Daring Bakers: Swiss Roll Ice Cream Cake

The July 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Sunita of Sunita’s world – life and food. Sunita challenged everyone to make an ice-cream filled Swiss roll that’s then used to make a bombe with hot fudge. Her recipe is based on an ice cream cake recipe from Taste of Home.


You can see from Sunita's how-to and recipe (on her blog) that this is a thin chocolate cake first layered with cream filling and then rolled jelly-roll style. The cake is sliced and then used to line a bowl. The "bowl" of cake is then filled with ice cream and fudge. The cake is inverted and voila! An extra fancy ice cream cake.


I decided to forgo the fudge filling and do a Neapolitan theme instead. For the strawberry ice cream I blended some vanilla ice cream with strawberries in the food processor... so easy!

This was a great dessert! I loved the cake and whipped cream layer, I might have to make that by itself next time.

I can't help but thinking my cake kind of looked like a mutant-cake-monkey.



If you'd like the recipe, please visit Sunita's blog. She has a most-excellent pictorial how-to as well.

OK, can't wait to see what next month's Daring Bakers Challenge is. Hopefully it will be as fun and tasty as this one.

TWD: Chewy, Chunky Blondies

Nicole of Cookies on Friday picked Chewy, Chunky Blondies for this week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe.


What's a chewy, chunky blondie, you ask? Imagine a chocolate cookie dough with heaping piles of coconut, chopped pecans, and toffee bits thrown in and baked in bar form. Yeah, um, it was pretty much a given that these would be awesome. I loved them, the folks at the cook-out I took them to loved them.

All in all, these blondies were a grand-slam home run, I'd say.

The only issue I ran into with these lovelies is that they seemed underbaked, even with 15-20 minutes extra time in the oven. But that wasn't a problem, they were still fantastic.

Thanks Nicole for a great pick! You can stop by Nicole's blog if you'd like to see the recipe. Or, of course, getting ahold of a copy of Dorie Greenspan's book "Baking, From my Home to Yours" is an option too.

OK, see you a little later on today with my Daring Baker's post. (So much baking, so little time.)

TWD: Lot’s of Ways of Banana Cake

Kimberly of Only Creative Opportunities decided on Lots of Ways of Banana Cake for this week's Tuesday's with Dorie recipe.

Thanks, Kimberly! I just happened to need to bake a cake this week because it just happened to be my birthday (which happens to be Bastille Day, the French national holiday, by the way). Maybe only we bakers understand that it's perfectly OK to make your own birthday cake. Maybe even preferred.


I just happen to love banana cake layered with chocolatey icing and smothered in cream cheese icing. It's da bomb!


Plus I just happen to love sprinkles.


And swirls of icing.

Sigh. Such a perfect birthday cake.

This was an delicious, moist cake. Even though I forgot the coconut and was too lazy to open a can of coconut milk. I'm sure those would have been welcome additions.

If you'd like to see the recipe, please visit Kimberly's blog or find yourself a copy of Dorie Greenspan's book, "Baking, From my Home to Yours".

TWD: Brrrr-ownies

Hey folks! More chocolate on the menu this week... Karen of Welcome to Our Crazy Blessed Life chose Brrrr-ownies for this week's Tuesday's with Dorie recipe.

Brrrr-ownies are a moist, fudgey, peppermint patty filled brownie, named after Dorie's son's affinity for frozen peppermint patties.

I know, I know, you can't see any peppermint patties, can you? Well, they're there, I promise! You can't see them, but you can sure taste them. Mmmm, nice minty chocolate... these would be perfect at Christmas time.


The only downside? They majorly stuck to the buttered foil. I had to patiently scrape each and every brownie off the foil using my trusty plastic knife. I'm not sure if there's a fix for the sticking or not. If so, this recipe is definitely a keeper.

OK, signing off for now! If you'd like to find the recipe, please check out Karen's blog or find a copy of Dorie Greenspan's book, "Baking, From my Home to Yours".

TWD: Tart Noire

For this week's Tuesday's with Dorie recipe, Dharmagirl of bliss: towards a delicious life chose Tarte Noire. Which is to say, a tart filled with silky chocolate ganache.


It doesn't get much easier than pouring ganache into a prebaked tart shell. Ganache, just three ingredients... chocolate, cream, and butter.

It's too darn bad I'm not a big fan of ganache, LOL. I don't know what it is... maybe because it leans a little too far into the dark chocolate realm for my tastes. (Milk chocolate wimp here, waving hand, fessing up.)


Oh well, my son didn't mind eating most of the four-inch tart I made. (1/8 of the ganache recipe makes the perfect amount.)

And it gets points for being so smooth and fantastic looking.

If you'd like to try one yourself, please stop by dharmagirl's blog, or check out Dorie Greenspan's book, "Baking, From my Home to Yours".