Coconut Macaroons

Coconut Macaroons

Last October Birthday! I made these for Sarah's birthday and I was happy to hear that both her and Wilmar really liked them!

Madeleines for Madeline

Orange Scented Madeleines Dipped in Chocolate

These cookies (also referred to as cakes because of their consistency) were for Madi's birthday in October, as well. I think I used the recipe from Joy Of Baking but I'm not positive. I added orange zest because I really like the combination of chocolate and orange (like the chocolate oranges you break open!).

White Chocolate Macademia Nut Cookies

White Chocolate Macademia Nut Cookies

I'm super behind on posts. These cookies are from Melissa's birthday in October. It was so long ago, I can't remember what recipe I used. Oops!

Daring Bakers: Sans Rival

Catherine of Munchie Musings was our November Daring Bakers’ host and she challenged us to make a traditional Filipino dessert – the delicious 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 my Sans Rival cake with almonds instead of cashews because I had almonds on hand and also I don't like cashews as much. I used almond meal for the ground nuts in the batter, which made it simpler to make. To flavor the buttercream with almond flavor I used Disaronno instead of almond extract because I didn't have any. 

I thought this recipe was fun to make, but I wasn't sure I was going to like the cake. After it sat for a night in the fridge the layers softened and it was a lot easier to cut than I expected. Even though the cake was really sweet from all the frosting it had an interesting texture and good flavor. If I ever made it again I would try to make the buttercream less sweet and perhaps make the dacquoise layers thicker.

Almond Sans Rival Cake with Disaronno Buttercream

Daring Baker's Challenge: Povitica

The Daring Baker’s October 2011 challenge was Povitica, hosted by Jenni of The Gingered Whisk. Povitica is a traditional Eastern European Dessert Bread that is as lovely to look at as it is to eat!

I'm disappointed that my Povitica did not come out as beautiful as I would of liked =( The loaf pan I used for the traditional walnut filling was  too big and therefore the design wasn't right plus you can't see the contrast between the dough and the filling. At least it tastes good.

I made a half batch, which yielded 2 loafs. One I filled with the traditional walnut filling and the second I filled with a frangipane-esque type filling. It was based on regular frangipane paste plus I added some cocoa (in hopes to get the contrast) and some milk to thin it out. The second loaf I baked in a smaller pan and thankfully it came out a lot better!

I've enjoyed the Daring Baker's challenges I've done so far. It has been fun learning about new recipes, especially ones like Povitica, which I would never have known existed. Maybe I'll try making Povitica again because some of the other Daring Baker's had such great results.

Povitica with Chocolate "Frangipane" Filling