use real butter

Recipe: chocolate valentino cake

The Daring Bakers, founded by our super sexy ladies Lis and Ivonne, are here to make sure that you got enough chocolate in February. And if you di-int, then check it:

daring bakers: we knead to bake, yo

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 and butter

stirring in the egg yolks

**Jump for more butter**

Recipe: pistachio ice cream

The groundhog has spoken, so to speak. Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow and according to lore, we shall have six more weeks of winter! Just six?! I’m calling it a reprieve because I have blown (literally, figuratively) the past week of potential skiing due to my cold. Six more weeks merely takes us into mid-March, and March is when we in the beautiful state of Colorado (at least the western half – I know, I’m a mountain snob) get some of the best big dump snowfalls. Where I live, winter can start as early as September and ends sometime in May. All of the other seasons get crammed into the remaining months.

a local cousin of phil’s: a marmot

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Recipe: french yule log

It’s that time again… time for another Daring Bakers Challenge! This month’s challenge is brought to us by the adventurous Hilda from Saffron and Blueberry and Marion from Il en Faut Peu Pour Etre Heureux. They have chosen a French Yule Log by Flore from Florilege Gourmand.

daring bakers: we knead to bake!

I very much have a love-hate relationship with the Daring Bakers these days. I love learning new techniques and skills that I would otherwise never think to try on my own and there are some really fantastic bakers in the community who inspire me to keep coming back each month for more punishment. I’m almost always glad to have completed a challenge no matter how many disastrous steps along the way, I just don’t know how long I will continue to keep it up.

At first blush, I rolled my eyes when I read that our challenge was a yule log. We did that last December. However, after reading up on the difference between this month’s French yule log and its jellyroll cousin, I was game. It’s a more complex assembly and required some fast thinking when various components didn’t work out. I felt the instructions were overly simplified in many places and just plain vague in others. In the end, it came together nicely, but I won’t lie to you and say I didn’t do a fair bit of cussing along the way.

**Jump for more butter**