Yesterday, I felt like I was in on the biggest secret of the day. I spent my morning making the winning recipe from last night's episode of Recipe to Riches, Food Network Canada's newest competition show.
The premise of the program is simple; home cooks go up against each other with their "winning" recipe in a bid to win $25,000, and to see their product distributed by President's Choice on grocery store shelves nationwide. It's less combative then I was expecting, which is a good thing, and if it was on earlier in the evening it would be a family-friendly show I would watch with my kids (note: where did all the family programing go? We don't watch a lot of TV, but it irks me to know that there are virtually no family shows left on TV).
I was asked to be an official Recipe to Riches blogger, which means that I will get to make three of the triumphant recipes, and then write about them here the morning after the winner is announced.
Last night's episode featured cakes, which seemed like a good place for me to start seeing as I love to bake cakes, I just don't do it very often. As the recipe came through my in-box, I must admit that I was a little disheartened by the lengthy list of ingredients, not to mention the number of layers involved in producing this cake. Oh my, the layers! There were seven of them. That's a lot of cake making in my books. The good news is, I quickly realized each component wasn't as time consuming as I originally thought (but it still took a few hours to make the cake), and it was quite a treat to make something completely different than what I would normally whip up in the kitchen.
The recipe was created by Jacqui Keseluk. She hails from Nova Scotia and I was immediately a fan of hers as soon as I saw her on the screen, and not just because I had laboured over her cake yesterday. Anyone with full arm of tattoos depicting their love of baked goods is a star in my books. Her dream was to win Recipe to Riches in order to open a cake shop. I'm glad to know she's on her way.
Jacqui's cake is a multi-layer peach cake with a crunchy graham cracker crumb base. Tangy cheesecake, caramelized peaches, soft sponge cake, brandy syrup, whipped cream and brandy-infused dulce de leche round out the remaining layers of the cake. Nothing was difficult to make, and no unusual ingredients were required. But to be completely honest, I wouldn't likely make a cake this labour-intensive when I could go to Loblaws and buy it. But the taste? The flavour profile was lovely and the combination of textures incredible.
Here's the good news. Now you can try your hand at the recipe yourself. The competing recipes can be found here, or if you prefer, the Rockin' Peach Cake will be in Canadian grocery stores this coming Saturday.
Are you watching Recipe to Riches?
Full disclosure: Recipe to Riches is giving their official bloggers $100 in President's Choice gift cards to offset the time and money spent making the winning recipe. The opinions expressed here are 100% my own.
Nice looking result! Thanks for supporting the show.
As a mom, which of the three desserts featured last night would you be more likely to buy?
Posted by: Dana McCauley | 10/27/2011 at 10:13 AM
FABULOUS recreation of Jacqui's winning recipe! It looks scrumptious! Awesome job! :) This said, I'd likely buy it at Loblaw's if it's that labour-intensive. LOL! Now following you here and on Twitter!
Posted by: Christine | 10/27/2011 at 10:53 AM
Ok phew, your cake layer does not look too sponge-y either! I totally agree that I would not bother spending 3 hours on this when I could walk 15 minutes and buy one - which I will be doing this weekend! I was surprised by how delicious this was!
Posted by: Mardi@eatlivetravelwrite | 10/27/2011 at 10:57 AM
I love your article!!! Glad you liked the cake!
Posted by: Jacqui Keseluk | 10/27/2011 at 03:20 PM
Yay! Thanks, Jacqui and congrats again.
Posted by: Jan Scott | 10/27/2011 at 06:53 PM
Congratulations of getting this writing assignment. Great review and your version of Jacqui's cake looks wonderful.
Posted by: Paula | 10/28/2011 at 07:49 AM
Oh my, I just want to dive right in there.
Posted by: Kim Bee | 10/28/2011 at 08:20 PM
Fantastic cake! :) thanks for introducing it to me!
Posted by: Elsie Hui | 10/28/2011 at 11:48 PM
great review, I watched Recipe to Riches for the first time last night and loved every minute of the competition.
Jacqui, your cake sounds awesome...I'm hoping to try to make it myself sometime soon and short of that will definitely look out for it in the stores. All the best with the business!
Posted by: VL | 10/30/2011 at 01:40 PM
Thanks, everyone!
Posted by: Jan Scott | 11/02/2011 at 10:28 AM
Oh my gosh! I love the turn out of your cake! It looks so much better than the PC version!
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