Caramel, Caramel, Caramel

This months Daring Bakers challenge was one of my favorites! I love sweets, cake and caramel so this cake was right up my alley! Shuna Fish Lydon's Caramel Cake was the chosen recipe and Dolores, Alex and Jenny were the hosts.

I have to say that I was nervous about making the caramel syrup,but it was very easy and so good! I used a tip that I had read about putting foil over the pan and then pouring the water in. This prevented me from getting splattered with hot caramel and worked very well. I had also read that many people thought the cake was too sweet, so I cut back on the sugar and only put in 3/4 cup of sugar and they were perfect!

I was on a local television show this month for a cooking contest and knew that I wanted to make cupcakes to bribe them and they loved them! These cupcakes were easy to make and the brown butter icing was to die for! They joked about having me back on to make the icing! I will be using that recipe on many more cupcakes! However, I did think that the cupcakes were not as light and airy as most cupcakes are, but they were still delicious!

I am at work right now and don't have my camera and my laptop is with my hubby in Africa right now. So tomorrow I will bring my camera to work and post my photos!

Daring Pizza!

This months Daring Bakers was hosted by Rosa of Rosa Yummy Yums and she chose to have us make pizza like the pros. That meant tossing the pizza by hand! I made the dough but just couldn't get the courage to toss it, so I rolled it instead. I know, I'm a chicken! The hubby and I love a place in Utah called The Pie Pizzeria and our favorite pizza from there is Chicken Ranch so I re-created that pizza for us. The dough was super easy to make and freezes really well for later use! And the pizza was excellent and came together really quick!


Chicken Ranch Pizza
By Amber

Dough Recipe
2 grilled chicken breasts cut into bite-sized pieces (nothing special, just cooked it on the grill)
5 pieces of bacon, crumbled
1 garlic clove, minced (use more if you like)
1 cup ranch
1 cup shredded Mozzarella Cheese
2 Tablespoons parsley (fresh or dried)

Roll or toss the dough, cover with ranch dressing and add toppings. Bake for about 15 minutes or until dough is slightly browned and chicken is warm.

First Daring Bakers Challenge-Eclairs!

I joined a baking group called The Daring Bakers and my first challenge was Eclairs! The recipe was chosen by Tony Tahhan and Meeta and comes from here. I was super excited to make these but waited until I had a good reason to make them, a coworkers birthday. We had a couple options with the recipe and I chose to make mine with a vanilla filling and a chocolate sauce on top.

I got all of the ingredients to make them and started baking. The dough was very easy to make, they puffed in the oven, which made me happy, and then I let them cool. I came back to see me beauties and they had fallen. I'm not sure what happened, but they were no longer puffed and beautiful. It was a little tricky to cut them since they were so thin, but I managed! I wanted a vanilla cream in the middle so I made one with the help of my good friend Martha Stewart, but she let me down. Her cream was not what I was looking for. So I turned to my other friend, Kraft Foods and used the recipe below for a super easy cream which I know is a winner! And then I covered them in chocolate!

I got mixed reviews but most people loved the eclairs. I however, didn't. I don't think that I'll make them again, ok I had a request for them so maybe 1 more time, but it was fun to experiment and go outside of my baking box! I can't wait for next months challenge!

Here is the recipe for the eclairs!
And here is the recipe for the vanilla filling I used:

2 cups cold milk
2 pkgs. (4-serving size) JELL-O Vanilla Flavor Instant Pudding & Pie Filling
1 cup thawed COOL WHIP Whipped Topping

Mix the pudding mix and milk until thick. Then fold in the Cool Whip topping until combined. Place the mixture in a large resealable plastic bag and place in the fridge until ready to use.