This month’s Daring Bakers challenge was exciting. For not only was it chocolate based, it only had 3 ingredients. Yes seriously. Of course I’m not counting the ice cream part. They wouldn’t let us get away with something so simple. But even give this head start of sorts, I still waited til the last week to do this. I’m not usually a procrastinator, indeed I prefer to get things done earlier than waiting and dreading for something. Call me a Peeling-Off-The-Bandaid-Quickly kind of person. I was the one that handed in University papers early (although conversely I sometimes show up 5-10 minutes late to things). It’s probably because I like planning, in fact my husband told me that I was recently talking in my sleep where I impatiently issued him instructions on how to organise and move plants. Yes that’s what my dreams are made of. Hardly hot stuff wouldn’t you say?

But I digress, the cake itself is incredibly moist – most flourless cakes are, but this one contains no almond meal as well as no flour. So the look suffers a little in that is sinks and forms a crater. And for someone that loves the look of a cake as much as the taste, this dismayed me a little. I paced around the house clucking like an anxious Type A personality chicken. What do I do? The plans I had to decorate it were awry. It was too sunken. Then I flicked through Gordon Ramsay’s 3 Star Chef cookbook and combined two decorative touches I saw on the pages. **Sigh** “No Chicken Little,” I said to myself, “The Sky is not falling”.

I’d like to tell you that I reduced some plum juice to a syrup but I took the lazy option and used jam mixed with water to create the pools which gave me a good flavour, without little effort. The biscuits on top I bought from Aldi, which I buy every year for Valentines Day. I did mention that we had to make an ice cream to go along with it, and I had originally intended for an Apricot sorbet (it would have matched the decorations I had in mine before I realised that it was a sunken cake) but instead I used a Cafe Au Lait Ice Cream I had made previously. And whilst it didn’t turn out as I’d originally hoped, the proof as they say is in the tasting. It is a wonderfully gooey cake, like a gorgeous soft nut free brownie.

As for my plans, we’re off to New Zealand’s South Island for our 3rd Wedding Anniversary. I shall of course have internet access and I look forward to reporting back on all that is wonderful, good and foody in the Land of the Long White Cloud.

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.

To see other Daring Baker’s creations, click here

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I have to confess something, I cheated on this Valentines Day. Not in any matrimonial sense, but in a cooking sense. I used the same macaron batter mix for these Strawberry and Red peppercorn macarons as I did for another macaron recipe. Given the high temperatures I couldn’t bear to do much baking and I thought that killing two birds (or in this case dishes) with the one mix would do.

We don’t do anything particularly huge for Valentines Day as our wedding anniversary is only a couple of weeks afterwards. This year we’re celebrating by going to New Zealand’s South Island (if anyone has any tips on the South Island I’d love to hear them). Still we felt the need to celebrate it in some way so what better way than with food. Sure, Valentines Day is, like weddings, pretty much for the girl in the relationship. I had a debate with my husband about Valentines Day – he asked what we were doing and I reeled off a list of girly themed things including movies, food and perhaps a picnic, weather permitting. He asked why there weren’t any guy things scheduled and, exasperated I reiterated that Valentines Day is really a female thing. That’s why things are shaped like hearts, not power tools.

However Men, at the very least, if you whipped these up, you would score some major points with the woman in your life and for many men, that’s about as romantic a notion as you would get. I have to say though that for all of his bloke-isms, my husband is a romantic where it counts. My engagement ring was one thing that I was thrilled and surprised by. We were never the couple that people would have pictured together, yet somehow it works. And another unlikely pair that is said to go well together is strawberries and peppercorns and for this occasion what better shade of pepper to use than pink peppercorns.

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I was really excited about this month’s Daring Bakers challenge…Tuiles, those delicate buttery thin crispy biscuits (ones that caused me so much drama when I was making the Gordon Ramsay RHR dessert). I was excited as I had a clear idea as to what I wanted to make and how I wanted to style it so when it came to the Australia Day weekend coming up in which we would eat it, my excitement grew. For those of you that read this blog, first of all thankyou for doing so and secondly, you would also know that I have a leaning towards desserts and sweets.  This is mainly because I can use a colour palette that I like more with pinks and all sorts of pastels so it’s probably a surprise that when give a choice of sweet or savoury, I’ve chosen savoury.

The reason why I wanted to do a savoury tuile was that I wanted to pair this with Taramasalata, that deliciously creamy Greek caviar dip in a delicate pink hue. I liked the idea that people may have thought that this was a sweet item but once they tried it, they’d know it was savoury. I was also taken with how it would look, almost like a Paul & Joe Powder container I had many moons ago and how I’d love to sit that on my makeup table as it looked so gloriously art deco and pretty. Hence the jewelry and other dressing table acoutrements that feature in the images.

I don’t like buying new equipment for just one use as my cupboards are already bursting to full but when I saw some Tuile Silpats on sale I eagerly snatched them up. It occurred as serendipity often does, I saw them a few days after I read the recipe so I was grateful for the help as I was needing all the reinforcements after having a hard time with the December Ispahan Yule Log challenge.  I needn’t have worried, the tuiles themselves are incredibly easy and the recipe is very straightforward which I was very relieved to see. The only thing that may pose a challenge is shaping them. Also, it was 31C the day that I made them. There I was, standing in front of the very hot 200C oven in a bikini and apron and I felt like I was melting but madness spurred me on. I don’t think I’m the only person that bakes in a bikini-or am I?

This month’s challenge is brought to us by Karen of Bake My Day and Zorra of 1x umruehren bitte aka Kochtopf. They chose Tuiles from The Chocolate Book by Angélique Schmeink and Nougatine and Chocolate Tuiles from Michel Roux and Savoury Tuiles from Thomas Keller “The French Laundry Cookbook”.

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