Wednesday 27 July 2011

Daring Bakers make Fresh Fraisiers!

Jana of Cherry Tea Cakes was our July Daring Bakers’ host and she challenges us to make Fresh Frasiers inspired by recipes written by Elisabeth M. Prueitt and Chad Robertson in the beautiful cookbook Tartine.
A fraisier cake is basically two layers of sponge cake filled with pastry cream topped with a glaze and decorated around the exterior of the cake with beautiful fresh strawberries, not being a great fan of either sponge or cream i decided to experiment a little and to see what i could come up with to satisfy my sweet tooth! Instead of doing a traditional chiffon cake i made a coffee-flavoured Baileys sponge which i filled with a cinnamon cheesecake-like filling to substitute pastry cream. I used blueberries as my fruit and made a coffee glaze which i topped with walnut struesel. It actually turned out pretty yummy :D
Thanks Jana for a great challenge for July!!

Thursday 14 July 2011

Daring Bakers Pasta Challenge!

Steph from Stephfood was our Daring Cooks. July hostess. Steph challenged us to make homemade noodles without the help of a motorized pasta machine. She provided us with recipes for Spatzle and Fresh Egg Pasta as well as a few delicious sauces to pair our noodles with!
 









I had never cooked my own pasta before so i was a bit apprehensive, but now that i have i will continue doing it myself as it is so much fun!











I decided to make a mixture of fettucini and tagliatelle, doing some by hand and some using my pasta maker.


I made a chilli lemon and garlic dressing and tossed it with king prawns. Served with a side salad of baby spinach, roast pumpkin, semi-dried tomatoes, cucumber and pine nuts, it was the perfect mid night meal. So much so that i got distracted while cooking and almost forgot to take a photo of the finished result!

Bon Appetit!