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