Daring to do it: Filipino Desserts

I am not home to write this post, we are at the in-laws' for the Thanksgiving weekend... Therefore I don't have all of my photos and such available to me until after the posting date... But this challenge was simply too yummy to delay, so you will have to make do with what I have access to here. :)

Catherine of Munchie Musings was our November Daring Bakers’ host and she challenged us to make a traditional Filipino dessert – the delicious Sans Rival cake! And for those of us who wanted to try an additional Filipino dessert, Catherine also gave us a bonus recipe for Bibingka which comes from her friend Jun of Jun-blog.

This was a fabulous challenge. Not too hard, procedure-wise, but different, and learning about a new culture. I must admit, I spent the whole month saying I needed to get in touch with my cousin who is Filipino to ask her about her experiences with the Sans Rival, but I never quite got there. I will have to ask her, anyway, since I totally want to make this again. As in, this past Wednesday I was looking at my stock of eggs thinking "should I make it?", but knew we had too much for for the holiday as it was, and didn't want the yumminess to be wasted!
Sans Rival is a layered dessert of meringue, butter cream and nuts. I made the meringue as written (well, using almonds instead of cashews, as that was what I had), but changed the butter cream. Being lactose intolerant, I don't keep butter in the house, just margarine. I also had raspberries I wanted to use. But my butter cream wound up way too thin - not fluffy at all. I tried adding some powdered sugar, no help, I tried whipping in a soy milk and flour thickener, nope... So I used the raspberry butter cream as the filling between the layers, and made a more standard (though nondairy) butter cream for the edges.
I loved this dessert, and I really want to make it again. I see this one being added to the regular rotation, at least for special occasions!!!

At some point in the future I would like to look into the other recipes Catharine gave us, for the Bibingka and the salted eggs, but it just wasn't in the cards for this month.

Thank you so much, Catharine, for teaching us about this amazing dessert! This is the reason I joined the Daring Kitchen, and you were such a great host to work with! If you want to see what me fellow Bakers created, check it out here, just be sure you have a napkin or two to mop up the drool!

Daring to do it: Cooking with Tea

Sarah from Simply Cooked was our November Daring Cooks’ hostess and she challenged us to create something truly unique in both taste and technique! We learned how to cook using tea with recipes from Tea Cookbook by Tonia George and The New Tea Book by Sara Perry.

I feel like I owe Sarah an apology - I don't feel like I did this challenge the justice it deserves. I love the idea of cooking with tea. It is something I would have never thought to do, and yet now I have ideas bubbling away like crazy! Unfortunately, though, I never seemed to get around to most of them... I hope that I will keep this idea in mind, though, and keep using tea for more than just a warm and relaxing beverage!
I did create two tea inspired dishes. Here are my variations:
Pasta with sauteed cabbage, onions, and lentils cooked in green tea with lemon:


Cranberry oat bread, oats cooked in decaf chai tea:

Both of these dishes were delicious. The tea flavor was much more pronounced in the cake, which was amazing. The light lemon flavor in the lentils, though, added a great, fresh touch which is something I will keep in mind in future lentil dishes!
Thank you, Sarah, for such a great challenge. I love the creativity you inspired with your recipes, and the freedom you gave us to explore on our own! I recommend that you look here to see what my fellow Daring Cooks created!