German Lebkuchen : Holiday Cookies - DBC November, 2012

Lebkuchen, reminds me of our trip to Germany last year in December. We took a cruise along the Rhine river and I think it was the most romantic and scenic cruise, we have ever taken. Breathtaking medieval castles, fortresses and palaces ! Among all the stories of the fortresses and castles, what stayed on my mind was the story of a woman named Lorelei date back several centuries. Her statue is on top of a hill, in the midst of the Rhine river. There are many stories legends behind this statue. According to one, She would lure sailors by her beauty and voice, causing ship wrecks. Another legend states that her lover was unfaithful to her, so she threw herself in the water to meet her end. Her song of lament caused many a ship wrecks. Whatever the legend, the mythical charm of Lorelei and the breath taking scenery of the Rhine river, makes the whole trip feel like a dream. 

 After the cruise, our next stop was the  local Christmas market. I was like a kid in a candy store, the festivity, people, music, food and oh yes the mulled wine ( not exactly a beverage for a kid :)). I was hooked - mulled wine and some stollen and lebkuchen - too much excitement  for one day ! Well I really cannot recreate the mood at the Christmas markets but the lebkuchen did bring back sweet memories of a trip that I will cherish for a long long time. Thanks Peta from Peta Eats for hosting the DBC - Daring Baker's challenge for the holiday season. 

The Lebkuchen has  a bit of history under its belt.  The history of the Lebkuchen begins with the Honigkuchen (Honey Cake). The Egyptians, (dated around1500 BC) baked these cakes to be placed in the graves of kings as the egyptians believed that honey was a gift for the Gods and they regarded their kings as Gods.. The lebkuchen of today finds its origin in Belgium. The cookies were introduced to the city of Ulm in 1296. Enough  nerd facts for one post... any more and you guys will un-follow me :))) Isn't it exciting to bake something that was also baked centuries ago - so much would have changed in the recipe and the treatment of the ingredients. Am sure it would have tasted better then, pure unrefined and unprocessed ingredients.

Holiday Cookies- Expresso Cream Sables : DBC November, 2012

This month's daring baker challenge was to bake some cookies for the holidays. Something out of the box and not the same old same old. Peta from Peta Eats provided us with 12 awesome recipes. It was very hard to pick one, so I did make more than one, as you will see in the weeks that follow. She gave us the recipe for  almond nutmeg sables, since I had already baked with almonds in lebkuchen, I picked espresso cream sables.

Now for the blog checking lines :  Holiday season is the time for sharing and Peta of Peta Eats is sharing a dozen cookies, some classics and some of her own, from all over the world with us.

Empanadas Gallega - Daring Bakers Challenge, Sep 2012

 

 

 

Patri of the blog, Asi Son Los Cosas, was our September 2012 Daring Bakers’ hostess and she decided to tempt us with one of her family’s favorite recipes for Empanadas! We were given two dough recipes to choose from and encouraged to fill our Empanadas as creatively as we wished!

This week DBC, am really late -Thanks DB for the one week grace. No more delay, shall we go straight to the recipe then....

Filled Pate A Choux Swan - Daring Baker Challenge August-2012

 

 

 

 

As usual I postponed the db challenge to the last week, there was a lot of things that required my immediate attention. (thxs to procrastination).  With so much on my plate, I was not planning to do the daring bakers challenge this month. The lovely pictures and description of choux swans while blog hopping, caught my eye.....I just had to bake these...it was a strong urge, hard to put in words but glad it worked. Thxs guys for giving me the push!!

This is one challenge I absolutely enjoyed creating, LOVED the outcome.These little swans are so cute that I didn't want  to eat them but when I did, I could not stop.  Am so excited to share this with you that you have to pardon my typos and grammar. I am sure after I post this I will have some explaining to do to the grammar police ( aka almost teen). For now let's dance to the tune of swan lake.

 Thank you Kat for hosting. Kat of The Bobwhites was our August 2012 Daring Baker hostess who inspired us to have fun in creating pate a choux shapes, filled with crème patisserie or Chantilly cream. We were encouraged to create swans or any shape we wanted and to go crazy with filling flavors allowing our creativity to go wild!

 

 

Battenburg Cake - Daring Bakers Challenge June 2012

This Month's DB challenge was the Battenburg cake!! Since the time it was announced, almost-teen has been obsessed with it and claims that this is the best thing that has happened to her this summer. For those of you who are not aware of it, she is quite - very - obsessed with Britain - and that's an understatement. As for where it comes from, well.... she happens to be an ardent Harry Potter fan! She's reread Harry Potter some obnoxious amount of times until I threatened that if I saw her with Harry, he will be thrown out. Now Harry has been taken over by the history of UK ....and no one is complaining anymore. And with this new Britain-related obsession, she's spent countless hours perfecting her British accent, which has come a long way.... So now you get the picture.... the timing could not have been more perfect. A tea party - along with the royal cake was some English tea and a good book about the Queen. 

*The cake has royal beginnings - the chefs of the British Royal Family were introduced to the German style of cake making during Queen Victoria's reign. This included the use of bright colors and marzipan. The first Battenberg cake was made in that German style to celebrate the wedding of Queen Victoria's granddaughter, Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine, and was named after her husband, Prince Louis of Battenberg. 

It’s traditionally flavoured with almond and has the signature Battenberg markings, the yellow and pink squares (said to represent the four princes of Battenberg). The strips of sponge are glued together using jam (normally apricot) and the whole cake is covered in marzipan. Sometimes the edges are crimped and the top is patterned with a knife.

Thanks to Mandy of What The Fruitcake?! came to our rescue last minute to present us with the Battenberg Cake challenge! She highlighted Mary Berry’s techniques and recipes to allow us to create this unique little cake with ease.

There were just too many choices - you could pair any two flavors and marry them into this exotic royal treat. After a lot of thinking and no pressure (*cough cough*) from a certain someone, I was told - sorry, I made the original pink and yellow with marzipan. I substituted lemon curd for apricot jam and lemon flavor for almond flavor. It was fit for royalty, to say the least!!