August DB Challenge, Candylicious
This month's Daring Baker challenge is all about candy. And that's not all, my friend Lisa and I were the hosts!
The August 2011 Daring Bakers’ Challenge was hosted by Lisa of Parsley, Sage, Desserts and Line Drive and Mandy of What the Fruitcake?!. These two sugar mavens challenged us to make sinfully delicious candies! This was a special challenge for the Daring Bakers because the good folks at http://www.chocoley.com offered an amazing prize for the winner of the most creative and delicious candy!
Every now and then Lisa phones me and we have a good ol' chat about everything and anything. They don't happen as often as I'd like for a couple reasons. One, we're on different timelines so sometimes it's a bit tricky getting the timing right where we're both free to chat. The second reason is that these calls last for hours. I'm not kidding. And Lisa is the darling who calls me, so I do feel very bad about her phone bill!
So anyway, in one of these phonecalls, the topic came up of Lisa being asked to host the August challenge which was all about candy, chocolate making and tempering. (There's a whole preamble to this but you can read all about that on Lisa's site, see, even co-blogging now).
Citrus & Pistachio Marzipan Bonbons
I'd recently done a one day chocolate course at Dublin's Cook's Academy, so when she started on about chocolate and tempering, I went on a long ramble about my experience with the course and how I could finally temper chocolate etc etc. I was getting so excited about the idea of putting my course to good use again and the idea of making more chocolates was just too much for me to handle that I blurted out "Do you want me to co-host with you?!" (I felt a little silly afterwards, after all, she's fully capable of hosting a DB challenge and now I was putting her in an awkward position of having to answer me).
Turns out, because it was such a big challenge, she was hoping that I'd help and was about to ask me to co-host with her. Nice!
Hazelnut Praline Truffles
So that set things in motion. We decided who would be doing what, three candies each and one tempering method each. From there our shared Google doc started filling up rapidly with ideas and the beginnings of the challenge.
I had such a good time co-hosting this challenge that if Lisa called me tomorrow and asked if I'd host another one with her, I'd immediately say yes, not even knowing what we were supposed to be doing. Lisa is a good friend and I thoroughly enjoy our chats and rants and e-mails. She also has the most amazing way of coming up with ideas. Her creativity with food is just incredible, and then to see her ideas actually materialise, a very talented woman. Lisa, thank you! I really had a blast!
Roasted Pecan, Dried Cranberry & Gold Leaf Milk Chocolate Bark
Ok, so, the challenge was mammoth (you should have seen it on the DB challenge thread, it was huuuuuuge!) so what Lisa and I have done is we're posting our halves of the challenge, and then you can visit the other's site to see the rest. I've also broken up mine into sections, so there's a separate post for the tempering, my truffles, bon bons and chocolate bark all contained in this post. Just scroll down and you'll see them.
So, here are the candies we've made for the challenge:
Mandy
Milk Chocolate & Hazelnut Praline Truffles
Candied Orange & Pistachio Marzipan White Chocolates aka Bonbons
Chocolate Bark
Lisa
Sponge Candy / Honeycomb
Paté de Fruits
Passion Fruit Caramel Filled Chocolates aka Bonbons.
Click to read the full challenge document
To all of the Daring Bakers who jumped in with both feet, thank you! Both Lisa and myself were so thrilled to see how excited everyone was about the challenge, and even being a good sport about making candies in the middle of summer for some of you. You made amazing things and it was seriously tricky choosing who would be getting the prizes. Thank you for all your efforts!
Click to see Lisa's half of the challenge
Do yourself a favour and make her passionfruit caramel bonbons. They're incredible!
Her paté de fruit is also just beautiful, like little fruity gems on a plate. Stunning stuff!
Citrus & Pistachio White Chocolate Bonbons
Bonbons, Candy, Chocolate, Chocolate Bark, Daring Baker, Truffles in Chocolate, Daring Baker 
Reader Comments (26)
I can't thank you enough for jumping in on this with Lisa, Mandy! No time, summer time, and still you both went balls out and totally kicked some major candy arse! And above even that small miracle (only because of the time restraint), you both did such an amazing job hosting the whole month.. your support and knowledge we so flippin' helpful! God bless yas cotton socks! ;)
And the best part??? The best part is that I found myself a 2nd wifeypoo! I'm such the lucky gal! (hope your hubby doesn't mind! I haven't told mine yet but figure what he doesn't know won't hurt him, right? heee!)
Your candies are gorgeous.. your photos even more still.. AMAZING job. Seriously.
Thank you! Love you wifeypoo2!
XOXOXOXOX
Thank you for hosting this month's challenge Mandy! You guys did such an awesome job with the recipes and tutorials, and your candy creations are beautiful!!
Mands, I also can't thank you enough for doing this challenge with me. LIke I said n my post, I never would have been able to do it without you. Your sheer brilliance and talent made this challenge shine. I hope we can partner together again too..in fact..we can always do a ''bake together' 'together lol Once again, your candies and photos are stunning, and you turned my scribble scrabble into gold :) Now that I took a long and much needed candy break, I want to make your pistachio-orange peel dipped marzipans, chocolate bark (which is so beautiful, I'd love to give it as gifts during the holidays) and the truffles, but those I'm eating myself!! ;D xoxox
Lis, my love, what my husband doesn't know won't hurt him. And I don't think he'd object anyway, I mean, 2 ladies...? Well, 3 actually with Lisa ;)
I thoroughly enjoyed myself with this challenge, if you ever need someone to help out with a challenge again, you let me know!
Lisa, you are so much fun to co-host/bake/make/create with. So glad you thought of me to host with you. Your ideas and creativity is just inspiring! Thanks for making this so much fun :D
Korena, it was my (our) pleasure! And thank you for the kind words :) I hope you enjoyed yourself as much as I did with this challenge :)
Hi Mandy, thank you for such a wonderful challenge, and I was more than glad to do it as my first DB challenge! Your bonbons look really amazing..hope to see more of nice baking challenges from you in future:-)
Mandy, this was the best challenge so far for me! After years and years of failing with chocolate, but still loving this art, I finally made it once, twice, three times, four times, all successfully! I could hardly believe my eyes! You made such a brilliant work, all the details, I felt like I was in a confectionery school, seriously! Being able to make the liquor chocolates was a dream come true! I would be so honored to send you some! I think they were the best bonbons I have ever tried! I honestly wouldn't mind extending this challenge for 3 more months :) There are so many of your ideas I want to try!
Thank you SO MUCH!
Hello Mandy, Thank you for hosting this month's challenge. It was fun making candies (at the last minute, though) and even more fun devouring them!
Your creations look great and the photos are brilliant! Keep up the good work :)
Thanks for hosting a fun challenge, Mandy! I learned lots this month, and I guess I did master chocolate tempering after all! Each and every one of your candies looks beautiful and delectable.
Mandy, thanks so much for hosting Candylicious! It is a superlicious month filled with candies.....
Mandy thank you very much for this adorable challenge, you are a great candy artist.
Thanks so much for all your hard work this month, Mandy. You and Lisa put together a fabulous challenge, and your candy creations are absolutely stunning. I know what I'll be making come Christmas time (though not thinking about that just yet, no no no).
Thanks again!
Mandy, thanks for a great challenge and it was great fun making all the lovely candies.
Mandy thank you so much for this amazing challenge
it was so much fun and I learnt so much!
I will hunt down a thermometer at any cost lol and I can't wait to temper chocolate
again..thank you so much for being a wonderful hostess
hi mandy thanks for popping by to my blog and your lovely comments. Can't see my candies on the main page, do \i have to upload it somewhere? as this is my first time with the challenge i'm a bit clueless, sorry!
Thanks so much for hosting this month's challenge! I'm glad I finally was able to properly temper chocolate and get some great results! BTW, I love the citrus and marzipan bon bons, they look really good!
Your photos are an inspiration. So simple and really really beautiful. THANK YOU for the challenge and congratulations!!!
this was a really fun challenge! i love your creations!
Thank you for hosting this challenge! It must have been an incredible amount of work, and so instructive!
Love the photos, loved the challenge! Thanks so much for hosting it! Enjoyed it thoroughly!
Officially Mandy, this is my newest blog addiction. I want to learn how to take photos like you, bake like you, make candy like you. -- I think when I grow up I want to be just like you.
☺
Seriously - I love your blog. I found it vis a blog, from a blog, from a blog, from a blog and sometimes the breadcrumb trail lead to the GingerBread house.
Thank you for a great challenge Mandy! I wouldn't have tried to temper chocolate again without your "push", but I think I'm getting the hang of it now. Can't wait to get my hands on a proper thermometer. One thing I realised, when I thought the chocolate was ready, it wasn't really. The tempered temperature range was a lot thicker than I expected. When I do try again, definitely going to make some chocolate bark, it looks divine.
Thanks for leaving me the info about candy thermometers on my post and thank you guys again for bringing me out of my comfort zone... I don't think I'll be able to stop now :)
Just wanted to thank you for the great challenge! You did an awesome job, and you seem like an awfully nice friend! I'm off to browse other posts on your site, as your pics are just gorgeous!
Thanks again!
Mandy, thank you for hosting this months challenge! Even though I didn' temper chocolate I endeavour to try in the future. I loved the truffles.
Mmm, your creations look delish!
Are you also gonna try to make pâte de fruit?