honey panna cotta and florentine cookies

I think to myself, I look ridiculous. I can tell that those passersby who turn their heads are thinking, "What is she wearing?" I am sporting my decorous work skirt, smart blouse, and professional work jacket. But on my feet are bright white sneakers and I'm carrying a bulging backpack. Bustling along the sidewalk, I look a out of place to those around me, but I have decided that I just don't care what they think. My sports shoes are propelling me along my walk home from work and I think that I look quirky, not ridiculous.

citrus mascarpone crostata

The 2010 November Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Simona of briciole. She chose to challenge Daring Bakers to make pasta frolla for a crostata. She used her own experience as a source, as well as information from Pellegrino Artusi’s Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well.

Crostata is an Italian tart made with a sweet short crust pasty and it can be filled with pastry cream or fruit. It's as easy to make as pie, and the pastry is delicious. (If I had any leftover pastry I would have made it into cookies.) I made my version with a mascarpone filling.

doughnuts--baked, not fried

The October 2010 Daring Bakers challenge was hosted by Lori of Butter Me Up. Lori chose to challenge DBers to make doughnuts. I'm never one to voluntarily eat anything deep fried, though, so I tried out this baked doughnut recipe as my contribution to the challenge. And then served the delectable doughnuts as my birthday dessert.

ice cream petit fours

The August 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Elissa of 17 and Baking. For the first time, The Daring Bakers partnered with Sugar High Fridays for a co-event and Elissa was the gracious hostess of both. Using the theme of beurre noisette, or browned butter, Elissa chose to challenge Daring Bakers to make a pound cake to be used in either a Baked Alaska or in Ice Cream Petit Fours. The sources for Elissa’s challenge were Gourmet magazine and David Lebovitz’s “The Perfect Scoop”.

tiramisu (for the Daring Bakers)

I think my first Daring Bakers challenge has been a success. The February 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Aparna of My Diverse Kitchen and Deeba of Passionate About Baking. They chose Tiramisu as the challenge for the month. Their challenge recipe is based on recipes from The Washington Post, Cordon Bleu at Home and Baking Obsession. Recipes for all of the parts are available from Aparna.


I made the whole dessert from scratch, which led to some scary moments in the kitchen. Making the mascarpone cheese was the first part I attempted and although it looks more like butter, it turned out tasty in the end.


Making the lady finger biscuits was my next challenge. They are beautiful, puffy little things. I wish I had made twice as many so I could use some for another dessert, or just served plain with coffee.


I made the pastry cream, whipped cream, and zabaglione (a sweet paste made with port) and mixed them with the mascarpone. Then the whole tiramisu is assembled with layers of lady fingers (dipped in sweet espresso) and layers of the cream mixture.


Dusted with unsweetened cocoa to contrast with the cream mixture, it is a very sweet dessert with layers of spongy biscuit and smooth, cold cream.