I dare to bake!

Hooray! It's here! Finally! I have been waiting nearly two weeks for this day. I AM A DARING BAKER!!!! Mwahahahaha.....


See, for months, I've been salivating over my sister's lovely baked goods. She's been bugging me to join the Daring Bakers, but these people are so darn skilled! And I do not bake much. I cook. I love to cook. But baking... well... I'm not so artistic. And when I got this month's recipe, I panicked. I mean, I nearly cried. It looked so hard! But I did it. And I did it well, if I do say so myself. See:



The recipe this month was a Filbert Gateau with Praline Buttercream, from Great Cakes, by Carol Walters. The recipe can be found at Mele Cotte. I made mine a little bit different because I didn't use filberts. I used almonds. And I used a raspberry glaze instead of an apricot glaze. I used dark rum wherever the recipe called for alcohol. And when I finally sliced it and had a piece, it was delicious! It was so yummy that I wanted to run down the street with it, handing people pieces of cake and then saying, "I MADE THIS MYSELF!!!!" But I didn't do that, because then my beautiful cake would be all gone much too fast.

This cake took a long time to make, but it came out beautifully, and it was fun. Thanks, Chris, for picking such a wonderful first challenge for me. And I have to send out a big thank you to my sister Mary who took all of my many many phone calls over the course of the day that I made this. Without her, I would not have dared to bake, and I'm so glad I did. Check out her cake, and the other daring bakers.