Novel Eats

I love homemade crackers, and these are easy to make. Be sure to make the dip, too!

It’s that time again – when hundreds of Daring Bakers bloggers are challenged to create a recipe and hope that the results are somewhat different yet unique at the same time. For vegan and other dietary lifestyles that don’t include the standard ingredients that most of the bakers have no problem using, it’s that much more of a challenge. If only you could read some of the conversations going on behind the scenes during each month. People feverishly trying to figure out good replacements for eggs or flour, or lamenting about their second or third try in the month because the first miserably failed.

But I come to you here on my first try, and I lament that these chocolate eclairs are not really eclairs, but rather miniature cookies (I say this not because I tried to make them cookies, but more or less to comfort myself and live in denial.). In the words of my husband, who after his first bite made a face and exclaimed with irritation, “These aren’t eclairs!” (Yet he managed to eat at least half or two-thirds of them.)

Ever since I saw what this month’s challenge would be with the Daring Bakers, I kept trying to decide if I would do it or not. It wasn’t so much because it was challenging and time consuming. It was more about the fact that I’ve already gained a couple of pounds recently and it was clear this was going to be a calorie-filled pastry. Sure, I can share my creations with other people, but usually my husband and I willingly devour what we make.

As an average baker, it was a little overwhelming to see The Daring Bakers‘ latest challenge. As a vegan, it was absolutely frightening. Two words: Opera Cake. Don’t know what an Opera Cake is? Well, essentially it is a lot of layers of cake and cream and sugar topped off with a glaze. If you’re lucky it will take approximately four hours to construct, and if you’re good it will look perfect when cut.

And why was this frightening for me as a vegan? Well, aside from the necessary endurance factor, it had around 14 eggs in the original recipe (six of those are egg whites, so if you want to get really technical…). It was pretty clear that this cake depends heavily upon our fine feathered friends. But what is a challenge if it is not challenging?!

Lest you think that I have been unusually obsessed with making vegan cheesecake lately, let me reassure you. I have and I haven’t. :)

First off, my husband made that vegan chocolate cheesecake and I am the one who made the raspberry sauce. Secondly, I did make the vegan peanut butter chocolate cheesecake but it was for my husband’s birthday. Finally, I take no blame for making these cute little creamy pops.

I had been seeing banners for The Daring Bakers on other cooking blogs for a while, and finally decided to investigate further. I hadn’t realized it, but being a member of The Daring Bakers means you have to participate in monthly baking challenges. I’m always up for a challenge, so I decided to join.

So there you go. The Daring Bakers are at fault for making me make cheesecake again. I’m not upset about it at all though.