This month's Daring Bakers challenge is a choose your own adventure.
In a "celebration" of past Daring Baker and Daring Cook challenges, Lisa challenged all of us to search through the Daring Kitchen archives and pick any one we'd like! The REAL challenge was picking which delicious recipe(s) to try!
For me, the choice was easy. I was inspired to join the Daring Bakers by Peabody's choice from July 2007, the Strawberry Mirror Cake by the California Culinary Academy, so this is the challenge I have chosen to make.
There are lots of eggs and lots of strawberries in this challenge, meaning that I had lots of incentive not to stuff it up, because a mistake would be expensive. In the end, I was very happy with the results:
My mirror finished on top of the cake, was smooth and didn't tear, my Bavarian cream filled in all the spaces it was supposed to, and everything set. The only variations from the recipe for me were that I didn't dye the mirror or the Bavarian cream with food colouring, and I (accidentally) did not strain the strawberry puree for the Bavarian cream. I don't think it mattered a jot.
This cake was smooth and light, not overly sweet or creamy, and is a perfect summer breeze through a miserable winter's afternoon. I think this cake should be served at a garden party with ladies in dainty tea dresses and dapper gents, with long tall glasses of Pimms and lemonade on the side.
To see what challenges the other Daring Bakers selected this month, visit the slide show at the Daring Kitchen.
This will be my last Daring Bakers challenge for now. I have been a member since January 2008, when I made lemon meringue pie, and have completed 66 challenges, so I think I have proved my daring. I now want to free up some space in my life for other things. I think that making the cake that inspired me to join the group is a fitting way to bow out. It's hard to pick a favourite challenge, but I particularly enjoyed making the Caramel Cake, the decorated sugar cookies, the Povitica, the Battenberg cake and the recent Princesstarta. Best wishes to the continuing Daring Bakers - be daring!
