Daring Baker's May 2008 Challenge - Opera Cake

I'm so excited to post about my first challenge!!! It was definitely a challenge though - I was doing a lot of multitasking. I supervise the Intern Program at my marketing agency and it's a small tradition to have an ice cream social for the summer interns to introduce them to the company. This being my first summer semester under my direct supervision, I decided I needed to make all the ice cream myself. I also wanted to bake breakfast for the interns, so all-in-all my Memorial Day weekend consisted of the following:

Honey-Vanilla Bean Ice Cream
Rocky Road Ice Cream
Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream
Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ice Cream
Strawberry Ice Cream
Cake Batter Ice Cream
Oatmeal Cranberry Scones
Blueberry Orange Scones
Banana Bread
Coffeecake Muffins
Opera Cake

It honestly was a lot of fun - somehow I fit in a few loads of laundry and tanning for 6 hours on my cousin's boat.

But I'm getting off topic - on to the challenge!

The Opera Cake has five elements: the joconde (sponge cake using almond meal), flavor syrup, buttercream, mousse and glaze. The flavor essence of most of the elements were open in this challenge. I decided to stay with the almond theme. I'm actually allergic to nuts - especially to almonds (but only when consumed). In fact, I usually throw nuts into a lot of things so I can't eat them - it's a great diet plan especially when you're a baker!

My syrup's flavorings was a mixture of almond extract and amaretto. Having some experience with genoise cakes, I decided to soak my cake three times to really get the flavor into the cake. For the buttercream, I used almond extract. Finally, I used amaretto in both the white chocolate mousse and white chocolate glaze.

I ran into a few problems - first off I didn't use my intuition when working with the glaze. After feeling the glaze and thinking, this is probably still hot enough to melt the mousse. Then, I put it on anyway. Why I don't listen to myself - I have no idea. So I had to do some maintenance as far as putting the cake into the fridge and cleaning up the mess after everything hardened up.

Anyway, I'm told it tasted good. I wish I could have eaten it, but I didn't want to risk the allergic reaction :)

Hope I'm living up to the Daring Bakers' expectations! Look out for the next challenge!

Coffee as a Canvas

Back in January, my friend Ahram and I went up to NYC. She is like an NYC expert, especially when it comes to food and restaurants! Speaking of which, I really should do a recap of that via this blog - we called it our NYC Food Tour.

Anyway, we went to Chelsea Market. Now, it was my first time there and can I please say, I want to live there. The most amazing food shops and Food Network?! Of course I'd feel right at home.

Anyway, at the Market, there was this cafe called Ninth Street Espresso. Now, anyone who knows me knows that I'm a bit quirky when it comes to my coffee. I used to work at several cafes so I always got to make my coffee how I liked it. I like my milk steamed to 120 degrees because I want to drink it right then and there. Typically, milk is steamed to 160, then it typically rises about 10-15 degrees, and that's a tad too hot for me.

However, Ninth Street doesn't change their recipes, which I was put off by a little but I can respect that. Except for the fact that the barista was quite rude about it, so that was a little frustrating. I think the other barista sensed my frustration and started asking me questions about why I like my coffee the way I like it. She then pointed out the reason why they steam to 150 is because milk caramelizes at 140 degrees. How enlightening! She was so nice and I appreciated her knowledge.

But, I appreciated her even more because she exposed me to latte art!!! It's when you pour your steamed milk in a certain way to create designs in your espresso. How cool is that? I've been doing a lot of reading and am confident enough to try - I'll hopefully talk to some of my favorite local baristas into letting me behind the counter. I'll report back. Hopefully, there'll be pictures soon.

The picture above is from Mortefot from flickr.com.

Stuffed

Okay so no recipes yet, and none still with this post, but because my blog has to do with food, I figured I should write about my dinner.

My roommate Jessica invited a bunch of friends over tonight for dinner, one of which was leaving for his home, Chile, tomorrow. To give Martine (that's his name) a proper American send off, Jessica wanted to create an All-American meal. So we settled on a "down home" menu:

Pot Roast with Sweet Onions
Roasted Vegetables (new potatoes, yams, red peppers, butternut squash and red onions)
Macaroni & Cheese (courtesy Nicholas Miller)
Whole Wheat Rolls
Blueberry-Peach Cobbler with Ice Cream

The dinner party was for (8) and I could have sworn we weren't going to have enough food - but sure enough everyone is extremely full.

Again, no pictures, I have no foresight. I guess the most appropriate picture would be of me being full, but that's unattractive. So just trust me when I say, I'm stuffed.

Promise - recipes to follow.

Hello world!

I hope my title doesn't offend anyone. I'm Filipino and using chopsticks for me at least is so unnatural. We just use our hands to eat. Maybe we didn't have the patience for tools such as chopsticks. Or maybe we were just that hungry.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to blogging about all the trials and tribulations that happen in my kitchen! You'll be seeing some postings soon but allow me to make some notes about the recipes I have to post so that I don't forget (I just can't do it now because it's 3:13 a.m.):

• Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ice Cream
• Tiramisu Dip
• Parmesan Vegetable Soup (inspired by Ruth Goget)
• Oatmeal Pancakes with Maple Syrup Strawberries
• Tarta de Sangria