Battenberg

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.

To be totally honest, I'd never heard of Battenberg Cake before now. Obviously I've been missing something because when I took it in to my dojo, everyone seemed super excited. I think it was the fun checkered pattern; had them all impressed. I tried explaining it to them, that as long as you followed the set steps, it really wasn't that bad to make. They didn't believe me. But before this challenge, I probably wouldn't have believed me either.

The individual parts didn't seem so bad. Make cake. Cut it up. Glue it back together with jam. Cover with marzipan.

The Marzipan is what gave me pause. My experience with marzipan, both eating and making, is basically none. I didn't know what it was supposed to taste like (one would presume almonds) or what the texture was supposed to be. So obviously I decided to make it instead of search it out in a store.

The cake part of the Battenberg came together pretty easily (and the batter tasted pretty good too!) The biggest thing was jerry rigging the 8x8 pan into a Battenberg making pan. And even that wasn't too difficult thanks to the tips from Mandy.

Now, back to that whole marzipan thing. Yeah... I tried. I really did. My homemade attempt ended up being this crumbly pile of almond-y stuff. Tasty. But definitely not how it was supposed to end up. I assume it had something to do with the sugar/egg white syrup, but who really knows. I thought about trying it again. I even went back to the store to buy more ingredients. And as I was walking down the baking aisle I saw out of the corner of my eye this box. It said marzipan on it... I bet you can guess what ended up in my basket.

Overall I was pretty happy with how things turned out. I kinda wish I'd stuck it through and made the marzipan, but it's probably better for my sanity that I didn't.

Challah

May’s Daring Bakers’ Challenge was pretty twisted – Ruth from The Crafts of Mommyhood challenged us to make challah! Using recipes from all over, and tips from “A Taste of Challah,” by Tamar Ansh, she encouraged us to bake beautifully braided breads.

I'd never made Challah before. Actually, I'd never even had Challah before this past Thanksgiving. Hard to believe given my great love of bread. But there you go.

I had to wait to make this as for the past month I've been in the process of moving. Things were packed, I lost my internet access for a bit, etc. etc. This is also the reason why last months' challenge, Nazook, just went up as well. Sorry y'all.

So I broke in my new kitchen with Challah; the first of many wonderful things to be made here, I'm sure. I was a little nervous as I am switching back to electric after years of having a gas oven. I think things turned out pretty well. 

I used the whole wheat Challah recipe that was provided by our host this month. The recipe was easy to follow; though it was missing where to add the salt. Which I then proceeded to completely forget about until I started kneading the dough. I added it in at that point, and the bread still came out nicely.

I attempted a 3-strand and a 4-strand braid. They both came out ok, though I'm still not positive I understand how the 4-strand braid was supposed to go.

Though time consuming, this is definitely something I will want to make again. And while I can just knock back a whole loaf of bread plain, I decided to make some french toast instead...

Nazook

The Daring Bakers’ April 2012 challenge, hosted by Jason at Daily Candor, were two Armenian standards: nazook and nutmeg cake. Nazook is a layered yeasted dough pastry with a sweet filling, and nutmeg cake is a fragrant, nutty coffee-style cake.

Yes, I am super super late with this. I've been in the process of moving for over a month now (finally done!), and was a little distracted. Seeing as how I was already late with Daring Bakers for April, I chose to do just the Nazook. I do plan on, don't quote me on this though, to go back and try the nutmeg cake at some point.

The recipe came together quickly enough. And the hardest part for me was muscling my way through the refrigerated dough to get it rolled out. I split the work between two days; making the dough on Friday and finishing them up on Saturday. Though one day would be plenty to make these if you have a decent stretch of time.

I was kind of meh on these at first. I tried one fresh, and was underwhelmed. I tried one the next day and thought, well, maybe I can get used to these. By the third day they were growing on me. So if you don't like them right away, let them age a few days and try them again.