Saturday, November 29, 2008

Daring Bakers November

dbcake

I've concluded that every new culinary adventure tells you something about yourself. This month's Daring Baker challenge was very hard for me to get into. I am not a pastry baker. Frosting tastes like sweetened toothpaste to me. My fourteen year-old son, on the other hand, was very interested in trying his hands at baking a "real" cake. Armed with his enthusiasm, I decided to tackle this challenge.

dbfrosting

Although we followed the recipes to the letter, both my son and I found the butter cream frosting to be too much for our taste buds. We tried to tone down the overwhelming sugar rush by adding some cooked cranberries to the mixture but this wasn't enough. In the end, we decided to serve the cake without the frosting.

Daringbcakefrostingsauce

The cake is a winner. It tastes really dense, almost like a rich butter danish. I was planning on serving it as part of my dessert assortments for Thanksgiving so we decided to add some chopped cranberries to the batter. The addition of a dollop of homemade cranberry sauce and whipped cream dressed up each slice beautifully. It was excellent.

dbcakeslice

So what did I learn about myself this time around? I have reaffirmed that I am picky when it comes to my sweets. And in the future, I may be more comfortable admiring the work of the very talented Daring Bakers who, unlike me, are willing to jump into a pool of frosting.

A big Thank you to our hosts this month:
Dolores of Culinary Curiosity, Alex at Blondie and Brownie and Jenny of Foray into Food. The Gluten Free version was provided by Natalie of Gluten-a-Go-Go.

dbmoistcake

The recipe for this moist cake and frosting came from Shuna Fish Lydon of Egg Beaters and can be found here Egg Beaters. I substituted the flour for some Bob's Red Mill GF All-Purpose mix with added xantham.

17 comments:

LizNoVeggieGirl said...

You?? Not a pastry-baker?? Could have fooled me!! :-) Looks spectacular.

Hooray for Bob's Red Mill GF All-Purpose mix!!! Love that stuff.

kat said...

Its too bad you didn't like the frosting, I love the idea of the added cranberries

Deeba PAB said...

I love your lad's enthusiasm Alexa...& am coming over for a slice of cake with home-made sauce & that dollop of cream. ENTICING dear girl...so very yummy!!

RecipeGirl said...

I'm not crazy about buttercream at all, and sometimes a plain cake is just better. Nice cranberry addition :)

Dewi said...

Excellent idea with the cranberries. Well done Alexa!

redforever said...

I am the same way as you are about sweetness. Overload on sugar detracts from the actual taste of the cake is how I feel.

I do like cream cheese frosting or a bitter ganache, but actual frosting or icing, does not tickle my taste buds.

Good choice to serve it how you did.

Sherry Trifle - Lovely Cats said...

Your cake is lovely and I like the idea of the cranberries.

Sophie said...

I really like the addition of the cranberries, what a fun way to make this a festive cake :).

Elizabeth said...

The inside of your cake looks perfectly moist. I really wish I could have a piece...

Elle said...

That frosting really was super sweet. Your cake looks very festive and seasonal!

Unknown said...

This looks fantastic...what a wonderful change to the recipe. I bet the cranberries were fantastic with this cake. I'm impressed that your son wanted to help.

Anonymous said...

that's one way to cut the sweetness -- ditch the frosting. A lot of people seemed to have problems with it.

Jeanine - The Baking Beauties said...

I did cut back on the sugar in the cake as well, but only did 1/2 the frosting recipe. We really liked the taste of the brown butter frosting. Yum You can have the cake, I'll have the frosting. :)
your pics look AMAZING! Great job, Alexa!

Anonymous said...

Awesome work, especially considering the challenge of making it gluten free! Your cake looks so moist and delicious, too.

CECIL said...

Heehee!! Beautiful cake like always!! On contrary, I am super picky on frosting but I love this one. Though I did take out lotsss of sugar, both cake and frosting. And yes, without frosting was mighty good too!! Warm from oven with dollop of preserves.

Yasmeen said...

That's a delicious twist to a the cake with the cranberries.Guess I'll bake again with cranberries:)

Dolores said...

Wow. Just...wow. I can't believe it took me a month to get to yours. Thank you for baking with us, and for showing me yet another must-try twist on one of my favorite cakes.

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