Another Tuesdays with Dorie and this week Di from Di’s Kitchen selected French Chocolate Brownies. Chocolate…how can you wrong. My camera is not working so I don’t have a picture. I am hoping to post one tomorrow but in the meantime check out some of the other TWD sites.

I decided to skip the raisins and rum but tried the cinnamon. It gave the brownies a nice underlying flavor. I also just melted the butter and chocolate together which is quick and less likely to overheat the chocolate.

Luckily I have a meeting to go to tomorrow night. The last thing I need a week before a trip to Mexico is a plate of brownies!

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You might notice for those with Internet Explorer that the big black ugly bar is gone. Thanks Leslie for helping me out!

So today’s post is a Tuesdays With Dorie from two weeks back, when the big black bar appeared. The challenge was Madeleines and this time I was determined to get this right. A few months ago I bought one of those soft, silicone pans. It did not go well. The madeleines did not come out easy and left their skin behind.

So off to Sur La Table to purchase a metal pan. It was sort of funny because the clerk kept saying these are really hard to make. They are so easy to make. I hope you will all give them a try. I am anxious to try a few other flavors and play around a bit.

The group Tuesdays with Dorie was mentioned in the Wall Street Journal. You can check it out here.

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I was excited to see Diane from Diane Dishes select Florida Pie for this weeks Tuesdays with Dorie. I love key lime pie and limes so I knew this would be good.

It was pretty easy but my crust didn’t seem to come together. I think I needed more butter to bind it together and clearly I wasn’t watching the broiler action close enough!

The pie is in the freezer waiting to be taken to work in the morning. Check out the other entries for the week.

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Another Tuesday and another Dorie recipe. This week Caitlin of Engineer Baker chose Fluted Polenta and Ricotta Cake.

The great thing about these challenges is that I am trying new recipes. In the original recipe it calls for figs. Well, if you know how picky of an eater I am, you know those went out of the recipe. I made a simple polenta and ricotta cake.

It is very easy to pull together and came out very tasty. I think next time I would add a bit more lemon and throw in a bit of chopped fresh rosemary. I added a few raspberries, but I would top with a dollop of whipping cream too!

Check out the Tuesday With Dorie entries here.

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For this months Daring Bakers Challenge Elle and Deborah selected Cheesecake Pops. They are little cheesecake morsels on a stick, dipped in chocolate and decorated how you wish.

They are very rich and they would have to be served straight out of the freezer. I fear they would fall off the stick on a warm day, as it is today, in the OC. The cheesecake was easy to make but I the dipping was a bit of a struggle. I added some pink sugar to pretty them up, plus it added a bit of a crunch to the bite.

Check out some of the other Daring Bakers here.

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So I am back from my business trip and it is another Tuesday with Dorie.  This week   Amanda  from slow like honey selected Bill’s Big Carrot Cake.  I have never understood carrot cake - I like my desserts veggie free but I was up for the challenge.

The recipe was super easy to put together and was soon in the oven.  I  cut the recipe in half and used two small pans.  Because I cut it in half I had to keep checking it at ten minute intervals to keep from overcooking.

Tasting it after cutting the cakes, I was very surprised at how delicious it was.

I did not use coconut in either the cake or the frosting.  I toasted some walnuts and put around the outside, mostly to cover my inadequate frosting skills.

It was Ashley’s birthday so I brought it to work in celebration of her big day.  My co-workers loved it and hopefully you will too.

Go over to Tuesdays with Dorie and check out all the other variations.  I am always amazed at the creativity of my fellow bakers.

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When I read that Barbara was hosting a LiveSTRONG with A Taste of Yellow 2008 event I knew I wanted to participate. She created the event last year to raise awareness and is fighting cancer herself. She is from Australia, my second most favorite place (after Italy of course). Last year 149 bloggers participated. I had dreams of finding an amazing recipe to try but decided to bake what I was told Brielle might enjoy.

She is a friend of our family’s daughter. Just days into 2008 they received the news that she had RMS (Rhabdomyosarcoma), a form of cancer that approximately 250 children in the US are diagnosed with each year.

Brielle, at 10 years old, is the bravest little girl I know. I would tell you her story but I think I’ll let their words speak for themselves. Jim and Lisa, along with her grandfather, have shared their heart wrenching journey. Their honest account of walking their precious daughter through cancer treatments captured the hearts and prayers of our church, community and beyond.

Her classmates wear little blue rubber wristbands as a reminder to pray for her. Brielle even has her own page where she occasionally shares stories. The stories of her quest to find a dog and the adoption of Faith, the pekinese with deformed legs, make you laugh and smile.

Others are harder to read. This morning as I am writing this I went over to their blog and read Jim’s fears as they enter a waiting period to find out if the tumor has shrunk. Their faith in God is what is sustaining them, carrying them through another day and giving them hope for the future.

I have a niece and two nephews who are 4, 5 & 7 years old. Brielle is their friend and they all learned about cancer this year. This winter and now into spring so many people I know are fighting this battle. As they fight each of them shows incredible strength and courage. My sister-in-law’s mother Christine is fighting breast cancer, Nancy, my bible study teacher has ovarian cancer and Natalie, a friends 3 year old daughter, has leukemia. Each of them is walking the same road. As I pray for them I remember that each day is truly a gift from God and that we should live it to the fullest.

This weekend I was scheduled to bring the family a meal. Joy, my sister-in-law and I teamed up to cook the meal. She said that Brielle liked plain sugar cookies. One of her challenges has been to not lose anymore weight. So this morning I tried out a Martha Stewart cookie recipe and then we used Joy’s frosting.

Every Christmas Joy and her friend Deanna have a cookie exchange and she always makes these great cookies with the best sugar cookie frosting I have ever tasted. She tells me that the recipe has been handed down throughout all of their friends, so if you are the creator of the recipe, I apologize.

Livi, Chase and Luke got in on the effort, helping to decorate cookies. No arm twisting there. So my Taste of Yellow entry is not super fancy but it is from the heart and full of prayers that they will receive hope in the upcoming test results.  Yes, I do believe Luke was about to lick that knife!

To read more about Brielle and her journey check out their blog. For more about LiveSTRONG with A Taste of Yellow visit on May 13th and see all the entries.

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It is another Tuesday so you know what that means - another new challenge.  For this week’s Tuesday with Dorie challenge Mary, from Starting from Scratch, gave you the choice of The Most Extraordinary French Lemon Cream Tarte or the Fresh Orange Cream Tart.  I think we have established I like lemon, but I love orange equally!  My favorite yogurt is Yoplait’s Orange Creme and I love 50/50 bars. I had to choose the Orange Cream Tart.

I fell in love with this recipe after the first bite.  My office fell is love with this tart.  Even my mom loved this tart.

I left most of the zest in and even tried adding a layer of chocolate to the tart because chocolate and orange….such the perfect marriage.  I had an issue with the dough not forming together so I added 1/4 cup of cream.

Head over to Tuesdays with Dorie and check out everyone’s tarts.

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For this weeks Tuesdays with Dorie challenge, Leigh at  Lemon Tartlet picked Gooey Chocolate Cake.  

After participating in several more complicated events, I breathed a sigh of relief at this one.  I have served many molten cakes to my guests. So this weekend I put the ingredients together and gave it a try.

I ran out of bittersweet chocolate so I placed mini semi sweet chips on the top. I cooked for exactly the 13 minutes and took them out to cool.

To finish the cake off I placed a handful of raspberries on top and drizzled a White Chocolate Espresso sauce on top of it. 

It was goey and chocolatey but I have to say it did not beat my favorite which is from Roy’s Restaurant in Hawaii.  I agree with Dorie that this one did feel like you needed to have something with it.  My Roy recipe  is great all on its own, other than a bit of whipped cream.  But it a good cake to have in my arsenal. I might try with another type of chocolate next time.

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I am excited to share with you my first Daring Bakers entry. This group of bakers has grown to over 600 members and each month take on a new baking challenge. These different blog events have really challenged me to try things I normally will not consider and I can see my baking abilities improving.

This month was Dorie Greenspan’s Perfect Cake from her Baking cookbook. Morven hosted this months challenge. I almost never make traditional cakes and dreaded it a bit. In the end I really enjoyed the process and liked this cake. It is a versatile recipe allowing the baker to make it your own. I think it is the perfect all occasion cake. It is pretty and tasty too!

Notes: I used buttermilk and substituted blackberry preserves because I love the combination of lemon and blackberries. The only disappointment was that the cakes don’t rise as much as I anticipated. I even used the Swan Downs Cake Flour that Dorie said she used in her note to the group.

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