A late Christmas treat, Gingersnap biscuits by The Garum Factory / Un dolcetto molto natalizio…po’ in ritardo! Biscotti allo zenzero e spezie di The Garum Factory

Last Christmas I was full of good intentions. Many challenges were thrown around the web, themed especially for the festive season and in all good faith were pinned down on my calendar, looking forward to participate. Not only I forgot to bake a bread for Twelve loaves but didn’t participate to a single contest. Blame it on the panettone obsession, on the new part time job, and well…on the festive season! The only recipe that was completed, foreseeing many happy festive baking moments was candied ginger.

Spiced Baumkuchen, a layered cake for Daring Bakers / Torta albero speziata per i Daring Bakers

The January 2014 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Francijn of “Koken in de Brouwerij“. She challenged us all to bake layered cakes in the tradition of Baumkuchen (tree cake) and Schichttorte (layered cake).

I admit it, when reading Baumkuchen on this month’s Daring Bakers pdf’s document for just a slight moment I had the illusion we had to bake the Polish version (Secakz)
of this cake common in Northern Europe regions such as Germany, Austria, Hungary and funnily quite popular in Japan too. Scrolling down to read more, excited and quite scared, I won’t deny my relief discovering that Francijn choice’s had fallen on the German version of this sweet loaf.

Smithy Loaf, or about Twelve Loaves and the pleasure of unfussy baking / Smithy Loaf, o anche di Twelve Loaves e il piacere di una semplice infornata

Keep it simple. This is this month’s Twelve Loaves theme, as beautifully explained by the talented Rossella in her blog Ma che ti sei mangiato?. Simplicity can freeze. Always in search of the elaborated techniques, which require time and effort but reward with breathtaking results and oh so many compliments we forget about the joy of a simple, quick bake. Yes baking can be rewarding with little efforts, using basic ingredients and techniques you can obtain delicious results within one hour sharp.