegetables and herbs… Instead of cream cheese you can mix some Mayonnaise with a dash of Sriracha sauce too… I served these crackers with wine to my guests and they all loved it!

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Traditional Panettone ~ The December 2012 Daring Bakers’ challenge

Panettone, a traditional Italian Christmas bread was this month’s Daring Bakers Challenge… Last month I missed the Daring Bakers challenge and I somehow wanted to do this month’s and finally I managed to make it yesterday… It’s a time consuming bread and only attempt it when you don’t have much work to do…. it need several ‘rising’ and I started making this in the morning and ended up finishing it in the evening!... Please don’t panic seeing the long recipe, several rising or the amount of time consumed… It’s definitely worth the effort :)...  I did all the kneading work in my Kitchen Aid, also I soaked the fruits in rum and I only made half the recipe and baked in a 6” cake pan…

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Passion Fruit Mille-Feuille / Napoleon / Custard Slice for Daring Bakers’

This month’s Daring Bakers’ challenge is to make Mille-Feuille, the popular French patisserie treat. ‘Mille-feuille’ is French for ‘a thousand leaves’ (or ‘layers’), which is very apt, as it contains both layers of pastry (usually three) and layers within each pastry sheet..... Making puff pastry (or pâte feuilletée) basically involves a simple pastry dough, which is folded around sheet of butter (the beurrage). You then roll out your butter pastry package, fold it, roll it out, fold it, etc. – creating seams of butter that will puff up into distinct crispy layers when baked. The traditional mille-feuille is filled with a vanilla pastry cream (crème pâtissière) and is also known as a Napoleon, a custard slice or a vanilla slice. It’s often topped with royal icing and distinctive chocolate squiggles, and is popular the world over....

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Empanada Gallega ~ September 2012 Daring Bakers’ Challenge

Patri of the blog, Asi SonLos Cosas, was our September 2012 Daring Bakers’ hostess and she decided to tempt us with one of her family’s favorite recipes for Empanadas! We were given two dough recipes to choose from and encouraged to fill our Empanadas as creatively as we wished!

Empanada (or empada, in Portuguese) is a stuffed bread or pastry baked or fried in many countries in Western Europe, Latin America, and parts of Southeast Asia. The name comes from the Galician, Portuguese and Spanish verb empanar, meaning to wrap or coat in bread.The filling for empanada can vary, meat, chicken, cheese, fruit and vegetables. It is really up to your taste and preference and there is plenty of room for creativity. It can be served warm or cold. I chose to make individual sized empanadas instead of one big one and I used ground meat filling with some slight differences.

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Honey White Challah Bread ~ May 2012 Daring Bakers’ Challenge

                                                 Featured on Foodbuzz Top9

May’s Daring Bakers’ Challenge was pretty twisted – Ruth from The Crafts of Mommyhood challenged us to make challah!  Using recipes from all over, and tips from “A Taste of Challah,” by Tamar Ansh, she encouraged us to bake beautifully braided breads.

Our host Ruth grew up in a traditional Jewish household where this beautiful bread graced the table every week. She gave us lots of information and background relating to traditions of Challah. Believe it or not, the word “challah” does not actually mean bread.  Any whole loaves can be used at the Sabbath or holiday table for the traditional blessing.  Challah, instead, is the word referring to the portion of bread which, in the days of the Jewish temple in Jerusalem, was set aside and given to the high priests. 

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Armenian Nutmeg Cake ~ Daring Baker’s Challenge Part -2

The Daring Bakers’ April 2012 challenge, hosted by Jason at Daily Candor, were two Armenian standards: nazook and nutmeg cake. Nazook is a layered yeasted dough pastry with a sweet filling, and nutmeg cake is a fragrant, nutty coffee-style cake.

Armenian Nutmeg cake is a two layer cake. It’s very aromatic, easy to make and perfect for a tea party. I halved the recipe and baked the cake in a 6” pan. Since I didn't have walnuts with me I used some pistachios and almonds. Also I used the food processor method to make this cake. 

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Nazook / Armenian Pastry ~ Daring Bakers Challenge Part -1

The Daring Bakers’ April 2012 challenge, hosted by Jason at Daily Candor, were two Armenian standards: nazook and nutmeg cake. Nazook is a layered yeasted dough pastry with a sweet filling, and nutmeg cake is a fragrant, nutty coffee-style cake.

Nazook is a flaky pastry, with a sweet filling, that is very common in Armenia, Russia, Iran, Ukraine and many other places around the world. It is a delicious snack with afternoon tea or coffee. I only made a quarter amount of the pastry and got 12 pieces of Nazook. I really enjoyed making this super easy sweet pastry.

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Dutch Crunch Bread / Tiger Bread / Tijgerbrood / Giraffe Bread ~ with Daring Bakers

Featured on Foodbuzz Top9

Sara and Erica of BakingJDs were our March 2012 Daring Baker hostesses! Sara & Erica challenged us to make Dutch Crunch bread, a delicious sandwich bread with a unique, crunchy topping. Sara and Erica also challenged us to create a one of a kind sandwich with our bread!

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Chocolate Marble Bread ~ for The Daring Bakers

The Daring Bakers’ February 2012 host was – Lis! Lisa stepped in last minute and challenged us to create a quick bread we could call our own. She supplied us with a base recipe and shared some recipes she loves from various websites and encouraged us to build upon them and create new flavor profiles.

Quick Bread
Bread that is quick to make because it doesn't require kneading or rising time. That's because the leavener in such a bread is usually baking powder or baking soda, which, when combined with moisture, starts the rising process immediately. In the case of double-acting baking powder, oven heat causes a second burst of rising power. Eggs can also be used to leaven quick breads. This genre includes most biscuits, muffins, popovers and a wide variety of sweet and savory loaf breads.

The rules of the Challenge are:

No yeast

Can’t take more than 1.5 hours to prepare and bake through.

Only loaves or muffins/popovers

I opted to bake ChocolateMarble Bread from Joy of Baking. Since I made it at the last minute and as I was down with fever and cough, I was just not in a condition to think and twist the recipe to make it my own.... so I just adapted the recipe as it is and believe me it was really good..... we finished one loaf in two days!

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Sans Rival – Daring Bakers Challenge November 2011

Catherine of Munchie Musings was the November Daring Bakers’ host and she challenged to make a traditional Filipino dessert Sans Rival cake. And for those of us who wanted to try an additional Filipino dessert, Catherine also gave us a bonus recipe for Bibingka which comes from her friend Jun of Jun-blog.

I chose to make Chocolate Sans Rival and I only made quarter batch of the recipe. My daquoise and buttercream came out really nice, though the butter cream quantity was a little less. I suppose it really depends on individual taste; but this particular dessert did not find favour with my family; may be due to the overpowering taste of egg.

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Povitica ~ A Swirly Deliciousness! ( My First Daring Bakers Challenge)

I always wanted to join Daring Bakers.... but somehow never did till finally last month I signed up. My first challenge Povitica, which I had never heard of nor eaten in my life.... Daring Bakers October 2011 challenge was hosted by Jenni, of The Gingered Whisk.

Povitica (pronounced po-va-teet-sa) is a traditional Eastern European dessert bread that is traditionally served during the holiday season. It is also known as Nutroll, Potica, Kalachi, Strudia, just to name a few. Family recipes, and the secrets on how to roll the bread so thin, were passed down through generations of families. The traditional filling for this bread is an English walnut filling, but other typical fillings also include apple/cinnamon, apricot preserves, and a sweet cheese (like cream cheese).

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