ONODAWARE: KIMO Bake-Off 2010

Sunday, June 27, 2010

KIMO Bake-Off 2010

Kirk and I have been talking (trash talking) about who is the best baker in the house. Today is the day we found out....it's me!!!! Honestly it was very close, in fact only 22 point difference! And we each won 2/4 categories. So here is a run down of the Bake-Off.
We invited a bunch of our close friends and had about 23 guests and 7 kiddos. Kirk and I slaved away in our respective kitchens on 4 desserts each. The categories were: 1. I love Chocolate, 2. Cakes, Tarts, Pies, Oh My!, 3. Ooey, Gooey, Cookies, Brownies, and Bars, and 4. The Miscellaneous Club. We had official scorecards and all of our guests helped to judge on presentation, creativity, and taste. People were so serious at first....I guess they take their responsibility as a judge very seriously. Each person judged one good sample and then got to try a smaller sample of each desserts. After my friend Loc so graciously calculated the results....the winner was announced. Thank you also to all of you who brought presents for us...you didn't have to! Thanks to Joni and Kishiyama Family 4.0 for taking photos and treating us to dinner after the event.

I love this mug!

We really had a fun time throughout this entire competition

Kirk preparing his dishes

Kirk going in for a sweet tasting!

For the chocolate category I made a Pot de Creme. I used Valrhona chocolate (60% dark chocolate) and cream and baked it in a water bath. I served it with a edible shortbread spoon and fresh cream. Kirk made a Chocolate Terrine. He used Valrhona Manjari chocolate and served it with homemade Earl Gray ice cream.

Michelle's Chocolate Pot de Creme

Kirk's Chocolate Terrine

For the second category, I made a Tuxedo Cheesecake with layers of chocolate cake, chocolate cheesecake, and marscarpone mousse topped with a chocolate dipped strawberry. Kirk made a Passion fruit Mousse cake. It had layers of souffle cheesecake, passion fruit curd, and honey mousse. He served it with a homemade brown butter ice cream. That was my favorite dessert of the day...it took a lot of us back to Hawaii.

Kirk's Passion Fruit Mousse Cake

Michelle's Tuxedo Cheesecake

For the third category, I made a Smores bar served with a shot of hot chocolate. I had an excuse to purchase a torch which I used to scorch the marshmallow whip on top of the bar. Kirk made a Blackberry Financier....it was funny, but I think this cookie lost the competition for him. Good try babe....but you should have made the french macaroons.

Kirk's Blackberry Financier Coffee Cookie

Michelle's Smores Bar

For the last category I made a Japanese Red Bean Burrito. I made fresh crepes, homemade azuki beans, and homemade mochi and wrapped that together. I topped it off with fresh cream and homemade green tea ice cream. It was supposed to look like a burrito with the cream as the sour cream and green tea ice cream as the guacamole. Kirk made a fantastic Champagne Zabaglione. He made a delicious oatmeal cookie crisp and place the Zabaglione on top.

Michelle's Japanese Red Bean Burrito

Kirk's Champagne Zabaglione

We were so honored to be able to share our love of cooking and baking with all of our dear friends. It was a lot of work...but worth it to have everyone try our recipes. I don't know if there will be a next time...but I'm sure Kirk wants a repeat to redeem himself!