ABC: Nut-Crusted Chocolate-Banana Swirl Cake

I have not posted anything with my baking group from ABC in so long; I’m surprised to see I’m still part of it!

Thank you Hanaa for keeping me in the fold and not kicking me out to the curve.

For 2012, the ABC bakers decided to bake from Abigail Johnson Dodge, The Weekend Baker and she was kind enough to pick our inaugural recipe.

She describes this as an “elegant brunch coffee cake” and after making it today, I could not agree more.

I planned to do this cake back in late December in order to have it ready to post in our early January schedule.

Then, life; sort of happened and this fell through the cracks.

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GCC: Butternut Rice Laksa Soup

This weeks Gutsy Cook selection was hard for me.  Especially since I was the one that picked all four choices.  And my pickings were based in how interesting they all sounded and the unusual way they were in using this month ingredient – Rice.

We had Horchata, which you all know I had in my kitchen bucket list for a while now.  Then a Persian recipe called Adas Polo, which appeal to my love of lentils. We had an Indian twist with the Rice Flour pancakes know as Kalappam which is the usual side dish to non-vegetarian curries.  And finally we had a twist to an Indonesian dish from the Peranakan culture – a Pumpkin Rice Laksa Soup.

I wanted to make all four of them.  But faith stepped in and gave us beautiful chilly weather this past weekend here in Florida.  Our temperatures dipped into the 50’s, which called for lots snuggling, lazy TV watching which just comfort food.  So the soup won this hands down.

Let’s start with a little classroom knowledge.

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HCB: White Gold Passion Génoise

About a week ago, I sent my main chica, Jenn an e-mail letting her know that my participation in HCB was going to be very limited or even non-existent moving forward. Due to tremendous load of work at my job, everything in my life has sort of taken a backseat including my baking. I just did not have time to commit to the weekly baking schedule.

Then of course I read her Last Cake, Next Cake post and saw that the next cake was the White Gold Passion Génoise.

She had me at: Passion Fruit.

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