Shindiglet: Battle of the Batter

Shindiglet - Like a grand shindig, only a much smaller to-do. There are times, when even a small group of people getting together creates an occasion for celebrating with a theme. And if it is within my power, I always try to make that happen.

An across-the-miles triple throwdown baking challenge, for me, is such an occasion.

Over the past few years, my bestie, Toni, and I have exchanged recipes. A couple of times we've even tried new recipes at the same time and compared notes. That was fun. But recently, Toni kicked it up a notch, posting a challenge on facebook... challenging me, and another gal, Toni-Lynn, to a baking THROWDOWN! What was the objective? Molten Chocolate Lava Cakes. None of us had made them before, but we all exuded confidence. Check out our game faces:

Toni

Tanya

Toni-Lynn

What followed was some bakers' smack talk. After a few days of that, we separately conducted our baking experiment, using different recipes, of our own choosing. As the three of us live in three different states, we couldn't actually judge the recipes side by side. We would have to be the judge of our own creations, with input from friends and family all-too-ready-and-willing to sample the end product. :)

Here's how it went down for me.

I started with just a few ingredients: 3 oz. bittersweet chocolate, 3 oz. milk chocolate, butter, cocoa, egg whites, sugar, cream of tartar.

I melted the chocolate and the butter together in a double boiler.

The egg whites were beaten together with the cream of tartar and sugar.

I folded the egg whites into the chocolate.

And then scooped the batter into the buttered and sugared muffin tins.

After about seven minutes, they came out of the oven like this:

They look good, don't they?!

Turned out onto a plate, aside a scoop of coconut ice cream, and dusted with cocoa powder, it looks like this:

Anticipating the molten chocolate that makes this dish "lava cake", I cut it open and mmmmmmm.........

Look how my youngest is eating it up!

OK, so I would love to just leave it at that and feel all proud of myself, but....

I kinda cheated.

I'll come clean.

My lava cakes ended up being not-so-molten. I'd describe them more like chocolate mousse cakes. Still completely delicious. And rich. And dangerous... because I couldn't stop eating after just one. Here's what it really looked like inside:

And my secret molten-ator?

Hey, living a stone's throw from Hershey, PA makes it all okay. :)

Be sure to check out Toni's and Toni's re-cap of this chocolate lava cake triple throwdown!

Wordless Wednesday: Teacher Appreciation Luncheon Dessert

for other Wordless Wednesdays, click here and/or here

Wordless Wednesday: Cupcake Message

See more WW here and here!

5th Annual Valentine's Day Ladies Tea: Re-cap

Ahhhhhhh.... the satisfaction of accomplishment! Yesterday's tea party went over very well. That's not to say we didn't experience a couple of blips along the way, though.

There was one mix-up with the first activity, which was the flower meanings match game. I inadvertently copied and distributed the game with the meanings right beside the flower names. Duh! I can't believe I didn't catch that error before it was too late. But my guests are pretty easy going and indulged me by reading through the many meanings and talking about how interesting some of them were. Thank goodness I still had two other activities planned!

I also had a last minute cancellation due to illness, so we ended up with an odd number, making the Complete the Lyrics game have uneven teams. The teams were pretty evenly matched, as it turned out, and the difference in correct answers was only one, so the margin of victory was very slim. When it was time to select prizes for this game, everyone kept what they originally opened - no prize swiping occurred!

The consequences of the heart game went over very well, with lots of laughs. Originally, the prize for this game was going to be taking home the centerpiece. However, when my friend brought it over to me, I fell in love with it, and I couldn't part with it. That meant the consequences game was just going to be a filler activity - no prize. But since the flower meaning match game didn't work out, I moved that game's prize to the consequences game. So, it all worked out in the end.


We enjoyed tea and scones as the first course and nibbled on a seed & dried fruit snack mixture that was on the table upon arrival of the guests. I decided to lay a snippet of lavender on the saucer aside the tea cup, which I thought looked very pretty. I put the lavender snippets in the seed mixture bowls, too, as garnish.


Everyone seemed to like having the menu at the table so they knew what was in store. It helps to judge how much to eat along the way if you know to save room for something at the end! The primroses looked so pretty in the salad, I regret not taking a picture. Also, I didn't stop and take the time to photograph the panna cotta when that was served. Drat! They were quite lovely plated with raspberries and quartered lychees. And the taste combination was beautiful. It is a very creamy dessert, with cream and mascarpone cheese being the main ingredients. The rose water added a touch of delicacy. As I needed to remove the fresh flowers before cutting the layer cake, I did pause to take some pictures at that point.


Before the guests left, I gave them their favor box and sent most of them off with a goody bag filled with homemade heart-shaped peppermint patties and lemon poppy seed cookies. (OK, I let a few guests leave before I remembered to have them fill their goody bag - whoops!)

I dare say that everyone had a good time, and I was satisfied overall. As always, a few things were learned along the way, which help make the next event even better.

I suppose the next shindig I'll be planning is a dinner centered around curry ketchup. A coworker of my husband brought him some curry ketchup from a specialty shop, as my husband had been telling him about having it with sausages in Germany. So we're hoping to have the coworker and his wife over to give it a sample. A much smaller affair than my tea party, but I do so love the German theme...

Rose Water Panna Cotta

I have tried to find an online version of the exact recipe I'm using to make the panna cotta, but to no avail. If you have access to the Martha Stewart Living magazine, it is the dessert of the month for the February 2009 issue. But since I've mentioned it so often here, I wanted to provide at least one link to give the gist of what I am talking about. I'm really looking forward to making it and giving it a taste!

Tackle it Tuesday: Out of the Ordinary Shopping

Ever since I decided to make Rose Water Panna Cotta for the dessert at my Valentine's Day tea party, I knew I would have to go out of my way to find a couple of ingredients: rose water and lychees. I did see a recipe online on how to make your own rose water, but it sounded too complicated, and I would still have to go out of my way to find pesticide-free rose petals. No thanks, I'll just buy some! After doing some research, I located a few stores in the area where I might find these two out of the ordinary items.

I first visited an asian market place called Little Saigon. There, I found the lychees. I bought more than enough for the panna cotta recipe, because I found loads of lychee cocktail recipes online, too! The second stop I made was to India Groceries & Fashions. I found the rose water there. Yay! I felt ready to make the panna cotta!

In addition to the food items, I was also in need of a teacup and saucer with which to make a floral centerpiece. It just so happens, my friend and neighbor is a florist, and she offered to make this for me. That will really help bring the cost down. I went to a nearby antique market place to prowl around for one with a pretty floral design. I saw many priced $12 and up, and a few for $5, but then I found one priced at $2.50, and I thought it was just perfect!

I tackled that out of the ordinary shopping list, and I was happy!

See more tackles here.

Wordless Wednesday: schwarzwalder kirschtorte

I made this Black Forest Cake for a past Valentine's Day Tea Party with a German Flair theme.

See more Wordless Wednesdays here and here.

Menu thoughts

With a little helpful push from a friend, I've started focusing once again on my menu for this upcoming tea party. Why not start with selecting the dessert? She shared with me a recipe for Rose Water Panna Cotta. I had no idea what to expect, but when I saw the recipe picture, I was wowed. It is like custard, and can be molded and turned out onto a plate. And then when I read the list of ingredients, I realized I had some more Googling to do. Lychees? Huh? What's that? I didn't even know how to pronounce that word... which meant I just had to locate and master this exotic sounding fruit. Yes, I verified that it was a fruit, with a taste/texture similar to a grape/pear.

Google educated me that it is a Chinese fruit, but also grown in India and other places. I decided to tap into some of my resources here to get the low down. My husband has Indian coworkers and they directed me to a local market that might have lychees, as well as the rose water that the recipe names. In doing another Google search, I found someone else trying to locate lychees in my area. I took copious notes and now feel prepared to obtain all the ingredients I should need.

So, dessert is settled. Now I can go on to the other areas of the meal...

Some tips I've gleaned when trying out a new recipe:

1) Always search the Internet for the recipe online. Recipe sites or blogs often have comments posted by people who have already tried the recipe and can suggest tweaks that you might find beneficial. Also, seeing different pictures of the recipe helps give you an idea of what yours should look like.

2) Make sure you allow yourself enough time to get all the steps done. That means reading the recipe all the way through first. You will save yourself some stress if you can do as much as possible before hand.

3) When trying to find ingredients that you aren't used to, again, search the Internet. Sites like Yelp can shed brilliant light on services and shops in your local area.

4) And finally, it is probably the responsible thing to suggest you try the recipe out ahead of time before 'going live' and serving it to guests... but... I can't say I've ever done it that way. Sink or swim for me, ya know?

Those are just a few tips. Leave a comment if you have any other tips to share!