Pâte à Choux Swans (Daring Bakers' Challenge)

I'm continuing to have a lot of fun with the Daring Bakers' monthly challenges!  This month, we were challenged to make filled pâte à choux swans (or, more generally pâte à choux shapes).  Prior to this challenge, I had no idea what pâte à choux was - I soon discovered that it is the pastry used for cream puffs.  I love cream puffs (here in Seattle, they're often served at pho places - is that the case anywhere else?) so I was very excited to get started!

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!

Blueberry Pie Cookies

Camping is one of my favorite summer activities.  Car camping, boat camping, backpacking...I love it all, and one of my favorite things to do after I arrive at the campsite is to relax with a good book and something tasty.  Most of the time, these are store-bought cookies or crackers.  Sometimes, they are tasty homemade pastries.  Recently, I've been dreaming of bringing along the ultimate summer baked good (pie, of course).

Almond & Raspberry Cattails Cake

My dad really likes cattails.  I also like them (although not nearly as much as he does).  I think they evoke an image of a still, quiet pond, on which you while away an afternoon in a boat.  So, I decided to make a cattail-themed cake for my dad. 

Raspberry & Aprium Mini Pies

Summer is for fruit pies!  And summer has finally (finally!) come to Seattle.  Luckily, farms, grocery stores, roadside stands, and farmer's markets are bursting with berries, peaches, plums, cherries, and fruits that I have never even heard of.

White Chocolate Cheesecake Mini Cupcakes with Raspberry & Blueberry Whipped Cream

Happy Fourth of July!  What an excellent day!  I woke up this morning to a star-spangled Space Needle, and ended the day with grilled shish-kebabs and corn-on-the-cob for dinner.  Because I had no work today (yay!), I decided to revisit cheesecake cupcakes - this time, with some patriotic red (raspberry) and blue (blueberry) whipped cream.

Red Velvet Graduation Cake

My cousin graduated from high school!  My aunt asked me to make a cake for her graduation party, and I was happy to do so.  This is a 12" square red velvet (my cousin's request) cake with white chocolate cream cheese frosting.  It's the largest cake I've ever made and I learned a lot throughout the process.  In total, it took me approximately 10 hours to complete (including planning, practicing, calculating, etc), although much of that time was spent desperately trying to recover from some...unexpected challenges (more on that later).  Most importantly, my cousin liked it!  Yay!

Battenberg Cake (Daring Bakers' Challenge)

This month's Daring Bakers' Challenge was a type of cake I'd never heard of before: Battenberg Cake.  The first Battenberg Cake was a wedding cake for Queen Victoria's granddaughter and the Prince of Battenberg.  The two-color checkerboard pattern is known as Batternberg markings.  This challenge was very fun (and very British) - my favorite so far!

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.