The Daring Baker's go Fruity!

Hehehe Like we weren't a silly enough bunch already!

In this months continuing saga of the Daring Baker's, we turned to Peabody as our hostess for the month. It was her turn to choose what we would make this month. And then would get to sit back and see if we failed or succeeded, cursed or cheered her.

Her choice, a Strawberry Mirror Cake. A combination of thin sponge cake, bavarian cream, and a gelatin top, all flavored with strawberries. With strawberries in peak season right now, this was a great time to have this recipe as our challenge.

Peabody deserves an extra small accolade - she managed to get me to enter a liquor store! And buy something!

While Peabody allowed for people to omit the liquor from the recipe, I wanted to try the recipe as close as I could. Including a liquor in it.

Of course I didn't notice that only one portion of the recipe said kirsch or strawberry liquor, while the other item said kirsch. Oh well, I used the strawberry liquor in all portions of the recipe. My liquor came with little tiny wild strawberries floating in the bottle. What fun!

I didn't exactly have major problems with this cake, but a few minor things along the way.

The recipe called for the cake to be baked in a jelly roll pan and then cut out. I don't own a pan that would have worked for the cake, so tried making them in my cake pans. Knowing I should be getting two cakes, I divided the batter into two pans and baked.

I didn't trust myself when I saw how high the cakes came out. My instinct was to cut one in half, or at least reduce the height on both cakes. I didn't do it though, and instead went with the cakes as is. That left me with cakes that were very high, so high in fact that when I added the cream later, my cakes were so high that I could not cover them with enough of the cream to have a flat top. I had cream left over, so after a good nights chill in the fridge, I used the left over cream to try and create a border around the cake. I needed something to hold in my mirror!

As you can see from the pictures, I only partially succeeded with blocking in the gel. I might have had more luck with it if I had let my gel set longer. I had been afraid the gel would set before I could put it on, so slowly spooned some in, let it spread, spooned more, let it spread, rinse repeat..... When I was happy with what I had for a mirror, I left the rest of the gel out on the counter. Three hours later it still hadn't totally set. So I guess I would have had time to let it set more before I put it on the cake, which might have stopped it from flowing into the border.

Hindsight is always 20/20, isn't it?

I made my cake much later in the month than I would have liked. I was on vacation and while I had access to a kitchen while I was gone, there were too many limitations to allow me to make this cake away from home. Otherwise I would have tried again. Instead I felt like I was rushed doing the cake, rushed presenting it, rushed taking photos of it.

Which is why I didn't notice my butter tray in the picture behind the slice I was taking a picture of. I had a friend over for some cake, and 4 children waiting for pieces, so let myself again be rushed into taking an awful picture.

Excuses, excuses! If I didn't have some things to work hard on, it wouldn't be a challenge, would it?

The strawberry flavor in this cake was good. I enjoyed that. The cream portion was a little too solid to feel like a cream or a mouse for me, but had good flavor, despite the odd texture. The cake was good, just larger than it should have been (and the only part of the cake that all 4 children liked - they inhaled the cake and left everything else on the plate. I should have taken a picture of the the cream, still held in shape, as well as the mirror on top, but all the cake eaten out of the slice!) The mirror, again, it tasted good, but had an odd texture.

This is my 7th Daring Baker's challenge. While I haven't necessarily liked the taste of all the recipes, I haven't regretted making any of them. I have learned from each of them, and I think I've gained major baking confidence from being part of a group of wonderful bakers and cooks!

Thanks so much for pushing me into something I might not have tried again Peabody! I'm sorry I did not do your recipe justice! (And if you want the recipe, I'm pretty sure that Peabody will be listing it on her site!)

Due to the size of our growing group of Baker's, it has been getting harder and harder each month to keep up with the list of Baker's who complete the challenge. A task that becomes more difficult with each challenge. So if you'd like to see what bloggers joined in and conquered this month's challenge, click through here, to the Daring Baker's Blogroll, and get comfy! You are in for a long, sweet read! Mirror cakes ahead!