Daring Kitchen: Dobos Torta

The August 2009 Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Angela of A Spoonfulof Sugar and Lorraine of Not Quite Nigella. They chose the spectacular Dobos Torte based on a recipe from Rick Rodgers' cookbook Kaffeehaus: Exquisite Desserts from the Classic Caffés of Vienna, Budapest, and Prague



So this month was super fun to do. For those of you who don't know a dobos torta is a sponge cake with layers of dark chocolate butter cream and a caramel covered sponge cake decorative top.

I chose to create individual tortes, and added marzipan layers that really complemented the chocolate. 6 cupcake sized treats used 1/2 the recipe for the batter, 1/2 butter cream, and 1/8 the caramel.

The sponge cake was tricky. It was hard trying to get even layers out of it, but in the end I just wound up counter stacking the wonky sizes. It tasted alright, for people who like sponge cake I'm sure it was wonderful, but personally I'm not likely to make it again. I prefer a heavier cake, not this rubbery eggy stuff.

I LOVED the butter cream. It used dark chocolate, was easy to make even with a hand held whisk, and tasted wonderful.

The caramel on the other hand was horrid. I had no problems spreading it because of the size of the tortes there was very little used. The color (at first) was perfect, and it hardened just like it was supposed to. But 2 things then went horribly wrong. It tasted like... gross. Yes gross has a taste and that was it. Secondly, these were made a day before the cake was frosted, and when I went to use them the caramel had melted. It was probably due to the high humidity where we live, but still it was irritating.

The torte all put together tasted wonderful (well after you picked off the caramel top) I heard it was even better refrigerated although the ones I kept never made it that far. The almond and chocolate blended wonderfully, and I will most certainly be trying that combo in other deserts.

Not Me Monday: Appliances & Accidents

Not Me! Monday! is a place to make fun of some of the tings we wind up doing that we probably would rather not admit to. It was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

This week our water heater did not break. Our appliances are all top of the line and if for some reason we think something is wrong with one, then we replace them right away instead of waiting for something to actually go wrong. And I'd never have so many old appliances that there were bets going on to see which one would break down next. Nope not me!

Anyways, after trying to figure out how to restart the pilot light (because the water didn't break remember) someone did not suggest to her husband that perhaps we should just replace the water heater with a brand new one rather than trying to fix it. After all, the not broken one was old. Nope I'd never suggest a thing like that I'm much more frugal and environmentally conscious.

We did, however, wind up purchasing a new water heater. It has not taken ALL FREAKING WEEK to connect the plumbing in a way that does not leak (gush) water. I have not taken a weeks worth of showers at my friend's house because I'm too wussy to take a cold shower, and I most certainly did not sponge bathe my baby because for 2 days we had no water at all. Nope, not me! When things to break (not that it was broken mind you, we planned this) everything always goes smoothly back together.

I would also like to note that since everything went so smoothly there is no possible way that purple primer was spilled all over the kitchen floor and washing machine. Nope! That would never happen. We are ALWAYS aware of where we are and what we are doing. Accidents like that never happen in MY house.



Speaking of accidents that don't happen. There is no way that I nearly dropped my baby because a spider scared me. I'm not afraid of spiders one bit. Nope! Not me! Also, remember this room?

There is NO way that those outlets are STILL uncovered. Harvey certainly did not use one to stand up with and wind up electrocuting his tiny self. I pay MUCH better attention to him than that. No way would I be reading a book while he wandered around grabbing at random dangerous things. And if for some reason, all of this did happen, I would NEVER just cover the offending outlet by propping a framed photo in front of it. That would be lazy and irresponsible. Not me I'm never too interesting to find out the ending of a book to take the easy way out.

So what didn't you do this week?

Box in the mail

So I was all set to blog after setting my bubbie down for a nap. It had been a 1/2 hour already, so I figured he was asleep. I was all set to snap a photo of him for you all bragging about he I had a few minutes to myself now that he was asleep. This is what I found.

Sure he's happy, but he was SUPPOSED to be asleep! Life goes on though eh? He's in bed now, he never really did take much of a nap.

So this week I've recieved some wonderful gifts in the mail. Thanks to my sibling in-laws for the super duper photo book, and to my dad for the awesomest Hannah Montanna chair.

But I really want to share this one I recieved today.


It smelled like sugar when I opened it. There were more, but I didn't think to photograph them until I'd taken 1/2 the cookies out.

These ones were my favorites. (well and there was a flag that said "flag") They are almost too cute to eat, although the dino was cracked so he had to be gobbled up.
They were from my bestest friend in Washington, Heather. If I could remember how to link to her site I would do it all stealthy so you could jsut link her name. But I've forgotten and am too lazy to look it up because it is past my bedtime. http://huckleberrystew.wordpress.com/ just click that. she sent me a cookbook too! some of the recipies are... not to my taste (seriously crab cheese bread kabobs?) but she had her spinich pizza published by safeway and that looks yummy. Anyways thanks everyone for letting me have stuff to open. I <3 packages.

Happy Birthday to Me

On Saturday, we had a quarter century birthday party for me.



We had it at the Baer's house, because it is kid friendly and ours has exposed wires, unfinished floor edges, and currently a gap all around the front door. It was a lot of fun. We played sing star, settlers and had 2 types of cake and 3 types of potatoes. I also was able to see brand new fry (baby fish), which is how I soaked my shirt.



Captain entertained the young ones (well everyone really) by throwing whiffle balls at the fan and seeing how far they would ricochet off.

Harvey even took a nap!

Teeth

Positive proof that Harvey has teeth; two of them to be exact. Let me tell you, they are sharp. And yes, because I KNOW you all want to know, Harvey does indeed enjoy licking the chocolate frosting beater. He also likes carrots-- not baby food pureed carrots-- whole raw straight from the fridge carrots. He's just cool like that.

Not me Monday: Posing Nude

It's not me monday again! (ok ok so, this probably won't be a weekly thing, but it will be fairly regular)

Just so you all know, I never let my baby boy play with things that are not toys. And even if I was to occasionally let him chew on a spoon or his daddy's shoes, I would never ever let him use our kitchen table as a jungle gym. Nope, not me, it's just not safe.

Of course, if he did manage to climb under the table without me seeing (which would never happen because I always pay attention to what he is doing) I certainly would never let him play naked. Nope, I'm a responsible mother who always dresses her little boy in cute little outfits, which, by the way he never gets dirty. :P

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

Fashion Icon

Harvey now eats (in theory) at his highchair 2-3 times a day. He loves smashing, er I mean eating, his food just like a grown up. Recently though Harvey has decided that bibs are meant to be worn over the shoulder rather than over his chest. No matter how much I explain to him that bibs are supposed to protect his clothes, he insists on tugging the bib to the sideways. Apparently, I'm out of touch with what's 'in' in baby fashion.

The computer ate my homework.

Okay, I had the AWESOMEST picture ever of Harvey standing at the coffee table, but the computer ate it. Seriously, it was adorable, Harvey's snappi for his diaper had been misplaced (okay so it was in the bathroom where I left it after his bath, and I was just to lazy to go retrieve it.) So the result of the misplaced snappi was that every time Harvey stood up his diaper fell to his knees exposing his tiny dimpled buttocks. A baby plumber's crack. But the computer ate my photos.... well deleted them.

Instead I have for you this fish I drew.



I'm going to digitize it so i can put it in a swim suit. I think fish are appropriate for swim wear. I'll put up a picture of that when I finish it. Assuming of course that my computer lets me keep the photo.