The January 2011 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Astheroshe from the Blog, accro. She chose to challenge everyone to make a Biscuit Joconde Imprime to wrap around an Entremets dessert.
Where does the name Joconde come from? The painting Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci is the portrait of the wife of an Italian merchant named Francesco di Bartolomeo del Giocondo. The Mona Lisa is also known as La Gioconda, or La Jaconde in French. The name of this cake, joconde, was given to indicate how highly regarded the cake was among pastry chefs.
Yeah, it has not been my day, nor yesterday, nor the past two weeks. I caught a cold and now I have laryngitis – like days 7 of it – and I came very close to bailing out this month. But I decided I was going to do it still on the 26th in time. Well wouldn’t you know it for what I assume is a construction worker’s error the whole building was out of electricity for 24 hours. Yes from 9 am yesterday till about 8 am this morning. Obviously I did not bake. I did it this morning.
I did not follow the DB recipe given here but instead used a Hungarian Sponge Cake recipe, it just seemed easier. SEEMED is the key word, it was a total FAIL. The cake was completely stuck to the silicone mat and the design that I did manage to peak at was awful. I had written Cheap Ethnic Eatz. I don’t know why the recipe did not work at all, maybe because I was hacking cough left right and center? Anyways I am posting my challenge still because it took every once of effort to make it so I will at least post it. No chef is perfect all the time lol. Also the blueberry mousse looked so good I wanted some lol. Now I am happy with the look of my final entremet…but it is a fail as far as the challenge goes.
Blueberry Mousse
Ingredients:
- 1 cup frozen blueberries
- 1 cup hot water
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1 gelatin envelope
- 1 cup whip cream
Preparation:
Add frozen blueberries to hot water and let stand 15 min. Drain blueberries and reserve juice. Soften gelatin in 1/2 cup of reserved juice; then dissolve it over heated remaining reserved juice. Add blueberry, sugar and lemon juice; stir until completely dissolved. Put in the fridge and let it set a bit. Whip the cream until it peaks. Fold into blueberry mixture. Pour into chilled mold or joconde and refrigerate for 1 hour.
See my very sad joconde….
Sorry, but I am not sure this one is your fault. After seeing everyone’s attempts, it still unnerves me. What about mixing it into some vanilla ice cream?
Ev..I could never boil an egg when I’m sick, much less turn out an uber 5 star dessert (and no electricty??? GEESH!)! you are the bomb, and your entremet is not. I would eat it up in a nano second (yum..blueberry mousse) and truth be told, I think it looks beautiful, the edibility factor huge! None of my jocondes worked out for me..I just got lucky that enough of the last attempt left me with enough joconde to line my mold, after tearing!
Believe it or not I was salivating reading your description of that blueberry mousse! I personally don’t care if the cake has a design or not, as long as it is light and airy, as your cake is. Hope you feel better soon. I had the same thing and drank oodles of sage tea (merameih-at the mid-eastern store they sell dried sage for tea by the bags) with honey and lemon juice!
Oh no, at least your filling turned out though!
Oh no! At least you took the time to bake it. Great effort! I know you can redeem yourself. That is what I did with the Yule log (still remember my 2009 Yule log?).
Get better soon!
Oh, I am SO sorry you went through all that work to have your cake stick! I’ve had many flops without even being sick so I truly feel your pain :(. But you’ve earned my respect and admiration for sharing your results with a less than perfect outcome…I bet it was still yummy!
I feel your pain since the same thing happened to me. I did use the joconde recipe and have no idea why it stuck. Regardless, I applaud you for sticking it through….glad it still tasted great.
A great effort though. 🙂 Biscuit Joconde Imprime was a heck of a baking challenge.
Oh no! But this challenge was especially difficult, I thought, so it’s pretty awesome that you went through with it while you were sick. And that mousse looks delicious!
At least you tried! The blueberry mouse sounds like it came out yummy, so at least it wasn’t a total loss!
Aw, thank you all for your great words and encouragement…and good health wishes.
And yes it tastes DAMN good hehe.
And I can speak a few words this morning! woohoo
I wish I had your guts to cook while I am sick! Sorry it didn’t turn out to be good but you are always a winner! 🙂 I don’t think the dessert looks bad.. I really think it looks prety good considering the recipe wasn’t very helpful.
Have a great weekend!
Placed in your unfortunate position…you are a star in my book.
You’ve shown incredible character and your vulnerability is endearing.
I think under the circumstances of the forces against you…the great effort you’ve made is to be applauded ;o)))
Here’s sending you great energies to get better real soon.
Ciao for now,
Claudia
P.S. I guess, I’d better wait to call you next week when your voice comes back to normal ;o)
I agree with the others. BRAVO for even attempting this when you’ve been feeling so poorly. I bet it tastes just as good though! Rest up, stay warm and have a relaxing weekend.
Despite the problems with the joconde, the dessert still looks pretty good and the blueberry mousse looks fantastic! I wouldn’t have been so brave to do this while still ill. Congratulations on all your extra effort!
Hope you’re feeling better!
Thanks for visiting mine, I really appreciate your lovely comment!
I’m sorry that it didn’t turn out 🙁 At least you went through with the challenge, though! Today I messed up on a sorbet that I make almost every week … some days we should just stay out of the kitchen…. like when we’re feeling a bit under the weather. Take care of yourself and get well soon!
Sorry that you have had a cold and now laryngitis. I totally give you full marks for even attempting this in your state.
I am sorry to hear that you are feeling so poorly! Kudos for trying to complete the challenge anyway. I had trouble with the spongecake and I wasn’t even sick. Nice job on the challenge!
Poor you! I feel bad for complaining now.
So sorry to hear that you’re still getting over your illness–I had one like that too, and it was no fun at all. At least I had electricity though!
I can’t believe how your cake burned, but that mousse does sound really good.
Get well!
The final product no-withstanding, your efforts earn you major points! As do your support and enthusiasm! I love the sound of the blueberry mousse, and Iknow that the cake wasn’t what you had hoped for, but it still looks like it was a yummy dessert. I hope you are feeling better, and Ican’t wait to see what you come up with next!
A+ for effort – I’m sure under those circumstances and the degree of work involved in this challenge I would have bailed…. I love blueberry anything!
I agree with others here. Kudos to you for going through with this challenge when you were so sick. If i was in your condition, i think i would have just given up and curled into a corner and slept…lol. Hope you are feeling better 🙂
You rock for doing this when you are so sick. I think it looks very homely, like the Charlie Brown Christmas tree. xox
You totally win points for completing this challenge after colds, laryngitis and power outages – bonus points for each of those, as even one would probably have stopped most bakers from even attempting this one. That blueberry mousse looks fantastic, too! 🙂 Hopefully February will be a better month for you. Feel better soon!!