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!