Daring Bakers: Chocolate Pavlova with Chocolate Mascapone Mousse

The June 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Dawn of Doable and Delicious. Dawn challenged the Daring Bakers to make Chocolate Pavlovas and Chocolate Mascarpone Mousse. The challenge recipe is based on a recipe from the book Chocolate Epiphany by Francois Payard. 

I have been a bad Daring Baker. There were a few challenges that just didn't appeal - and they tend to be a lot of effort, so you don't want to end up with something you feel lukewarm about. But who can resist chocolate pavlova with chocolate mascarpone mousse? And there's a mascarpone cream thrown in for good measure. Not to mention the strawberries and raspberries that I added for extra yumminess. 

But, to be honest, I'm not sure I would make this again. Each individual bit was fairly easy, but by the time you've made a chocolate meringue ...

... a creme anglaise ...

...which is then incorporated into a mascarpone cream, and a chocolate mascarpone mousse...

.. (not to mention the trauma of splitting the first lot of chocolate into a lumpy oily mess - what a waste of 70% Lindt chocolate!) you're expecting something pretty amazing. And it was only pretty good. Each individual part was yummy, and I liked the contrast of the meringue and the mousse. But I think I would have been just as happy just with the mousse. But then I do love a chocolate mousse.

Oh and I ended up with far too much mascarpone cream - a whole measuring jug full of the stuff and you really don't need that much for drizzling. But it seems to be slowly disappearing from the fridge, so I think it was a hit with Mr 'Splorer - that may be to do with the fact that it tasted quite a lot like vanilla ice cream!

If you want to try the recipe for yourself, you should find it here.

Wednesday round-up of deliciousness

Evening. It has been another very busy couple of weeks in blogsville, so without further ado, please find below my most dribbled over posts: 

Cakes 

Super moist chocolate cake and to-die-for Nutella frosting - surely the name of this recipe speaks for itself? Doesn't it sound amazing? 
Crapabble Bakery's vanilla cupcakes - these cupcakes look like little ice creams! So so cute. 
Welsh cakes - another addition to the list of "oh, I haven't had those for far far too long and I really don't know why". 
Layer cake - a three layer whipped brown butter and vanilla birthday cake. It looks totally spectacular, and this is only the cake section. Frosting to follow! 
Almond-raspberry cake - a beautiful, moist cake with some lovely raspberries in the middle. 
Caramel apple loaf cake - a very naughty looking loaf cake!   

Other sweet things 
Strawberries with elderflower and pistachio yoghurt - a really fresh summery idea for dessert.
Apricot almond tart - one of my most favourite puddings and this version looks so pretty. 
Apricot crostatas - cute little freeform parcels of delicious fruit. 
Pecan tart - a wonderfully sticky sweet looking dessert that I really must get around to trying. 
Buckwheat cinnamon pancakes with cherries - lovely risen pancakes, though I wish I could get my cherries from the end of the garden! 
Gratitude cookies - aka Nigella's chocolate mint cookies. Chocolatey cookies with chocolate chips in and a pepperminty, chocolatey icing. 
Cinnamon bread - a squishy squashy sweet looking loaf. Yum! 
Mango sorbet - made with dark rum and lime. Doesn't that sound like an amazing combination? 

Assorted savoury goodies 
Pizza Napoletana - a scrumptious home-made pizza, topped with home-made tomato sauce with chorizo, ham, cheddar and mozzarella. 
Stir-fried okra with Chinese sausage - a couple of ingredients I don't cook with too much, but which look like a really tasty combination.
Peas with prosciutto - a wonderful looking dish in which you cook the peas for 10 minutes, and apparently magic happens. 
Ottolenghi's black pepper tofu - just read Helen's description of this intense, hot dish and you will want to make it immediately.
Chicken piccata with buttermilk mashed potatoes - this looks so scrumptious and crunchy, and I do think there might be evenings when bashing a bit of chicken might be most therapeutic.
Smoked fish tart - or maybe it's a quiche. Whatever it is, it looks scrumptious. (There's also an asparagus and spring onion one, if that's what you fancy.)
Sri Lankan coconut fish curry - a gorgeous combination of fish, coconut milk, tomato, curry leaves and chillis. 
Rockamole - a Nigella recipe for guacamole with blue cheese. What a stupendous idea! 
Murgh Makhani - aka butter chicken, which is one of my favourites and this photo looks incredibly edible. 
Vegetarian shepherd's pie - one of the most popular recipes on one of my favourite blogs, so I've got to go give it a try.
Spaghetti with broccoli, anchovy and walnuts - a simple summer supper that sounds delicious. 

Pad Thai - a simple, tasty looking version which contains pickled radish. Intriguing.
Parsley soup - I love parsley and love the idea of a dish where it is the star flavour. 

Two drinks
Rhubarb and orange cordial and rhubarb vodka - these look like the two drinks that I need to take me through the summer! 


And finally, Gemma of Dressing for dinner recommended this Quinoa salad, from the Plenty cookbook. I made it and was blown away. It's so unbelievably good. In fact, I offered Mr Splorer ice cream for pudding (and this is an ice cream fanatic we're talking about) and he said he'd rather have more salad. More salad. Instead of ice cream. Unprecedented. Plus it makes a really good lunch to take to work. 

Munching my way around New York

I didn't really want to go to New York, spoilt little madam that I am. It was a work trip that had meant I'd had to rush around a lot in the week running up to it, so I was a bit frazzled. And I hadn't had a weekend at home, just hanging out with Mr Splorer, for ages. Plus, I wasn't sure about hanging around a big, scary, strange city by myself. I really think that if I could have swapped the ticket with someone else, I'd have done it. 
But my God am I glad I went. I just LOVED it. And it was actually a great city to hang out in by myself - plenty of people watching and street food eating, not to mention tootling around the gorgeous Central Park.

I only had a couple of days of holiday, but I did my best to eat as much as I could! Unfortunately the 30C heat kind of took away my appetite, so there's still a long, long list of things I want to try. Luckily, what with Mr Splorer being Costa Rican, New York is a handy stop-off point for trips home. I'm thinking winter, so I can stuff myself stupid in the name of warming myself up!
Anyway, I didn't do too badly. Here's a little summary:

First up, Lansky's Old World Deli was just around the corner from where I was staying (in the Upper West Side) and served me up this Lansky's Special - a triple decker sandwich with pastrami, corned beef and coleslaw, with extra coleslaw and pickles on the side. I am very rarely, if ever, defeated by a sandwich, but I only ate half of this. And then had no dinner. Also, I have no idea how you're supposed to go about eating it. I guess one of the advantages of travelling by yourself is that no one can see you spill coleslaw and corned beef all over the tablecloth! 

My parents had hit town a couple of weeks before and recommended the Taco Grill, again right around the corner from the flat I was staying at. I had an extremely tasty chicken burrito served to me by a Chinese couple. And in fact the restaurant opposite offered a Chinese-Latin menu. I was a bit disappointed when on closer inspection it had two parts to the menu, rather than combining the two in one. It could have made for some interesting dishes.

The Upper West Side is really a great place to stay, as also just around the corner was this fantastic shop, Zabars. It was a culinary wonderland - downstairs was full of cheese and bread and all kinds of good things. I picked up some rugelach for the office, which went down very well. Upstairs had loads of cooking equipment - my Mum was unbelievably chuffed with the lemon squeezer she got there. 

This is a mere fraction of the cheese available in Zabars. No longer can I moan about the American continent's lack of interest in decent cheese - turns out it's just not true. (Though Costa Rica still has a long way to go in that department...)

I went on one of those hop-on hop-off bus tours, which gave me great views of the city streets ...

... and one of the tour guides (possibly the grumpy old lady who told a couple off for talking while she was talking!) mentioned the farmer's market at Union Square, which had a fantastic selection of things to eat - including some all-American apple pies.

And I came across a nice guy called Felix drawing a really long line of faces on the ground.

We also went past this sign, which I took a picture of because I thought it sounded like a good idea. Then, catching up on the Food Programme on iPlayer, they mentioned it as a really great place to eat. So I'll add that to the list of places to go next time! 

Next up was the Shake Shack in Madison Square Park, recommended to me by the lovely Hilary. It's obviously a popular spot, as there was a massive queue, even at 4.30pm. In fact, the queue is obviously a permanent fixture, as you can have a look at a webcam on their website to see how long it is before you go.

So, was the queue worth it? Well, the beer was pretty standard and the chips were OK, but the burger was fantastic! It's the first time I've had a sweet bun with my burger and it worked so well. The meat tasted so meaty and savoury - just delicious. I'd queue up there again! 

Finally, on Sunday I went to an area called Flushing in Queens (end of subway line 7) for some Chinese food. I based my sampling on a map from the New York Times that I found via this post from The Wednesday Chef. It was a great place to get street food, but the problem with being by myself is that I had to eat all of these 12 won ton with spicy sauce by myself ...

... which was extremely pleasurable, but rather filled me up! I picked up some pork buns and spring onion pancakes and ate them a bit later in Central Park. Yum.

I also took a few bagels from H&H back home, so that Mr Splorer could get a taste of bagels. We had our poppy seed bagels with salmon, brie and cucumber. Blooming lovely.

Just so that you know that it wasn't all good, I ate a disappointing red velvet cupcake from the Magnolia Bakery (all icing and no taste) and a tiny $10 sandwich at JFK airport. No photos of those, I'm afraid. But apart from these blips I had such a great time eating my way around New York and am already planning my to-eat list for next time!