Daring Baker's: the Challenge in an eggshell..

14! Count. Count again. Write down. That many eggs? I'm afraid so, and that is even before I saw the amount of cream needed for this challenge. For your information..... 3.3/4 cups!... read again..... that is 3.3/4 cups which is equal to .... No, we don't want to know that do we?
I am beginning to get a faint notion that the challenge for me lies within keeping my weight in check, next to baking all these delights.
All these eggs were needed to bake our October challenge, a dessert called Bostini Cream Pie. This month hosted by sweet Mary at Alpineberry, just click for the recipe and also to see how we've grown! I am not sure Mary but is that my personal weight chart, or the success of this fabulous Daring Baker's group you're showing?

This dessert derives from the Boston Cream Pie which in it's original shape is not really a pie but a cake, filled with pastry cream and covered with a chocolate ganache. The recipe we had to follow dates back to 1996 when it was created by Donna Scala and Kurtis Baguley at Bistro Don Giovanni, they converted the cake into a dessert. The cake here is changed into an orange chiffon cake, set on top of a very rich pastry cream (not really a custard since it won't firm up like custard does) and then the fun isn't over yet, this all is coated with a chocolate glaze.

Again, we dug into the challenge together, a date was set and into our respective kitchens we went, Tanna, Ilva and me. They both got off to a roaring start, having their custard cooked before I even had a chance to assemble my ingredients... only to discover that I had only half the amount of cream needed. So...I cheated, didn't feel like going out to the store and substituted with milk. Used a whole vanilla pod because I like custard to be real vanilla and I just love the little tell tale dark spots. Even with all these eggs, the vanilla and the cream, I thought this particular recipe tasted quite bland, hoped for a more pronounced flavour once cooled.

The recipe called for straining the custard but I didn't see any reason to. It was a soft and silky pale yellow and it thickened unexpectedly fast in the pan so that gave me high hopes for a firm custard. Not. That was all what I was going to get, it stayed as it was in the pot, flowing.

Cake was next, on paper I already liked the addition of fresh orange juice and zest in the recipe, I even thought of replacing the required vanilla extract by orange extract but was afraid it was going to be too much of a good thing. Since we were allowed to play around with size and plating, I decided to make mini-mini cakes, a layer and some small cupcakes. This batter really was enough to play around with. And boy, did I play!

Chocolate glaze was the final stage, very simple straightforward, a 1:1 ratio of chocolate and butter. I only made a very small part of the glaze, just enough to drizzle some on because I felt this was rich enough on it's own.

Now, the hard part... my test team consists of one chocolate monster, a cake lover, a custard addict and a give-me-dessert-anytimer and a if-it's-food-I'll-eat-it and not one of them was satisfied. I liked the custard when it was still hot (happy to spoon out the pan) but thought it was bland even with the vanilla bean and all the eggs, structure was beautiful though. Cake was said to be airy, light and rubbery at the same time and my chocolate monster wasn't enchanted enough to ask for extra drizzles.

I think the fact that the major part of this dessert stood on the counter for a day untouched pretty much sums it up. Challenge completed, happy with the experience but no repeats.

Check out my fellow Daring Baker's on the Blogroll to see their creations, this dessert sure lends itself to some magic and creative platings! Can't wait and you? Go on, click!