The December 2009 Daring Bakers’ challenge was brought to you by Anna of Very Small Anna and Y of Lemonpi. They chose to challenge Daring Bakers’ everywhere to bake and assemble a gingerbread house from scratch. They chose recipes from Good Housekeeping and from The Great Scandinavian Baking Book as the challenge recipes.
Tomorrow will be Christmas Day! Merry X'mas to all the bakers and foodies! ^o^ I believe most of you are in the festive mood of this special occasion! For me, though, I might admit Christmas day was only considered another 'date' in my childhood. My family never celebrated it and I grew up knowing Santa Claus does not exist. But maybe because I don't have much impression or any opinions towards Christmas, I actually don't feel that 'I have missed out a damn lot of things' either! Hey, I suspect I haven't even eaten a roasted/baked turkey before. LOL.
Until I celebrated my first Christmas Countdown with my basketball teammates (I was already 14 by the way), I realised that Christmas is a beautiful and extremely lively festival. (a bit slow right) That was certainly a wonderful experience for me but if you ask me, I think I'd still prefer to avoid every area that is heavy in human-traffic. Haha. I believe I am somebody who treasure peace a lot!
Staying at home to bake or just drinking under the tree with my small group of buddies suit me more :) We can still have our christmas countdown happily! You know, the extent of my displeasure for noise includes the noise sound of my mixer at speed 10! That is also why I decided that my husband-to-be should not be over-ly talkative....! LOL
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me "I have an announcement to make. Don't put my hello kitty on the floor anymore. It will sleep with you from now onwards. Hug her because she's cold."
brother "LOL"
10minutes later, I saw my brother talking to my hello kitty,
"You see that ironing board there? That's your bed. This bed is mine. Okay, I'm bringing you over there now............. Sleep well, good night!"
HAHAHA, my brother is 19 by the way. He really played along well with me. We're pretty close... Even at our age now we can march through the parks! I mean MARCHING with out arms swing above our heads. LOL. Silly, yeah?
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This icecream logcake was my first attempt. I made it last year during the December school holidays. I wouldn't say it was fabulous, but i kinda like how the ganache texture appears overall :D I made the chocolate roulade according to the book, IceCream and Iced Desserts by Joanna Farrow and Sara Lewis. I filled it with light rum whipped cream before spreading chocolate icecream over it. Then I coat it with chocolate ganache and wrote the words with icing.
Chocolate Roulade
4oz plain chocolate, chopped
4 eggs, separated
4oz caster sugar
Preheat oven to 180 degreeC and grease 33 x 23cm line with baking parchment.
Melt the chocolate over a pan of simmering water. In a seperate bowl, whisk the yolks with the caster sugar until thick and pale. Then stir the melted chocolate into the yolk mixture. Whisk the egg whites until stiff in a grease-free bowl. Stir a quarter of the white into the yolk mixuture to lighten it, then fold in the remainder. Pour the mixture in a prepared tin and spread it gently into the corners.
Bake for about 20 minutes until the cake has risen and just irm. Turn it out on to a sheet of greaseproof which has been supported on a baking sheet and generously dusted w caster sugar. Leave to cool, then peel away the lining paper.
Chocolate Ganache
80g whipping cream
80g bittersweet chocolate, chopped
Boil the whipping cream and pour it over chocolates in a heatproof bowl. Stir until melted and combined.
