Thank God we were allowed to wimp out and use butter if we couldn't find suet and/or couldn't stomach it. I think I would have been okay with it, had I decided on making a savory pudding, but I've had this horrible gnawing chocolate craving lately that I just couldn't deny a minute longer. So I went with the Very Chocolate Pudding that lots of other members were going crazy over, and it used butter instead of suet.


I'm torn. I absolutely LOVED learning how to steam cake.. something I'd never even thought of doing before. I would love to do this again since the only dishes I dirtied were the Kitchenaid bowl, a spatula and 4 ramekins. I didn't even bother with measuring cups since the recipe was in grams, I just measured everything on a styrofoam plate on top of my scale, then and dumped it all in. Other than for my photos, I'm not even going to have to dirty a plate, as we'll just dig right into the ramekins. Nice.


So why am I torn? The flavor was great.. but I over steamed. I figured for the large single pudding directions in the recipe, quartered into the ramekins, that my steam time would drop by 45 minutes. Well.. they were probably done in 30 minutes. They weren't completely dry, but they were definitely on the side of a "cakey brownie" which I don't like. I like fudgey brownies and airy cake.. so the texture didn't thrill me. But that's my fault, I should have checked them in 30 minutes apartments for rent in hk.


Since I don't make cake often (Lord knows I'd like to) I'm not sure the next one will be steamed or traditionally baked.. although I've seen some flavor combos and photos in the private DB forums that have absolutely made my heart flutter in envy (check out the photos in the slider!).

Regardless though, I truly am thankful for a great lesson in steaming something other than broccoli. :D Thanks so much, Esther!!! xoxo

I don't know why I feel the need to even announce this as most of the readers of this blog have figured it out by now, but food blogging is no longer a passion of mine. I still love LOVE LOVE to cook and occasionally bake.. but to go through the motions of taking horribly lit and out of focus photos, and then trying to come up with a witty post, when frankly, most times in ,my kitchen don't merit a giggle.

A lot of my time is taken working on The Daring Kitchen website and working with all the wonderful people who have helped to make it the success that it is. And kids? It's fakkin exhausting to work that hard on one project and find the inspiration to work on another project that just doesn't trip your trigger any more, yanno? So I've decided to kinda cut some stress and concentrate on the DK and finally stop stressing over not updating this blog much anymore.

You'll find an occasional post regarding a DB or DC challenge here (I've already completed my May DC challenge so it'll be up in a couple weeks), but truthfully, I'm not even really participating all that much anymore. I've decided to focus on the "behind the scenes" duties of the website, hoping to keep present and future members happy and interested in learning how to cook and bake better.

One day the passion to create new recipes to share with ya'll might come back.. who knows.. but for now.. my mojo has pretty much dried up. ;) I am happy to say that I've not lost the passion to make a total ass of myself on the internet and have started a new non-foodie blog where I can just update whenever I want and talk about whatever I want.. once I'm comfortable with the direction it's going, I'll post a link and maybe ya'll can check it out for a giggle or two .

Woah … it has been a loooooong time since I’ve posted. Looooong time.

I’m amazed my blog hasn’t left me for lack of attention. I hope you’re all still hanging around out there as well hong thai travel !

As often happens when you’ve been blogging as long as I have, life brings along it’s busy times and it certainly feels like the last few months have been a whirlwind. Not that I’ve forgotten this special blog world of ours!

Maybe it’s that spring is finally here (it is finally here, isn’t it?) or that I feel like there might be a point, very soon in the near future, where I can finally banish my coat, boots and socks (how I hate socks) to the corner of the cupboard, but I finally feel the urge to sit down and start blogging again!

One of the benefits of being gone so long is that I have a veritable back log of posts and recipes and photos to blog about but firs things first … World Nutella Day 2015 hong thai travel.

Ummm … yeah … you know that event that happened almost two months ago (February 5th), well I actually did participate but just haven’t gone around to posting so here goes! By now I’m sure you’ll all aware of the brilliant idea that Sara from Ms. Adventures in Italy and Michelle of Bleeding Espresso had in 2007 when they decided to entrench their love of Nutella by setting aside one day a year to mark the delicious spread.

With the exception of 2008, I have had the pleasure of participating every year and it has been a joy! This year I decided to throw caution to the wind and embrace as many calories as humanly possible in one item that could easily be picked up by hand and consumed in a few bites.

Hence, the Nutella-smothered glazed doughnut.

Yeah. It was good.

The recipe for the glazed doughnut can be found here. And then people, all you basically need to do is grab yourself a spoon (because Nutella must ALWAYS be administered with a spoon) and spread some on top. And there you go.

Happy World Nutella Day! See you next year hong thai travel (hopefully on time)!

[Thanks to everyone that entered. Contest is now closed. Winner will be announced soon!]

It could be my failing memory or the fact that I’ve been blogging for so long but I do believe that this is my first proper giveaway on Cream Puffs in Venice!

The kind people at Misura Canada contacted me not too long ago to see if I would be interested in offering a product giveaway. We use Misura products in our home (Mammina, especially, enjoys them) and my immediate answer was a resounding yes!

I came home one day after work to find a beautiful package waiting for me by the door filled with Misura treats (pictured above).

For those of you that don’t know, Misura is a company that produces a wide array of products from cookies to pastas with a focus on products that are low in sugar.

Now I am not one to shy away from sugar or fat, in any way, but as I mentioned above, we do enjoy a number of Misura products here at home. In particular we like their cookies as they’re not too sweet and perfect for dipping in your milk and coffee in the morning!

I am also not going to lie. I ate all the cornetti alla crema they sent (crossants with cream filling). Maybe I ate them in one sitting. Maybe I didn’t. You’ll never know.

Anyway – the important point – the giveaway!

Misura Canada is giving away a package of assorted goodies valued at $100. To enter, leave a comment here on my blog and make sure that you like the Misura Canada facebook page.

You can’t win if you don’t enter! I’ll be running the giveaway until midnight on Saturday April 26th. To enter, leave a comment on my blog and remember, you have to like Misura Canada’s Facebook page to be eligible to win.

Good luck! Buona Fortuna!