Daring Bakers -- Danish Braid!

The Daring Baker have decided it's time for more yeast. This months challenge was a Danish Braid. I'm going to keep my post short. (I appoligize in advance for the crummy pictures. The lighting in my house was terrible at 9 PM)



I made my braid on Friday. I started around 10 AM and it finished baking at 9 PM. That wouldn't have bothered me so much, but the whole bottom of my braid was burnt. Pitch black. Thankfully that was the one part that burnt. The filling and the top stayed nice and fluffy/flaky. But nearly twelve hours and I burnt it!!





It didn't seem like I had any problem doing the turns, but I'm not sure since this is my first time making anything like this.

The filling was pineapple/cheese, and I got the recipe from Carole Walter's "Great Coffee Cakes, Sticky Buns, Muffins & More". I liked the filling a lot, but I should've added more. I added a crumb topping from the same book to the top.



Anway, as for why it burnt, I'm not sure. I didn't have any parchment paper so I wasn't able to use that one the pan. Instead I greased it with margarine. Is that the reason why?

Please go to this months hosts blog for the recipe, as well as great pictures of the process!
Sass and Veracity and What's Cooking

The Bread Baker's Apprentice, French Bread

On Wednesday I realized I had to make a pre-ferment so I could make French Bread the next day. Of course I realized it at quarter to 10 when So You Think You Can Dance was almst over, but like a good baker I got up an made it, because I really didn't feal like going to bed at midnight just so I could watch it and refridgerate it.

I ended up going to bed a midnight anyway because I became hooked on a new anime called Toshokan Sensou....^^;;

Anyway, I started at around 10 I think, and it was out of the oven around 3.



When I pulled the bread out of the oven and saw it grinning it made me grin myself. This is the best I've done so far at cutting the dough before it bakes!









Of course my bread is still inconsistent, and the slashing looks better at the top of the one then on the rest of 'em, but it made me happy!

I was tagged! =3

I was tagged by Sarah from Sweet Endeavors! This is my second time being tagged, first being on DeviantArt a long time ago .

The rules: Each participant answers questions about himself. At the end of the post the participant tags 5 people. Their names are posted letting them know they’ve been tagged. They then have to read the participant’s blog. The tagged let’s the tagger know when he’s posted his answers.

Ok, now for the questions -

What was I doing ten years ago?
Moving into a new house and my current one.

What are five (non-work) things on my to-do list for today:

1. Go to the orthodontist and hopefully get the X-rays done so I can get rid of these braces!
2. Go to work, and not mess up at all
3. Draw!!
4. Post my vacation photos on this blog
5. Read more manga

Snacks I enjoy:

1. Chocolate chipe cookies
2. apples
3. Cookies and cream ice cream
4. Oreos
5. Cinnamon buns!

Things I would do if I were a billionaire:
1. Go to Japan and Italy
2. Buy lots 'n lots of Super Dollfies
3. Start a bakery with my friend
4. Move to a large house in ocean city and bring my family with me
5. Get and awesome kitchen with tons of equipment and a pizza oven like they use

Places I have lived:
1. I've lived in about 4 or 5 different house before, where I'm not saying.

Jobs I have had: (paid jobs?)
1. I work with little kids in a place similar to Chukee Cheese
2. Irirsh dance assistant Teacher
I think that's it for paying jobs... Oh, I used to help my dad peel vinal off old signs so he could replace them and sometimes I'd get paid!

Okay, now to tag people!! Sorry if this is a bother! Anyway, I tag-
Mother Bliss
Do Better
She Runs She Eats
Daily Delicious
I can't think of anyothers, since I don't really know anyone on here!

Opera Cake!

I'm on vacation right now and I realized today is the posting date!

This months challenge was an Opera cake. Something I've wanted to make for a long time now. I really didn't think I'd get to make this challenge, seeing as how there were so many ingredients, and most of them were expensive.

Looking though my pantry one day, I realized I had enough ingredients to make 1/4 of the recipe! So, I used what I had, and made one, cute little cake!



I used pecans for the cake, and my favorite ceamcheese butter cream.





I didn't have anything for a glaze or mousse so I ended up making some strange orange/cream cheese curd-jello-thing, then whipped it up after setting it in the fridge.

I want to try making this cake again when I can do the flavors I want!

I apologize for the sloppy post! Blogging is not easy to do on vacation! ;-)

Greeting from the OC!

Greetings from Ocean City! I'm on vacation right now and I'm having a blast! Every where you go there's the smell of funnel cake and salt water. They have some great food down here and I plan to try them all! (or at least a lot of them)



I woke up this morning at 5:30 and after getting dressed, me and mom went for a walk with the dog. After mass, we went for donuts at my favorite donut shop, Dot's Pastry Shop. As we pulled up to the window I nearly died--they're hiring bakers for the summer! Oh, how I wish I lived here, and was skilled enough! I would just love to go into the back were they bake!




So we got 2 dozen donuts and a bear claw.





Jelly and creme filled powder donuts. Okay, the creme filled were amazing. SO much better then the ones you buy a Dunkin' Donuts, and I have nothing against DD!



The donuts here a really soft and almost melt in your mouth. The glazes and fillings are so sweet and delicious. It's no wonder they're packed on Sunday mornings!!

Last night me, my brothers and my sister went on to the board walk and got some pizza. There ae so many shops to choose from: The famous Mack & Manco, Luigi's, and various others. We went for The 3 brothers Italy, they claim they make the world largest pizza! And boy, was it big!! One slice is really like 2! hat i love though is that it's not just big, it GOOD. I wasn't able to get a picture yesterday, but I'm sure we'll go back later in the week, so hang around for a picture!!

Oh yeah, turned 16 on Thursday! I have change my profile now.

Sweet Sixteen!

Remember my friend Heather, the one me and Sarah made the Kit Kat cake for? Well, her late sweet sixteen party was tonight, and me and Sarah spent all night yesterday ( 5 1/2 hours! while all Heather did was lick the bowls out...) baking her 2 kit kat cakes and a zillion cupcakes to serve her guests. It was a blast! I wasn't able to get pics of the full cakes, but I have a few leftovers I got to bring home to my family!


The cookies are white cake with Oreo crumbs baked into the batter, whipped cream frosting with Oreo in it. YUM!


This time we made the cake rectangular so we could feed more people, more efficiently. Worked out nice!

Fudgy yummy brownies!

I love Martha Stewart recipes. I often go to her site when looking for a recipe for a specific food. Usually I have a hard time finding one because her searching system stinks, but I found a excellent brownie recipe on there. They're called Super-Fudgy Brownies how could I not make them with a name like that??



They're exactly as she says: moist, fudgy, delicious and chocolatey. Way better than the iced brownies I tried.

The only alteration to recipe were I used milk chocolate, because I didn't have semi-sweet, and I baked them for ony about 30 minutes, rather than 50-60! They probably would have been chocolate bricks if I'd waited any longer.

So, go make them!! Recipe can be found HERE.