Daring Bakers February Challenge

Well most of you know I'm not the hugest fan of chocolate - I know I know what is WRONG with me lol!!

Anyways here is the February challenge, it's been a busy month for me, so I've only just made it today - thought Shane might need the chocolate love to help him cope with the first days of The Great Down Under Nappy Hunt :)

The February 2009 challenge is hosted by Wendy of WMPE's blog and Dharm of Dad ~ Baker & Chef.
We have chosen a Chocolate Valentino cake by Chef Wan; a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Dharm and a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Wendy as the challenge.

Chocolate Valentino
Preparation Time: 20 minutes
16 ounces (1 pound) (454 grams) of semisweet chocolate, roughly chopped
½ cup (1 stick) plus 2 tablespoons (146 grams total) of unsalted butter
5 large eggs separated

1. Put chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl and set over a pan of simmering water (the bottom of the bowl should not touch the water) and melt, stirring often.
2. While your chocolate butter mixture is cooling. Butter your pan and line with a parchment circle then butter the parchment.
3. Separate the egg yolks from the egg whites and put into two medium/large bowls.
4. Whip the egg whites in a medium/large grease free bowl until stiff peaks are formed (do not over-whip or the cake will be dry).
5. With the same beater beat the egg yolks together.
6. Add the egg yolks to the cooled chocolate.
7. Fold in 1/3 of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture and follow with remaining 2/3rds. Fold until no white remains without deflating the batter. {link of folding demonstration}
8. Pour batter into prepared pan, the batter should fill the pan 3/4 of the way full, and bake at 375F/190C
9. Bake for 25 minutes until an instant read thermometer reads 140F/60C.
Note – If you do not have an instant read thermometer, the top of the cake will look similar to a brownie and a cake tester will appear wet.
10. Cool cake on a rack for 10 minutes then unmold.

I used a mixture of milk and dark chocolate, I don't like the really dark stuff at all, so I wanted a slightly sweeter cake. It's ALOT of chocolate though, and I think you could halve it with no issues. I got 12 cupcakes - what a surprise - cupcakes!! and a small heart shaped cake. The mixture is very runny - my 18yo said that can't be right Mum. It's too runny, but that's the way it is suppose to be.

So here it is

The melted chocolate and butter



The egg whites folded into the chocolate mixture.



I made cupcakes, which rose beautifully and deflated just as spectacularly. Shane bless his heart thought they were meant to look like that, so I could fill them with the icecream - the heart shaped one I made rose and deflated evenly, but the cupcakes have craters, does make the perfect spot for ice cream, whipped cream, raspberry sauce or whatever.




I chose to team mine with White chocolate and Raspberry Semi-freddo. I've been meaning to try to make it for ages. And low and behold the Feb/Mar issue of Donna Hay had recipes. It was very easy to make.

I used the following recipe from Donna Hay.

3 eggs
2 egg yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (I used the seeds from 1 vanilla pod)
1 cup caster sugar
2 cups of single cream

Place the egg, extra yolks, vanilla and sugar in a heat proof bowl, over simmering water and beat until thick and fluffy. Mine took about 7 minutes.



Whilst it is cooling slighty, whisk the cream until stiff peaks form.



Gently fold together until well combined.



Then I added about half a block of chopped white chocolate and about 200g of frozen rasberries. You can add whatever flavours you like. I'd really like to make the apple crumble variety she has as well, it looks delicious!!

I poured it into a 20cm square metal cake tin and let it set in the freezer for a minimum of 6 hours. (I didn't wait that long lol!!)



It was very easy to make I had no dramas with it at all.

Alrighty and I've now tried the cake and ice-cream after lunch - oh my - I'm never going back to bought ice-cream - the semifreddo is divine!!! Easy to make and probably much easier on the budget too - no churning or anything, delicious, creamy, tasty, gorgeous!!! The cake - well you know I don't like chocolate all that much so it was okay - perhaps if you are a chocoholic it would be fantastic for you, but not so much for me - rather eat the semifreddo.

As promised

Okay I know, I know, it's nearly the END of February, but the hunt has taken alot of Shane's time and hence my snapper has been MIA with that. But anyways I'm cracking the whip now, with the hunt due to start on Sunday, so I'm trying to get some stock finished to put up for that. I'll more than likely just be randomly stocking on the Cherub's Kiss site. Updates on the blog may be a bit lean lol!!

Close up of the froggie





The Back.

Anyways so here is the first hand embroidered Auriel that will come up for sale - it's a fleece AI2. Windpro outer, microfleece inner and an extra layer of windpro in the wet zone to prevent wicking through the embroidery/fabric panel. This one is 'limited edition' lime windpro, feature panel of frogs on the front, emerald green microfleece inner and cute multi-coloured frogs on the back. The booster that snaps in - is 8 layers of lush bamboo topped with microfleece and these AI2 will come with 2 boosters to snap in. When out and about for a trip, you can just snap in a new booster provided the shell isn't soiled.



The front.



The inner.

Then another custom going out for a little man - cotton print fitteds, with sherpa inners - how cute is the turtle one?



And then the Jungle Softies is stock for the hunt - again a fitted, with a lemon velour inner.

Cookie Carnival - February Challenge

From the Clean Plate Club

Here is my effort, mind you it's a little tricky in Australia to get the dried cherries and toffee bits. So I used cranberries and werther's toffee cut into chunks. They are yummo though.



I found the bikkies very cake like and I actually prefer a crisper bikkie, but my DH adored them and scoffed the lot. It makes ALOT of biscuits (or cookies) I also added a touch more flour, as I found the mix a bit too sticky for me.

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More Customs

and these mamas have wonderful tastes don't they.



This one is a January slot winner - the mama sent some of her own fabrics - paddington and the guitars, and the rest is from my humungeous stash.

So we have from the back left

Mottled Blue Minky and Spaceships, White Minky with Turtles, Green Minky with Paddington.
Red Velvet Fleece with Retro Space and Denim AIO with Guitar print.





And some more lushness - Red Minky with Pirate Monkeys and I think my favourite from this batch Black Minky with Turtles.

Hoot! Hoot!

We were lucky enough to be drawn as the winner of a gorgeous Pint t-shirt - see original Pint Post here Megsie does the most amazingly detailed drawings and little pixies, they are just too cute. If you don't already have a Pint - Pint and Tikki are raising funds for the Bushfire Victims here or visit Pint's Blog or Tikki's Store.



Anyways our prize arrived and I held it up for Katherine and she said mine, mine. Owl, hoot! hoot! and as you can see, she really loves her little owl. Perfect colours for her as well :)

My little baby sure is growing up - look at those long tresses and she's pretty much toilet trained - what will I do without nappies? Might have to start sewing clothes again :)



As you can see she is pleased as punch to show off her owl :)

More Newborn Goodies

These are being posted today for a little girl, who hasn't yet arrived. Hoping that the arrival of fluffy mail, will coax her into her mummy's arms :)

They are newborn raphaels, with some gorgeous funky rainbow prints, pink velour inners and a couple of matching wipes as a gift.

How can you help?

By purchasing from a store that is raising funds for the floods or bushfires. I'm going to try and make a list here of all those stores helping. If you are a store, or know of one, please leave a comment and I will add you.

Cherub's Kiss - Mystery Auction
Willow and Moo - 100% from sale of rainbow redondo
Victorian Bushfire Relief on OZeBaby - Lots of different auctions including Tikki and Pint
Minicuture - Auction from the 1st March
Possum Panorama - Knitted Capri Set
Knitting for the Animals - help by knitting for injured animals.
Picanini - Auctions
Sugar Shots - auctions
Bizy Bee - donating 10% of the sales from Night Nappies
CFA on Wahmnaps - auctions to raise funds for the CFA
Twinkle Lily - 10% of sales
Cloth Pad Shop - auctions
The Crafty Caterpillar - 20% of sales donated for the remainder of February.

Bushfire Help

If you can please help by going to Beyond Pink and Blue's Rainbow Blog and purchase some packs, or send in your own donations.

This will help the child victims of this terrible disaster.

Mystery Auction

Words just fail me at the moment. The devestation and loss in Victoria is just totally heartbreaking. I am sending prayers and thoughts for all those involved.

I had decided last night that I would like to raise some funds to be sent to the Red Cross to help ease some of the suffering of those in the affected areas. So in the next few days I'll be running at least 1 mystery auction through the OzeBaby Cherub's Kiss Store.

The ladies all involved with Gossamer Dreams will also be raising funds through items for sale and some auctions at the next Gossamer Dreams Stocking. Please dig deep everyone to help all of those that need our prayers and thoughts at this very sad time.

For twins

So here is a custom for some gorgeous twin girls. Mum is having a hard time deciding on closures for the pinnies, so I promised some pics to help her decide.

The pinnies are fully reversible. They have matching Munch Crunch nappies.



Denim outer with a smidge of stretch in it, and a appliqued pear, hand embroidered caterpillar and rick rack trim.



The other side, vibrant lime and white spot, with a cute pocket featuring a butterfly button.



And the back - how cute is that, nappies will peek out from the bottom of the skirt.



This one is a red, pink and white spot, again with the cute pocket and this time a ladybug button.



The back, sweet as can be.



And this is the front, appliqued with apple and hand embroidered caterpillar, with red rick rack trim.



Both Auriels have bamboo velour inners, as the little poppets react to microfleece.

She's also agreed to test my Auriel Night Nappies, long time in the making, cause I keep changing my mind, but hand dyed of course, with lush layers of bamboo fleece and velour or sherpa.



The Front. The purple/red has a sherpa inner and the red one has a bamboo velour inner.




The back, the boosting is adjustable, but will cater for those that need lots of layers and those that don't need quite as many. They are surprisingly trim I think for so many layers, and fit my Miss chubby thighs, tiny waisted little girl very well, night and snug, but not too bulky.

Gorgeous Newborn Raphaels

Oops, too many blogs. Posted this on my craft blog instead of here. But anyways.

Gorgeous squishy fully bamboo hand dyed raphaels

January Custom Slot Winners

have been randomly drawn.

Here are your random numbers:

7 15

Timestamp: 2009-02-01 21:13:52 UTC

And the winners are

Heidi and Claire. You'll be receiving an email shortly.

For those of you that didn't win a slot in January, February draw is now open.