Challenge #3: (Not) Entree!

So, a couple weeks ago, we told you our next challenge for the Divided Kitchen was going to be an Entree course. Well, we lied. One of Megan's friends (a co-worker) is getting married this month, and we thought it would be fun to surprise her with a wedding cake. Since she's a reader of the Divided Kitchen, we couldn't write in here that we'd be doing a cake challenge! Anyway, it worked out as she was very surprised so it was well worth it!

Our challenge began by trying to decide what cake to make. Megan, very thorough in her search for the perfect cake recipe, went to Google and typed "the best chocolate cake recipe".... and went with the very first recipe that came up.  Adam was originally going to make a white cake, but once he heard that Megan was making chocolate, he decided to make a chocolate cake as well. He spent more time researching different recipes for a couple days until he found one that he liked.

So now the actual making of the cake. We began by making the grocery list....and realized that we were going to be buying a ridiculous amount of sugar. For your enjoyment, here's a picture of all the healthy things we purchased that weekend:

I know what you're thinking, but no, we did not make a cake from a box, the cake mix is just one ingredient in one of cakes. So now that we'd loaded up on sugar, we were ready to begin!

We'll begin with Megan's cake. Megan's plan was to make a two-tiered cake (two layers per tier). Megan started off by realizing that she had forgotten to put two ingredients on the grocery list (SUCH a pain!). Luckily for her, Adam was nice enough to go back to the store and pick up the two missing ingredients. After that, making the cake was fairly easy. We did however, realize why people own more than one round cake pan. We were able to use one of our pie pans to make the other layer, since half the layers would be trimmed into smaller rounds for the top tier anyway. Mixing and baking went smoothly. Due to a busy weekend schedule, Megan made the frosting two days later after work. The frosting turned out pretty good, with no real problems. Then, the most challenging part.... how does she get two tiers of cake to work (this includes 1 hr and 20 min car ride plus another 20 minutes on the T and a 5 minute walk to the office). For anyone who hasn't recently picked up a two tier cake, they are much heavier than they look (especially when standing and holding the cake on a crowded subway line and walking to the office in the rain). Megan also had a large container of frosting in her backpack that helped weigh her down on the trip to work as well. Once Megan got the cake to the office, she met up with a co-worker, who had brought cake decorations, to complete the cake. Megan and her co-worker rolled out fondant frosting to cover the cake. The funny part here was that her co-worker forgot her rolling pin at home. You'd think that the grocery store would have rolling pins (or at least Megan and her co-worker thought they did), but it turns out they don't. Luckily, her co-worker is pretty creative, and returned with a can of vegetables that we were able to use to roll out the fondant frosting. This took a bit longer than originally planned, but it worked. Then we stacked the tiers and completed decorating. For the completed cake, check it out below! Megan's co-worker even found a bride for a cake topper that had the same color dress that Megan's friend was going to be wearing!

 Now for Adam's cake.... Adam started his cake two days after Megan began her cake. Adam's recipe was fairly straightforward. One surprise, was that the uncooked batter was thinner than Adam had expected as it was fairly runny. The frosting that Adam made came from a separate cake recipe that must have been for a much larger cake as Adam ended up with a TON of left over frosting. All said and done, Adam ended up using about half the frosting that the recipe made. Because it was a chocolate on chocolate cake, Adam decided to use a pastry bag to add some decorations on the sides of the cake. Instead of making more frosting, he used a small portion of what was leftover from before. Because Megan had brought her cake to work on our one and only round cake storage container, Adam had to use a platter that ended up warping the sides of his cake. Other than that, Adam's mixing and baking went pretty well. See below for the picture of Adam's finished product!

 Now the tough part... who wins?

Difficulty: Megan

Taste: Adam liked his better, Megan liked hers better

Presentation: Let's leave that to the readers! So vote by leaving a comment to let us know who you think should win based on presentation.

In our next post, we'll let you know who wins! 

Next challenge: Entree! and more specifically - Pasta!

Challenge #2: Appetizers!

For our second challenge, Adam chose to compete in the Appetizer course. We both had wanted to learn to make scallops, so it almost became a scallop challenge! Neither of us had made these before, so we weren't quite sure what we were doing.

Adam chose to make scallops three different ways. Adam made Cajun Scallops, Garlic Scallops and Lemon Butter Scallops. Megan chose to make Sirloin Kabobs and Scallops in a White Wine Sauce.

We both encountered a few issues while attempting to make this meal. First, Megan's Kabob recipe required her to learn to core an cube a pineapple (and she's very much appreciative to the people who post video's online for how to do these simple kitchen tasks!!!). Also, this was Megan's first time making Kabob's and grilling. The marinade for the sirloin  turned out to be very good! The pineapple turned out to be pretty easy too, once she watched the video. The main problem started when using the grill....  Megan's first attempt at grilling resulted in the Kabob sticks catching on fire and the ends burning off! Apparently you should be using the top shelf to grill Kabobs. Since the ends of the Kabob sticks had burned off, a couple of the green peppers had to be grilled separately and reattached after she was done grilling. The beef, mushroom, tomato, pineapple and green pepper on the Kabob all turned out great though (just didn't look quite as nice as she had hoped). The next task was too make the Scallops and the White Wine Sauce (Megan's first time uncorking wine!). While mixing the ingredients for the White Wine Sauce, Megan realized she hadn't purchase shallots, which was part of the recipe, so hopefully that wasn't too important :)  Overall, the Scallops and White Wine Sauce turned out pretty good. Here's a picture:

Sirloin Kabob (+ pineapple, cherry tomato, mushroom and green peppers), Rice, and Scallops with White Wine Sauce.

Adam's appetizer was to make Scallops three different ways. The beginning started off fairly simple with a lot of prep work. Once that was done, the real challenge was to cook three different kinds of Scallops at the same time. The garlic scallops were covered in flour, while the lemon butter scallops were breaded, and finally the Cajun scallops were simply covered in the seasoning. This made cooking all three more of a task to do at once because they all required different cooking techniques. In the end, the Cajun scallops turned out the best as neither of us cared much for the breading on the others. During the cooking of the Scallops, the pan for the Lemon Butter Pan was too hot, which didn't burn them, but didn't give them the color Adam was hoping for. Here's a picture of Adam's plate:

Three different types of Scallops (lemon wedge in the middle).

Next we had to vote on who's plate won:

Presentation: Adam

Taste: Megan

Difficulty: Megan, Adam

Winner: Tie

Megan thought hers was harder as it required learning a few different things that she'd never done before, while Adam thought his was more difficult as he had to keep three pans going with three different types of Scallops at the same time.

In the process of these challenges, we think we end up using every kitchen item we have:



Well, that's it for this challenge. Next week, Entree!



Challenge #1: Dessert!

Adam chose to make Eclairs and Megan chose to make Chocolate Dessert Timbales. Neither of us had made these desserts before.

While making them, we had a few "FAIL" incidents. Megan, while using a piping bag for the first time in adding the whipped cream topping to her dessert, managed to get just as much whipped cream on her clothing as she did on the desserts. (Note: We'll need to get aprons.)  For the Eclairs, the mixing part was easy (the part Adam thought would be most difficult), however, when Adam got to the baking (the part Adam thought would be easiest), things didn't go so well. Round 1 of baking the Eclairs resulted in Adam having to adapt them to "Eclair Boats" as the bottoms got stuck to the pan and ripped off. Oops! Round 2 & 3 turned out much better when Adam experimented with using tinfoil under the Eclairs on one half of the pan and using much more grease on the other half. Then, after making the chocolate, Adam had to pipe the chocolate onto the Eclairs - it worked out pretty well until Adam realized he was squeezing just as much chocolate out the top of the bag as he was the tip. Lesson learned from today - Piping bags are not as easy to use as they are on Cake Boss.

Here's a few pictures from our challenge:

Both desserts turned out pretty well! We tasted them and scored them as follows:

Presentation: Megan
Taste: Adam
Difficulty: Adam

Megan's had a more gelatinous texture to it, although it was still really good (the recipe contained unflavored gelatin). Taste wise, this caused us to choose the Eclair. The presentation of Megan's was much more creative. Adam's recipe was a lot more work as he had to make the Eclair filling, the Eclair and the chocolate topping.

Here's a couple of our FAIL pictures:

The first FAIL picture is when Adam squirted just as much frosting out of the top of the bag as he did through the tip. The second FAIL picture are the completed "Eclair Boats" that have been flipped upside down, filled with the filling and the chocolate topping was piped over the filling. Still very good.

First challenge winner: Adam